Treating PTSD With Virtual Reality Therapy: A Way to Heal Trauma

7 Comments

1. Idk what to do. This is destroying me and my family.

2. No F’n way. If I want to go back to Vietnam, all I need to do is close my eyes, or try to sleep. Getting re-traumatized intentionally is like continually ramming your head into a wall, and expecting it not to hurt. This is academic BS, and making some people very rich. Years ago they were flogging “EST”, “Rebirthing”, Sweat Lodges, and other cult-like “Therapies” by earlier Psychosavants, and they all had a hook. This is currently competing with the “Follow my finger” and “Tap your face” crowd, although they have marketed those pretty well to the VA and other practitioners. Making good money at those too.
   The True Believers of using psychoactive drugs such as MDMA and hypnosis (also extremely dangerous) are actively trying to sell their “cure” to the VA and others as well. One guy is even pushing “Theater Therapy”, another using horses , many using dogs. People see a big market, and come up with something to sell the afflicted.

   SO, do I choose to tap my face, or follow somebody’s finger, or try to continually experience my trauma? What’s right? What’s next? And how much will it cost? Will I need to buy books? Pay in advance?

   Other Vietnam Combat vets and I agree – we are all tired of being academic lab rats for the “Cure” salesmen. Tapping my head, meditation, myriad pills, 20 year old “Therapists” or games don’t help me sleep, what little that happens. Jack Daniels sometimes does though.

   Excuse me, there is another cure salesman at the door.

3. Seven tours?? after the first three how do you not think that maybe leaving active duty would not be a bad idea

4. Hello, please do you use VR Therapy to help women soldiers too? Many thanks for your sharing.

5. In my opinion, VR is akin to re-experiencing combat all over again, seems to me it would only confuse the traumatized brain without the smell/s touch, even the hearing such memory replay.

   Another words, actual incident/s being mixed with the VR sessions.

   I know this from actual experience, suffering PTSD/depression for many many years, getting involved with the Battlefield 3 VR game, which involves very high detailed graphics to include realistic chaos of battle to include helicopters armor so on. My dream state became a horrible mixture of real to unreal experiences.

   Other issues soon began. Unable to calm… I'd lie in bed for hours as if under some sort of unknown threat knowing there is NONE.

   In the beginning it merely fullfilled an inner desire to win, to retaliate at what in real gun fights cannot seem to achieve. Killing without being killed, killing without your buddies screaming… unintended casualties. Having to write after action/incident reports.

   Unlimited lives getting impatient awaiting the respawn so as to get back into thE action.

   Fellas, the game makes PTSD WORSE! Not better! Those close to me were trying everything they could muster to convince me the first person shooter gaming was ruining my mental faculties as well as making me crazy blasting the bad guys away till O' Dark thirty. Caused me to increasingly become a drunkard to include overeating munchies. Once the drunkenness took hold the Bitterness ran rough-shod to the point my wife was ready to divorce me. She had had enough !

   Yes, there was COMM's, we were a large group of vets to include active duty personnel from around the world.

   NONE–said and/admitted to their shrinks to to playing virtual reality combat games, as their symptoms grew worse as well.

6. yeah no this isnt going to work first of all once it happed there is no going back to fix those memories idk what the fuck these guy are tyring to cure somthing that can only be over come by years of real life therapy this is just fucked up forcing people to remmeber somthing they don't want to remember if a 70 year old vet was in nam and seen some shit im pretty sure him going back to the past with VR would just make him go ape shit on the idiots making him do this little project

7. What about ptsd for rape victims? I'm sick and tired of people assuming only vets need help.

Comments are closed.