The virtual world of computer technology successfully cures anxiety and fear
Modern psychiatrists visit places that cause phobias with the patient and help to overcome fears and anxieties with a computer program of virtual situations
By the way, unjustified and unprovoked fear of crowds on the streets and various facilities can cause strong and violent bodily reactions in anxious people. The very thought of a space where more people live (shops, pharmacies, supermarkets, airport, bus station, etc.) creates in these people an insurmountable desire to escape. The first attack of these fears occurred without notice. It can be on a course, classroom, restaurant, cafe, cinema hall, football stadium and the like. People who have fears experience sudden shivering, dizziness, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and a feeling that they will have a heart attack, lose consciousness, and even die. Fear no longer disappears once it appears. Every time fear arises in the same situations.
The first defense of an anxious person is to avoid locations where fear and panic attacks occur. The person no longer visits theaters, markets, shopping malls. If a phobic person is a student then he stops attending lectures in big halls. People who visit a psychiatrist are diagnosed with agoraphobia. French psychiatrist of cognitive-behavioral orientation Dr. Eric Tanou states that about 3% of the world’s population suffers from agoraphobia. In moments of crisis, a strong discomfort is felt, accompanied by neuro-vegetative disorders (sweating, rapid pulse, breathing problems). Often the attack occurs in young people and women who have previously experienced great stress. The origin of this psychological blockade can be a latent but overly experienced unpleasant childhood event (parental divorce, early death of parents, relocation, death closer to situations of intense fear that could not be overcome by non-psychological mechanisms (traffic accident, war horrors, attack by a stranger, burglary However, “square phobia” is curable in 80% of cases. At the beginning of psycho-therapy, a doctor prescribes antidepressants that calm fears, stop physical reactions and recurrent panic attacks. cognitive-behavioral “therapy. First, a stressful situation is examined at the beginning of treatment so that the anxious person can cope with the situation. The patient is then progressively exposed to these situations in therapeutic conditions. The purpose of this therapy is to counteract this provocative situation fear.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy by French psychiatrist Eric Tanou
The psychiatrist asks the patient to make a list of all the situations in which he felt fear and mark the strength of the fear on a scale from 1 to 100. Therapy begins with the events that cause the least fear. The psychiatrist and the patient visit the locations that frighten the patient the least, and then the therapy continues by rationalizing the fears. Fear was successfully overcome by about 80% of patients thanks to this method (which includes treatment outside the doctor’s office).
Part of the therapy also includes visualization (pictorial explanation of all the circumstances that cause fears). This virtual reality can also be achieved with the help of computers or computer technology. The patient is connected to the selected computer program with a video helmet. The patient sees his own story on the screen in 3 dimensions. The picture is not static because everything is in motion and the exposed situation faithfully imitates reality. The patient becomes an actor in this virtual world and an observer of his own fear. Dr. Tanou explains that in this situation, the patient is directly confronted with fear, no matter how strong the fear. The stage of virtual perception of the situation precedes the real one.
In some people it is possible to achieve complete success in treatment with this method, while in some patients the treatment is continued with antidepressants. It is possible that the patient still feels anxiety due to the crowds and large numbers of people, but the most important thing is to come back to life (revisit gatherings, restaurants, lectures, courses, markets, stadiums, cinemas and theaters, airports, bus and train stations, hangs out with people and the like).