How Virtual Reality is Becoming Successful in Treatment of US Troops?

I was going through the recent news that Virtual treatment is been provided to US soldiers who returned from war? On the first line I didn't understood what exactly is this treatment and how it is treating them.

When I went through the treatment procedure then I remembered of a serial I was watching on Discovery Channel and they were showing about "Virtual reality". what it is? And what advantages it is providing in today's world? Tthat interesting episode was revolving around the use of Virtual reality to teach people driving ie they were giving driving lessons to a girl in a virtual scenario, now for those guys who are not familiar with what exactly am rambling about I would first tell you the definition what is virtual reality? It is a hypothetical three-dimensional visual world created by a computer; user wears special goggles and fiber optic gloves etc., and can enter and move about in this world and interact with objects as if inside it. So a broad and one line description could be that "User acts in a real world created virtually by the help of technology" One can do all the actions as in real world but the catch is the impact is not real i.e. If you kill some body in a virtual war scene or get killed by someone ,You have an option to press the 'restart button' where as in real life you hardly miss it.

So I think by this time you would have understood implications of Virtual reality and its vast range of advantages .If one can practically learn driving a car through it by not actual driving then one can do a hell lot of things virtually.

Now coming to the point how virtual reality is helping US troops in treating PTSD i.e. Post Traumatic stress disorder. A condition suffered by many who were on active service with Armed forces during the war. This term is used to describe a range of psychological symptoms people may experience due to traumatic, usually a life threatening event.

The main fundamental base of this treatment is based on "Exposure therapy" which basically makes you "Relive your worst fear and overcome it". When anyone experiences life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape or other sexual assault he or she is so fearful about that event that just a thought of it can take him or her in a stage of Mental trauma or stress.

Creating Realistic Scenes.

By using Virtual Reality psychologists are creating 'real scenes of Iraq war. So they take the person suffering from PTSD in a virtual Iraq where they recreate the scenes using headset that can show video game quality Images or different scenarios. The main controlling is been done by the clinical who make the scene real by introducing different elements like playing children ,unexpected explosions they also manipulate the conditions like sand storm for a desert scene. To make the situation feel more realistic, the system pumps in smells such as gunpowder, burning rubber and body odour. Speakers provide the sound, whilst off-the-shelf sub-woofers recreate movements. This way they make the subject i.e. soldier sufferings from PTSD relive the same or similar situation which actually made an intense impact on his mind.

Advantages of using Virtual Reality.

PSTD is traditionally treated with psychotherapy and medicines such as antidepressants. Obviously they were neither 100% successful nor they had immediate results plus they have side effects also. It is kind of situational treatment which may or may not cure the patient. But Virtual reality is showing immediate results. Dr Skip Rezzo of the University of Southern California have experimented with it and commented ""We see immediate post treatment gains"

It also has no side effects and treatment if required can be repeated helping the patient to relive the fearful situation again and again till the time he or she is completely successful in overcoming it.

"Exposure therapy" is been given a new dimension by the use of virtual reality till now psychologist use to ask the patient imagine and relive the situation but now they are independent and free. They can create a realistic scene of imagination which is 300% more effective.

So I got enthusiastic about this positive approach of technology curing one of the worst disorders.

We could be thankful to the technology now days, which is working with medical science and making many impossible things possible exploring the new horizons.

Article written on recent news flashed on BBC.