Pentagon fights PTSD with video games

[Cocoa]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0519-03.htm

<snip>

It is the nature of Iraq's insurgency of unseen snipers and roadside bombers which has fuelled the trauma.

And so the Pentagon has gone to an unlikely source for help: video games, designed in Atlanta to recall the streets of Falluja and thus exorcise the ghost of war.

Ken Grapp, CEO of Virtually Better - a company that creates virtual reality environments to help treat anxiety disorders, says: "It can be totally debilitating to where a person would rather choose suicide than choose to live.

"Persons with PTSD may go back to the streets of Falluja every day in their own minds.

"We are just providing a shared experience where therapists can work with the person and have a better understanding of where they were, and help them process that information."

The Pentagon says it is taking PTSD seriously.

more...

[eternalburn]

1. Wouldn't reliving a situation just make things worse? (nt)

[Mandate My Ass]

2. Yes and no

As a survivor of PTSD, one of the theories is that the therapist can assist the patient going back to the scene of the original trauma as the older, wiser, stronger person we have become and relive the event in a non-disempowering way.

I think as a behavioral therapy it has some merit, but as a video game? I just don't know. :shrug:

[eternalburn]

3. I suffer from PTSD as well....

...and I would never want to go back to the situation in any form. My memory has assisted me in the way that I remember very little.

[Bluerthanblue]

4. dangerous

choice, if the person isn't able to handle it- it could make things much worse-

Decompensation, i believe it's called- very fine line between 'mastering' our terror, and being mutilated by it yet again-

Personally, i think the govt is looking for a 'cheap'- 'quick-fix'
and also covering thier asses so that they can say they are taking a potentially fatal, and crippling effect of this combat 'seriously'-

EMDR will probably also be on the 'list' -

i'd wade slowly if it were me- FIRST, DO NO HARM -
hell revisited can often be as bad the second time around- (or worse)
it erodes 'hope'-