Black dog of depression Vs VR

[Sthira]

Depression sucks. It's about the worst thing that can happen to otherwise sweet charming talented lovely people. It wrecks lives. It ruins relationships. It kills careers. Unless you've been there -- stuck with it -- you really don't know what it's like. Day in, day out we sad shits who grovel in deep depression often feel little desire to get out of bed and face another damned cold blue lit day. Maybe you know someone. Or you're there, too. Depression, that is, for no reason. No tragedy happened to cause this. Just -- the disease.

 

Current drugs do not work. They zombify you alright, and they poke out the eyes of your libido and make your hair fall out and your steps dizzy and drugs turn your stomach to shit. But they don't stop the pain. They're placebo, and most were pushed by pharma dollar companies based on flimsy, crappy studies. More lies of capitalists. Negative study outcomes are suppressed, squashed, left unpublished if they don't support the stock values or whatever the fuck. The message to depressed people is to take to our stupid drugs, ye losers, and take some expensive longterm CBT while you're at it.

 

Yeah.

 

While new drug therapies appear promising, these new drug promises are similar to the old drug promises: "Meet the new boss/ Same as the old boss." And so we're titilated with the slow drip drop of "advancing" modern medicine. New drugs coming soon for depression! Oh, maybe "in five years" the mantra echoes off. Hence we see very sick, deeply suffering, desperate, often suicidal human beings doing their best and trying nearly anything to find relief. You know the story. It's a long, slow, life-sapping battle, and most artists and performers I know -- many many of whom are very depressed people -- would trade even their precious arts for lasting relief. But maybe, we hope once again, we needn't trade away our talents for more expensive body-numbing fakes.

 

Anyway, here's a novel idea using virtual reality. Looks nice: http://bjpo.rcpsych.org/content/2/1/74

 

It's kind of a role playing idea. From Futurism:

 

"The virtual therapy session is divided into two parts. First, patients see through a perspective of an adult avatar, or what is termed as “embodiment.” They’re next asked to comfort a crying child with expressions of compassion whether through words or gestures. The child will then respond positively to the compassion showed by their avatar and stop crying.

 

"Then, the scenario gets reversed. Patients now embody the crying child being consoled by an adult avatar in the first part of the session. As the child, the compassionate words or gestures that they expressed at the beginning of the therapy as adult avatars will be played back to them.  This then makes them feel less self-critical, which is very common among people who suffer from anxiety and depression."