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CNN Live Saturday

Virtual Reality Program Helps Overcome Phobias

Aired July 28, 2001 - 13:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Are you afraid of heights? Do you avoid elevators with an outside view? What about airplanes? What about crowds? Now, there may be a way to overcome those fears. It's called virtual reality therapy, a software program designed to eliminate the phobia by simulating the fearful experience.

And here to talk more about so-called virtual therapy and how it works is Ken Graap, and he is CEO of Virtually Better, Inc., and Page Anderson, who is company psychologist and director of clinical services. Nice to have both of you with us. Thanks.

Ken, what is virtual reality therapy? What is it intended to do?

KEN GRAAP, CEO, VIRTUALLY BETTER: We use virtual reality to simulate the real word, and we bring the world into the doctor's office so a patient can come in and get treatment from someone like Dr. Anderson.

KELLEY: How effective has it been, Dr. Anderson?

PAGE ANDERSON, PSYCHOLOGIST: Very effective. Historically, exposure therapy is effective in helping people face their fears, and virtual reality is another type of exposure therapy.

KELLEY: We see pictures here of, like, bridges, if people are going over bridges, and we have some other pictures that we're going to talk about as we keep going here. What happens if I walk into the office now? What do you do with some pictures like this? How do we work together?

ANDERSON: Well, basically, you put on what is called a head mount display, so that the person who is in the head mount display is seeing the bridges, and when they move the world moves around them. I'll be checking in with their anxiety to see what their anxiety level is.

KELLEY: How do you do that? How do you know?

ANDERSON: Well, you can see it usually. You see people shaking hands or sweating, that sort of thing. Their heart rate is beating and you can see them breathing very...

KELLEY: So, you have a monitor that you can... ANDERSON: And we ask them to rate their anxiety on a scale from zero to 100. So, we put them on a bridge, ask them what their anxiety is, and have them stay in that situation until their anxiety calms down or habituates. And then we make it a little harder, so they might go up onto a higher bridge, and then a higher bridge, until they feel comfortable.

KELLEY: Yes, so a fear of heights. So, you take them step by step.

ANDERSON: Step by step.

KELLEY: Yeah, so, Ken, so, if you have a fear -- let's go to flying. If you have a fear of flying, you don't just put me, you know, in the plane, what this is about is trying to -- and here we're looking at some pictures -- what we do. Can you explain to me what the idea is here? Where are we? We're in the plane.

GRAAP: We first try to understand a person's fear, and then we put them in a plane like this, and we can do things in the airplane. We can take off and land repeatedly -- you're seeing the landing right now. We can fly in and out of turbulence, and we can guarantee that people will experience those things. Whereas if you want a flight on the real plane, the other passengers might not like flying around in circles, repeated take-offs and landings and flying in a storm.

KELLEY: Well now, you mentioned flying in the storms, we have some pictures of that too, what happens here as we bring in the storms. Look at here. So, we're looking out the window and we can see the dark clouds and we can see...

GRAAP: Sure, the plane is moving a lot.

KELLEY: Turbulence.

GRAAP: Exactly, and you have to understand also that the patient -- or the client is seated on a platform that's actually moving and vibrating underneath them.

KELLEY: Oh, they are. OK. Now, I was going to ask you, because now to me -- I look at that, and I don't like turbulence -- and I think most of us don't -- but to me, that's not going to simulate quite enough to get the real feeling.

GRAAP: Well, we can augment that with their own feelings and their own memories, and Dr. Anderson is an expert of getting them into that space.

KELLEY: And then, as you take them through the steps here, as we're flying through the storm, what do you say to them, or what do they say to you? Do you just let them talk and say, "this is awful, I feel awful?"

ANDERSON: I usually ask them what their fears are and ask them to articulate their fears, but some people aren't aware of, and as they articulate their fears, have them talk through it, what seems rational, what doesn't seem rational, and encourage them to use anxiety management techniques to help themselves cope with the situation.

KELLEY: I want to talk about -- we've got about a minute, and we want to cover something else, but what are some of those techniques that you talk to them about anxiety? Next, we're going to talk about public speaking, and you have some of the folks, the audience here -- let me just show -- the audience here, and they are clapping and it looks like they are interested, but you also have them when they get kind of distractive and look like they aren't paying a doggone bit of attention.

ANDERSON: Right.

KELLEY: Yeah, so what do you do with the management techniques and how do you teach them to deal with that?

ANDERSON: One of the main anxiety management techniques is a breathing relaxation exercise. Another main anxiety...

KELLEY: Like what? What do you say?

ANDERSON: Slow breathing, asking people to breathe in through their nose and slowly...

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: We also ask people to get in touch with the negative thoughts that they have, because a lot of negative thinking that really exacerbate the anxiety that people fear. When people can change their thinking, they can change the way they feel.

KELLEY: How so? If you have a negative thought right now and you get free -- if you freeze up, you see, oh, there's the crowd, this is different than what I saw in the computer -- or in the elevator, you know, this is the real thing and they freeze. How do you teach them to deal with when they are in the real situation?

ANDERSON: Practice. Just going through it over and over again. One of the main therapeutic principles is repeating exposure over and over, so if I think, "oh, no, I'm blushing on national television, people are going to think I'm not intelligent." Well, you have people do it over and over until they realize that, one, you may not be blushing; two, even if you are blushing, it's not as bad as you think it is.

KELLEY: It's OK.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

KELLEY: And you know, that's kind of interesting too. A lot of things are just OK, aren't they, and you just have to learn to deal with them?

GRAAP: And practice, practice, practice. The more you do it, the better -- easier it gets. KELLEY: Yeah, that's what you say, face the fear to get over it. We're so delighted to have you. Ken Graap and Dr. Page Anderson, thanks very much.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

GRAAP: You're very welcome.

KELLEY: You're very interesting.

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