Schizophrenia & Avatar Therapy

I just read this interesting article on yahoo concerning a new form of therapy for patients with schizophrenia. For those of us who experience audio hallucinations, paying attention to anything "real" can be difficult. I used to just huddle under the covers in my bed and listen to the never-ending stream of angry voices. I wouldn't leave, except to shower, eat, and sometimes to write out my responses to the voices in a journal I kept. It was hellish.

Now, there is this new idea that gives a face to the voices, projects it into the real world, and allows patients to confront their voices via avatar images. Though this might sound counter-intuitive (why would we want to make voices real?), it actually sounds like a great idea. Living in a fantasy world where verbal abuse is the only "radio channel" playing (so to speak) is not just horrible, it isolates patients which reduces their social skills and makes it harder for them to reintegrate once they are on medicine and no longer having what are known as "positive symptoms" (i.e. audio, visual hallucinations, persecution delusions). The isolation itself is painful, so by bringing the voices into reality it might help patients ground themselves. Instead of a floating voice, it is an on-screen avatar, an avatar that exists only in the monitor, not in the air like a phantom. The more you ground the patient in reality, the better they get. The only respite I ever got was when I could finally speak to someone about what horrible things the voices were saying about me. Just hearing it in this reality and saying it to a therapist/social worker/psychiatrist allowed me to hear just how far-fetched and impossible the comments were. I always felt immensely relieved after I had a chance to relay how the voices treated me and how it made me feel.

Below is the link to the article on avatar therapy. I hope that a good study is conducted to see just how effective it is. If there are already studies, we should do more to explore ways in which the avatar therapy could be modified to work even better!

Deepest thanks to the researchers who developed this new treatment idea. :)

http://news.yahoo.com/avatars-help-schizophrenia-patients-silence-tormenting-voices-131958804.html