When we start getting anxious and as a part of the anxiety response, we involuntarily alter the breathing pattern, we breathe faster or deeper. The explanation is that we need a major contribution of oxygen, to run or to fight.
Nevertheless, if we do not carry out any of these two activities we fall down in a hyperventilation state, in our organism there is more oxygen than the one we need, and, paradoxically, one of the effects that this produces to level of physical sensations is a sensation of asphyxiation or lack of air.
The only way for a person to die from suffocation or choking is when oxygen can’t get to the lungs, and when you’re having a panic attack, your level of oxygen is even greater as normal. It would be the complete opposite of choking!
This environment depicts the view from a fifth floor balcony. Because of the camera shots, the patient will be forced to look down and notice the distance between the balcony and the ground.
There are two Amelia Virtual Care environments that allow for the patient to be exposed to a situation in which he or she is inside a crystal elevator. Although both situations are about being inside a glass elevator, in one of them it is outdoors whereas the other one is indoors.
There are two Amelia Virtual Care environments that allow for the patient to be exposed to a situation in which he or she is inside a crystal elevator. Although both situations are about being inside a glass elevator, in one of them it is outdoors whereas the other one is indoors.
In this scenario we can see the city of Barcelona from the highest point of a building. Moreover, the healthcare professional can control exposure to anxiogenic interoceptive sensations.
Heart Volume
Heart Rate
Breath Volume
Breath Rate
On the other hand, thereʼs the possibility of practicing a relaxation exercise in order to reduce the patientʼs anxiety and to teach him how to use these techniques and how to apply them in real life.
HOW TO APPLY COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL TECHNIQUES WITH AMELIA VIRTUAL CARE?
The virtual reality environments and especially the last two can be used for verbal and behavioral questioning of the negative thoughts of the patient.
The fact of being in the situation will facilitate the evocation of recurrent thoughts that it produces. Thus, the healthcare professional will be able to question them and the patient will internalize the procedure, which he will be able to apply more easily when in his real life he finds himself facing the feared situation.
In the same way, the patient will be able to test the most feared consequences of the situation, previously discussed with the healthcare professional, and verify that they are not being complied with.
For example, the healthcare professional has an acrophobic patient who believes that if his or her eyesight is clouded, he or she will probably faint, fall and eventually die. In this case, patient and healthcare professional can prove repeatedly in the virtual environment (New York or Barcelona) that in spite of experiencing these sensations, they are controllable, and their predictions are erroneous and are not fulfilled.
At the beginning of the environment, the patients find themselves inside a subway station and head towards the platform. When the train arrives, they board a fairly crowded subway car.
They will ride for a few minutes until they get off at another station, where they will then walk until they reach the exit to the street.
This environment puts the patient in a situation where they have to walk through a busy street. There are quite a few people around them walking in both directions (which can unleash feelings of distress , flushing, etc).
Crowdedness Empty / Few people / Half full / Mass amount of people
Gender Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.
Skin tone Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.
Sanitary mask You can choose whether or not the people around you will have a mask.
This virtual environment has been designed to work on the cognitive part of agoraphobia. It is important to get the patient involved in the situation. In order to get the patient involved involved in the situation, here are some examples of indications or questions you can use for this purpose:
You are alone/accompanied by/waiting for somebody in a square.
You are in a square located at 1/10/45 minutes away from your homes
You are in this square and you hear two people saying that in 10 minutes there’ s going to be a demonstration two streets away from the square.
Do you think the people around you have noticed that you’ re nervous?
In this environment, you can also practice panic attack management by adding interoceptive effects and practicing relaxation or thought stopping techniques.
