At the thought of addressing a classroom or alarger auditorium packed to its capacity some people break out into a sweat, their legs turn to jelly, and their hearts begin to pound wildly or go light-headed.
Glassophobia, or the fear of public speaking is one of the many phobias that are associated with a medical condition called Social Anxiety Disorder of SAD, the third largest mental health care problem in the world, that affects roughly around 200 million people in India according to estimates by the WHO.
Now a US-based company called Illumenta has introduced a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) that will recreate situations, which are most feared and use a combination of desensitisation techniques that would if used over a prolonged period of time gradually help people tide over any type of phobia, fear or addiction.
In VRET those who are afraid of speaking up in front of a large audience, are made to stand on a makeshift podium and given the necessary paraphernalia of goggles, headset and earphones to wear and all lights are dimmed. “A typical classroom with noisy students and blaring music comes up before the client and he or she feels as if they are really standing inside a classroom,” says Manish Bhan President and CEO of Illumenta.
Anxiety is developed due to the conditioning that a person receives, says Dr Tulika Mehta Aggarwal, clinical psychologist, who has worked with a select small group of clients on a trial basis for the VRET technique.