Virtual Iraq by Sue Halpern

According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is precipitated by a terrifying event or situation. Travis Boyd, a marine, suffered from this psychological disease after his second deployment to Iraq. This disease cannot be cured, but to help lessen the effects, he agreed to become a subject in the Department of Defense's "Virtual Iraq" clinical trial. This trial was extremely experimental and it wasn't guaranteed that it would make you better. Joann DiFede, the director of the Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies at Weill Cornell, explained that "If you suddenly become afraid of the staircase because you had to walk down twenty-five flights of stairs to get out of the World Trade Center, the stairs went from being neutral to being negative." But the fact the virtual reality is being used, and has been used before to treat P.T.S.D, it is very surprising to me that the article is basically saying that video games are good for you, which is the complete opposite of what the general population has been saying for the longest time. Personally, I wouldn't be complaining if that was my form of treatment for any disease I had, but Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that "we’re a video-game generation. It’s what we grew up on. So maybe we’ll respond to it." Although a full recovery from P.T.S.D. is impossible, I think that Virtual Iraq is definitely a great way to go about treating the patients.