mziegler2 – ENG 151.ON1 Spring 2017

Mental Health Awareness and Therapy: Brittany Blum, Maria Ziegler, Bruce Stachitas, Beau Schmeusser

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Lt_mTEX_qrfpVR8t89WTbvyZMGRZIhunygoI7EIPNkY/edit#slide=id.g1f36d772ae_0_1

Our Virtual Reality machine is intended to help those deal with a mental illness as well as for others to be able to look into the world of someone else dealing with mental illness, allowing them to relate. The device not only educates others on the physical, emotional and psychological tolls that mental illness has on people, but also it is Virtual Reality therapy for those trying to overcome their issues. The user is able to place the headset on and be immersed into a world exposing them to their fears in hopes to help them overcome their issue with exposure therapy. Our device surpasses other VR devices that are already made because it adapts and reconfigures to each user individually. As the patient moves through each therapy session, the machine stores feedback information. This allows the device see how the patient reacted, see what intensity the patient was exposed to, and see how it can be modified next time to further assist the patient in overcoming their fears. Devices already on the market have pre- programmed demos and therapy sessions that each of their patients walk through, but each person is unique in their own way. Our device adapts to each individual and their specific needs to make their therapy sessions as successful as possible.

The device has potential to be implemented in classrooms, hospitals, psych wards, counselors offices, personal use, doctors offices, etc. Our device is so universal and marketable to so many places because of the multiple things it is intended to be used for as mentioned previously. To start off, the idea would be mainly targeted to larger institutions that specialize in the study and research of mental illness. Another main target for marketing would be the medical field. Colleges, Graduate Programs, research facilities, and psychiatric centers. Considering that this device will range more on the pricier side it would be wise to implement it into larger facilities first. As it is more commonly used, updated, tweaked, and becomes more familiar then we would be able to drop the prices of certain models and open them to more public markets. As technology advances and becomes more updated models will become less and less expensive, making them not as much of a ‘luxury purchase’.

The long term goal is to be able to use this device in schools and universities as an education device regarding mental illness. On top of that, we also envision this device being used in psychiatric centers and medical offices just as they would use an X-Ray or MRI machine. Just like any other device as research continues and knowledge expands our creators will work with scientists and specialists to update the programs and information in the models. We can work with companies all over the world to aim for a sleeker design, better graphics quality, and update the demos to make the ultimate Virtual Reality experience for the user. Our goal is to have this be accessible to any person or loved one that needs to be educated on the illness or be able to overcome their illness themselves.

Phobias today are on the back burner of something that people learn about or have a full idea about what they actually are. The Theory of Phobias by Sigmund Freud is the best way to educate the public about phobias and the best way to cure them today. The Theory of Phobias is the central observation that the fears and phobias didn’t occur to an arbitrary group of objects or situations associated with trauma, but rather are most likely to occur to objects and situations that were dangerous to the pre- technological man (Mineka, Ohman). There are many types of phobias that have this full effect on people it being fear of spiders, flying, snakes, or anything you can think of that’s life threatening. There were 3 studies done that would rate the person on a 5 point scale. Any of the studies that had to do with anything dangerous or life threatening to the person they would always get a 5 on the scale. The exact opposite it was when it wasn’t anything dangerous or life threatening the person would end up on a 1 on the scale. Out of 200 cases most of the clinical phobias scored at a 4 or 5. The way this research can be implemented with our Virtual Reality experience is that for our patients’ first time being in this simulation we can grade them on a scale of 1 to 5 from their first visit to their last. Through this test the patient’s scale of fear should either start at a 4 or 5 and then plan to have it end at a 1. Through the VR we will be able to change up each simulation depending on the patient’s phobia, and have every time the consistent scale to try and make them overcome their fears.

As the new age of Virtual Reality grows, there are many new devices and new technology that comes with it. VR has come a long way starting with flight simulators, and working its way up to headset devices that connect with your iPhone through an app. The VR device that we have developed is a highly expensive headset unit with audio/mic built in and two hand controls. We wanted to give the most realistic feeling possible for users. This VR device is relatively expensive and usually only owned by medical therapist. They whole system is based around creating an atmosphere to help people overcome their mental illnesses/phobias. You will feel like you’re actually there being able to interact with people through a mic and being able to touch and move objects with hand held controls. After meeting with your medical therapist, they will go through multiple sessions in this VR devices to help you become more comfortable with your illness. The therapist also is connected to this device through his computer to measure progress and monitor the interactions. We have not created a scenario for every mental illness yet, just the most common ones that people struggle with.

SPEC

Built in audio

Built in mic

Resolution – 2160 x 1200

Two hand held controllers

High power sensors.

Overall, our Virtual Reality will be the best in the market because we incorporate a lot of research. The research that’s taken on this VR is through other psychologists’ research and from patients experience through our VR. This experience for patients is recorded by a scale, by what they feel, and by their last session. This will help many places conquer their patients’ phobias and fears. Our VR will be pricey but eventually will get cheaper, and many places will be able to use this for research. Although it can be used for research, this experience can take time to cure the patient.

Works Cited

E, Klinger, et al. “Groupe De Recherche En Informatique, Image, Automatique Et Instrumentation De Caen (GREYC), Caen, France.” Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 1 Jan. 1970, europepmc.org/abstract/med/15295148. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, Third Edition.” Google Books, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=E2imSyZZDh0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=learn%2Babout%2Bphobias&ots=6vf5dIr122&sig=ugQSvd3pbYLTvTPRSa-gvqGN8ew#v=onepage&q=learn%20about%20phobias&f=false. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Expanding Use in Mental Health Treatment.” Virtual Reality: Expanding Use in Mental Health Treatment, www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/02/virtual-reality-expanding-use-in-mental-health-treatment. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Gregg, Lynsey, and Nicholas Tarrier. “Virtual Reality in Mental Health.” SpringerLink, D. Steinkopff-Verlag, 12 Mar. 2007, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-007-0173-4. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“a Human Factors Design.” Tailoring Virtual Reality Technology for Stroke Rehabilitation, ACM, dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1125631. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Phobias and Preparedness: the Selective, Automatic, and Encapsulated Nature of Fear.” Phobias and Preparedness: the Selective, Automatic, and Encapsulated Nature of Fear, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322302016694.

Srivastava, Kalpana, et al. “Virtual Reality Applications in Mental Health: Challenges and Perspectives.” Industrial Psychiatry Journal, Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4361984/#!po=59.6154. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Treatment of Specific Phobias with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Protocol, Empirical Status, and Conceptual Issues.” Treatment of Specific Phobias with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Protocol, Empirical Status, and Conceptual Issues, Elsevier, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887618598000401. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: A Review.” Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: A Review, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735804000418. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Spider Phobia: a Controlled Study.” Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Spider Phobia: a Controlled Study, Elsevier, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005796701000687. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Virtual Reality Induced Symptoms and Effects.” Virtual Reality-Induced Symptoms and Effects (VRISE) | Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments | MIT Press Journals, www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/105474699566152#.WQc2wYnyvVo. Accessed 2 May 2017.

“Virtual Reality Is Helping People Overcome Their Fears and Phobias.” Google, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/uploadvr.com/virtual-reality-helping-people-overcome-fears-phobias/amp/. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Maria Ziegler VR Pitch, Perception is Reality

Statistics show that one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Often times, many people can’t understand or truly relate to what these people are going through. For this reason there are many times that mental illness, such as drug addiction, PTSD, Depression, or eating disorders tear families and relationships apart. For the people suffering with mental illness what they are experiencing is very real, their perception is their reality. I’ve designed a virtual reality device that allows the user to be put into the mind of someone struggling with mental illness. The user is able to choose from a variety of ‘demos’ which will place them into the mental and physical state of whichever mental illness they choose. For instance, someone that has a loved one struggling with PTSD will be able to place the virtual reality headset on and choose the ‘PTSD’ demo. The user will now be in the state of mind of their loved one for however long they desire to leave the headset on for. The device will be programmed with mental and physical experiences that sufferers often experience. In this instance, the user may experience a change in their behavior such as agitation, irritability, and social isolation. They will experience psychological symptoms as well such as flashbacks, severe anxiety, mistrust and unwanted thoughts. These will be accompanied by physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, night terrors, insomnia, and emotional distress. Each demo will vary in symptoms and psychological effects according to which mental illness is chosen. This device is something that psychologists, doctors, family members, significant others, and medical students will all be able to use and benefit from. Whether it be for a wife trying to understand what her veteran husband is experiencing since being diagnosed with PTSD, or a sibling wanting to feel how her sister feels while struggling with bulimia. This will be extremely beneficial in the medical field for students as well as physicians to expand their knowledge for their patients. It has potential to result in new medications and therapies for sufferers. Not only will this be highly educational but it will allow these people to experience a whole new level of empathy for their loved ones or patients after truly being put in their shoes.

Sources:

www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/

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My Avatar would slay in OASIS because she knows what she needs to do and how to do it. Her appearance allows her to be intimidating. She doesn’t deal with any crap from other users and doesn’t have an issue being independent from others.

Modern Technology: The Bridge or the Barrier Between Students and Their Studies

It is no surprise that with the many technological breakthroughs, digital devices are huge part of education all over the world. I have taken time to research how technology affects students and the quality of our education. As a nursing student myself, I have experienced both the benefits as well as negative aspects of technology regarding my education. College students, those in the medical professions especially, are set to an extremely high standard. Technology opens many doors for students, allowing them to access vast amounts of information conveniently. However, it is hindering students’ education more than it is helping because it has formed habits of skim reading, and a lack of comprehension of what students are reading.

As previously mentioned, technology has proven to instill lazy habits in students. In his recent work, Nicholas Carr elaborates on this matter by sharing his own personal experiences. Carr claims that over time he has come to realize that something has been interfering with his brain, changing the way it works, reprograming his memory. His mind is still intact but it’s changing. He does not think the same way he used to think. It affects him most when he’s reading. Sitting down to read a long book or article used to be easy. His mind would be so engaged with the argument, he would spend hours delving into the reading. That rarely happens anymore. After a few pages his mind begins to drift and wander off. He start to get anxious and look for something else to occupy himself. It feels like he is forcing his brain to focus on what’s in front of him. The in depth reading he used to frequently experience rarely happens anymore (“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”). This is a prime example of what happens to students like me on a regular basis. This tendency to jump around while online has a big impact on the way I study and the amount of time it takes me to complete an assignment. He adds on to his own personal experience a study that has been done showing students study habits on digital devices. “They found that people using the sites exhibited ‘a form of skimming activity,’ hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they would already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would ‘bounce’ out to another site” (Carr). This supports the fact that students have gotten into the mindset of retrieving their information as quickly and easily as possible with no regard to how much they are truly understanding the content.

In addition to Carr’s research, Jabr acknowledges the negative effects that technology has had on students by presenting research. “When taking [a] quiz, volunteers who had read study material on a monitor relied much more on remembering than on knowing, whereas students who read on paper depended equally on remembering and knowing. Garland and her colleagues think that students who read on paper learned the study material more thoroughly” (qtd.in Jabr, The Reading Brain in the Digital Age). Remembering information is very different than knowing the information. The study conducted shows us again how information read online is not as adequately absorbed and understood by students compared to when they read out of a traditional book. This point is not something that should be taken lightly especially when regarding students and their academics. This impacts me personally because as a student it is crucial that I fully understand the material given to me. It does me, and the patients I will be taking care of in the future, no good if I am only able to commit my studies to short term memory.

Despite the evidence proving technology has negative effects on students there is still the argument that it has not had much of an effect on us or that it is more beneficial than it is harmful. In the article “The Deep Space of Digital Reading” by Paul La Farge he mentions how technology is not to blame for our tendencies of “jumping around” from page to page. He argues, “The Internet may cause our minds to wander off, and yet a quick look at the history of books suggests that we have been wandering off all along. When we read, the eye does not progress steadily along the line of text” (“The Deep Space of Digital Reading”). In sum, he defends the idea that people have jumped around the pages of our books and wandered off all along. Regardless of this argument, the fact remains that the advancements in technologies such as a worldwide Internet have vastly amplified the number of distractions present. Although I agree with La Farge to a point, I cannot accept his overall suggestion that the internet has had no effect on the amount of distractions and the quality of our reading. In addition, La Farge brings another point into argument by shedding light on a theory mentioned in her article. Scientists Rakefet Ackerman and Morris Goldsmith suggests that the idea that students may do worse on comprehending text on digital devices, not because of the devices themselves, but the “expectations that readers bring to them” (qtd in “The Deep Space of Digital Reading”). While this applies to the scenario, this logic can be applied to mostly anything. The way you perceive something and the way it can affect you has a huge impact on the way it performs. Hence the term “placebo effect”. With this idea in mind, we can be reminded that perception is reality. The reality is many people view technology as quick and instant. People google search question because its quick and easy, not so they can take the time to thoroughly examine an article. Efficiency and technology go hand in hand, it is unrealistic to expect todays generations and those to come to view that aspect any differently.

An illustration of technology and its effects on a nursing major in college, we can shed some light on my own personal experiences. No doubt that the Internet has been a huge help when needing quick information for an assignment. There have been times where I left my periodic table in my other folder and simply just googled the chart online. Although digital databases have helped to simplify my life, its assistance only reaches to a certain extent. Many times, I find myself working on chemistry homework online and suddenly receiving a text notification pop up on my laptop. Another common example occurs when doing research online for an English paper. You scan through the articles looking for evidence to support your view, next thing you know you have clicked on two hyperlinks and have found yourself in a whole new article discussing something only slightly related. The Internet for me, and like many other students, is a place to find information and to find it quick. College students, Medical profession’s especially, are given such a heavy work load and a lot of the work is online assignments. It’s hard for us to look at the internet and digital databases as anything other than quick and efficient because that is how we are expected to perform. As much as I love to read, I have never once sat on my laptop for leisurely reading. One reason being lack of time, but another reason is simply because I associate my MacBook Pro with my school work. People all around the world do the same; they open their laptops or use their phones because its quick and easy, not because they want to deeply read a Rupi Kaur poem.

As we move forward in the modern world I would like to see technology and education unite better together. I think a huge step towards this requires a change in the way we view the relationship between school and technology. With so many technological advancements college students are required to know more and more information each year. New scientific breakthroughs occur all the time, along with changing statistics and data. The amount of work we are expected to do and the information we are required to know is abundant. Professors and universities can not expect us to take the time to deeply submerge ourselves in a 5-page article online when they expect a full analysis on that article in three days. The world has progressed to a faster pace and students are set at an extremely high standard. Schools want their students to be able to slow down and thoroughly process the information in front of them but on the other hand they want the assignments to be done, and want them done quickly. The education system needs to open their eyes and realize that at some point they can not have both.

My Life Story

My name’s Maria Ziegler, I’m originally from Elkton, Maryland. I grew up in a suburban neighborhood called West Creek Village and lived with my mom, Dawn, my dad, Kevin, and my older sister Christina. My mom’s originally from South Philly while my Dad was born in Canada and was moved to Newark Maryland at a young age. Unfortunately, my mom had to move away from her family to live in Cecil County because of my dad’s business. I saw my mom’s side of the family a good bit but not as much as I would’ve liked to growing up. Although when I did visit my mom’s side it was always a really good time. They’re all Italian, meaning gatherings with them were always incredibly loud and chaotic. My dad’s side of the family is basically the polar opposite, German and Irish.

My very first memory of reading or writing goes all the way back to kindergarten. My teacher’s name was Ms. Jackson. I don’t remember too much about her besides her voice. I remember she would talk very loud and she never really used big words that I couldn’t understand. She could talk to us like she understood what was going on in my brain, I liked her for that reason. I would walk in the classroom after saying bye to my mom and I would put my big puffy jacket, my lunch, and my book bag into my cubby. Ms. Jackson had us all sit at big round tables. I can distinctly remember her teaching us how to write letters. At first she would give us one to work on, and if we did it right we would get another. I remember working on the letter ‘lowercase A’. I was tracing it on the big stencil that she passed out but for some reason I kept confusing it with ‘uppercase O’. I still remember what she said to me to this day. She told me to pretend to pretend that the lowercase O was a beach ball. You don’t want your beach ball rolling away in the wind, so you have to put a stick next to it to keep it in place. Even today I imagine my lower-case A’s as beach balls with sticks next to them so they don’t roll away.

Eventually, I attended Cecil Manor Elementary School which was about 5 minutes from where I lived. The most prominent memories I have at that point in my life had more to do with recess and playing outside than anything else. I do distinctly remember though one of my favorite teachers as a kid, Ms. Ricketts. Looking back now I realized how young and new to the job she probably was but when I was younger I was convinced she knew everything. I looked up to her because she didn’t teach like the rest of the teachers did, she said things in ways that we could relate to them and she understood that we were just kids. She didn’t expect the world from us or force things out of us. I just remember having a lot of fun in her class. A few times a week we would have reading groups, and each group would meet at a certain table according to which level reader you were. Somehow I ended up in the advanced reading group, and a few times a week a woman would take us to a different room and assign us different books than the other kids were reading. The reading room was a small room filled with a few chairs. Some days we would popcorn read our books, while other days we quietly read to ourselves. After reading certain chapters or finishing the book we would talk about it in a big group, discussing things such as our favorite characters or how we felt about the book. Over time I developed a lot of confidence in my reading and I began to enjoy it.

Another big reading mile stone for me is something small but for some reason I vividly remember it. One day my dad took me to Barnes and Nobles, I was somewhere around the age of 7 at the time. There was a music stand in the corner of the store that held all types of CD’s on it. A set of headphones was connected to the stand so you could sample different CD’s or listen to certain songs. I remember putting the headphones on while my dad was in line buying coffee, I chose to listen to The Beach Boys album. I instantly fell in love. It was their 2003 album “The Sounds of Summer”. My dad walked over with a big smile on his face, surprised with the album I picked out. He said “Do you want me to buy that for you?” I obviously said yes. Then he asked,

“What does the front of the CD say?” I remember staring at the big swirly letters blankly. I couldn’t read it. “If you like their music so much you ought to know who wrote it”, he insisted. We walked to the counter to buy the CD, meanwhile I trailed behind staring at the cover trying to make sense of the abstract letters. On the way home we played the album in his truck listening to the single ‘I Get Around’ while I continued to stare at the letters. My dad, noticing my frustration, turned the music down and said, “What’s that big letter in the beginning?”

“A big B..?”, I answered half confidently.

“Okay good, now just try to figure out the rest of the letters.”

I knew what cursive was and we had practiced it in school, but these letters weren’t really cursive or print. They were a weird hybrid of the two, which threw me off. Eventually, I accepted the fact that the words on that album cover remained foreign to me and just enjoyed the music. I still look back at that album today and remember how much I struggled trying to read the simple words ‘The Beach Boys’.

Sixth grade was when I transferred to a private school called ‘Tome’. My favorite teacher while I was there being my reading and writing teacher, Mrs. Hawk. She was a tall, thin, young woman with thick dark brown hair. She frequently carried around a silver thermos and had an intense passion for hiking and bird watching. Her room was filled with a variety of nature posters along with books full of all the different species of birds. Mrs. Hawk’s classroom was always so welcoming, full of big open windows and lingering positive energy. In the back-left corner of the classroom, carefully protected by Mrs. Hawks L-shaped desk, was our class pet; A Newt. On top of the uplifting environment, I favored that class a lot for what we did in there. I can’t remember it all, but I do remember being given the freedom to simply just write. I didn’t have to worry about any fancy punctuation or run on sentences, I could essentially word vomit on paper. I enjoyed doing this a lot, I think mostly because at that age I had so many ideas flying around in my head that I didn’t want to have to filter and edit. I didn’t want to articulate them or make them more ‘proper’, I just wanted to throw them down on paper as they came to me without concern of if it met any special standards. Mrs. Hawk gave me the chance to do that, and it made writing a lot more enjoyable for me.

In retrospect, these milestones may seem minute or trivial, but they must have greatly impacted me if I can still reflect on them many years later. Insignificant things such as help with writing a basic letter or trying to decode the name of my favorite album at the time have all shaped me into the person I am today. I owe a lot to my family and teachers that took that extra five minutes to help me understand something or learn something new. As I move forward into my future endeavors I continue to learn and grow as a student. I’m able to take everything that I’ve learned over the years and put those skills into my biology lab reports. The reading and writing skills I have learned over time will allow me to write adequate care plans for my future patients. I’m thankful for everyone that put their time into me to help shape me into the person I am today.