‘I’m free’: How VR therapy helped a schizophrenia patient silence 27 years of voices
A 53-year-old woman with paranoid schizophrenia successfully used virtual reality therapy to confront and silence the auditory hallucinations she had experienced for 27 years. By interacting with a digital avatar of her dominant voice, she was able to reclaim control and end the debilitating symptoms.
Why it matters
This highlights the potential for innovative VR-based psychological interventions to treat severe mental health conditions that have proven resistant to traditional therapy.
For 27 years, Vibeke Andersen heard voices telling her she was worthless.
The 53-year-old was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and heard voices for 27 years, which had her repeatedly going in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The voices controlled what she said and did, and sometimes told her that even her family could not love her.
"They told me that I was not worth living as a human being. Nobody cared about me," Andersen told Euronews Health.
Then, in 2020, she was offered an experimental treatment that asked her to do something that might seem counterintuitive. Instead of trying to distance herself from the voice, she would confront a virtual version of it face-to-face.
Therapists working with the VIRTU research team used specialised software to create an avatar based on Andersen's description of the dominant voice she heard, adjusting its appearance and sound until it resembled her experience.
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