Virtual surreality.While videogame manufacturers try to figure out how to incorporate virtual reality technology into their games, the L.A. County Department of Mental Health has used it to show people what the world looks like through the eyes of the mentally ill. Attendees at a recent National Mental Illness Awareness Week Mental Illness Awareness Week Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is a national observance that was created in 1990 by the U.S. Congress in response to the increasing incidence of mental illness. Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 7-13, 2007. event at St. Anne's Maternity Group Home, a residential social services facility in Westlake, were hooked up to a "virtual hallucination hallucination, false perception characterized by a distortion of real sensory stimuli. Common types of hallucination are auditory, i.e., hearing voices or noises and visual, i.e., seeing people that are not actually present. machine" that simulates schizophrenic hallucinations Hallucinations Definition Hallucinations are false or distorted sensory experiences that appear to be real perceptions. These sensory impressions are generated by the mind rather than by any external stimuli, and may be seen, heard, felt, and even . Stella March, national coordinator of stigma busters at the Nation's Voice on Mental Illness, an event co-sponsor, tried the machine and said it helped her better understand what her schizophrenic son experiences. "You hear all kinds of superimposed voices talking," March said. "I can see how while my son is hallucinating hal·lu·ci·nate v. hal·lu·ci·nat·ed, hal·lu·ci·nat·ing, hal·lu·ci·nates v.intr. To undergo hallucination. v.tr. To cause to have hallucinations. , he can't respond because it's so disruptive. It's very nerve racking." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion