Your favorite coffee shop is crowded with harried people, and you are standing shoulder to shoulder in a slow-moving line. Each jostling shift of the crowd aggravates your severe social anxiety. You start gasping for air; your heart quickens and you want to run.

But you force yourself to stay. You manage that feat only because you are not actually there. You are living this experience through your avatar, an animation that represents you in a virtual environment. In reality, you have never made it to the counter during the morning rush; instead you bolt out the door in a sweat. But you can get there on a computer. The experience of watching your digital look-alike uneventfully reach the front of the simulated line and order a pretend drink is real enough, research suggests, to help you learn to cope with similar situations in the actual world.

This article was originally published with the title Your Avatar, Your Guide.

1 Comments

1. 1. colleen3k 04:47 PM 3/27/11

   Since 2009, Fearless Nation PTSD Support, a 501c3 NonProfit has been using avatars in Second Life (SL) to help people with trauma recover and rejoin "Real Life". We have two sims and members meet to reconnect, mourn and grieve, learn to exercise and dance, we have events, concerts, art shows and workshops--including lectures on PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), and peer group meetings on PTSD, substance abuse, and grief.
   
   We use our avatars as extensions of ourselves--not "dopplegangers" per se, and we believe and see positive results when participants create new positive memories that can help them walk easy and move on with traumatic memories. We are very clear on our motto: "Try it in SL, regain confidence and hope, then take it to RL." Many members have eventually left our program to rejoin society, after conquering their anxiety, fear, and avoidance of others.
   
   While most of us working daily in SL may "dream in avatar" or have strong "memories" created while interacting with others in the virtual world, we are quite clear on the difference between RL and SL--further, memories created in a virtual world where your mind is operating in an avatar (we are in fact more "purely ourselves" in our avatars, pure consciousness) are very vivid and REAL and have meaning, context, and purpose. Learning in the virtual world is powerful--no distractions of the physical body--so in this case, trauma survivors can become informed, educated, and learn to change behaviors and turn around the distressing symptoms of PTSD in deep and meaningful ways.
   
   For example, PTSDers tend to hide away from others due to anxiety and fear. Here in the virtual space, they can be safe in their physical home, but take steps toward reconnecting with others, sharing their problems and memories, and they need not fear repercussions from employers or family due to the stigma associated with PTSD.
   
   This new social technology is a powerful tool for helping people with trauma and other conditions. If you haven't tried it, our organizations does have "guest avatars" so that people can experience it themselves. I hope anyone in SL will come to see Fearless Nation "inworld". I am always happy to give tours and show the work we are doing.
   
   Virtual World Technology Works--We're proving it every day. Come see us in action! \o/
   
   Colleen M. Crary, M.A.
   Founder and Executive Director
   FEARLESS NATION PTSD SUPPORT, Inc.
   ~ A 501c3 Non Profit Organization ~
   www.fearless-nation.org
   

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