A loud scream, panic and my mother jumped on our couch within a blink of an eye. That was something I witnessed a couple of times when I was a kid. Did the earth move? Did lightning struck our house? No, a small (one inch) black, hairy spider entered the room. I live in the Netherlands so there is no chance that the spider was poisonous. Still the level of anxiety my mother experienced was huge. This way I learned that spiders are scary. I fear them as well, but not that much anymore, thanks to my wife. She isn’t scared at all and if she sees one in our house, she picks it up and puts it outside. Guess what? Nothing happens to her!

Arachnophobia is a huge problem for a lot of people. Some need professional help from a psychiatrist because the negative influence on their life is just too big. Several expensive therapies will follow, hoping this will solve the problem. Now two psychiatrist (Russell Green and Andres Fonseca) who love games came up with this great idea and from the looks of it, they know what they are doing. By the way, Russell Green fears spiders himself so that makes him deeply involved; phase 1, Plus 4 methodology.

They are creating an app that will take care of arachnophobia. The first spider you see is not very realistic, it looks friendly, colorful and jumps around in a nice virtual world. This friendly creature invites you to touch it and if you touch the screen of your mobile device little sparkles prove that you made your first connection. Rewards and steps based on Gamification principals will lead you through the process. As you go along spiders become more realistic (scarier). In the end Augmented Reality will give you the illusion that a real spider is walking on the dinner table, or wherever you want it to appear.

Those two psychiatrists took a risk by using a very new technique to solve an old persistent problem. I admire them for this, because if this turns out to be successful (and I believe it will), it might have an influence on the therapy hours they provide. If this turns out to be a proven concept, it is easy use it to cure several phobia’s, think about: snakes, dogs, rats, etc.

This could be a major step towards a fearless society. Thanks to these two psychiatrists and Gamification!

Read the original article: Phobia Free