Guinea pigs #1VR glasses to battle your inner critic
‘I genuinely feel a little lighter’
Door Remco van Veluwen
By Remco van Veluwen
I blink in an effort to orient myself. Minutes ago, I was in the waiting room at the University Centre for Psychiatry (UCP), but now I’m suddenly in a living room. A virtual living room.
Entering a virtual environment always takes a little getting used to, but the glasses I’m wearing to do so fit comfortably on my head. I’m wearing headphones, which means I can’t hear anything that’s going on around me.
Then, a virtual person appears before me. This is my inner critic. The guy admonishes me in a slightly distorted voice, pointing an accusing finger at me. ‘You didn’t do your job perfectly, did you?’ He’s saying what I’m secretly thinking.
But it’s up to me to defend myself. ‘What I did was good enough, you shouldn’t be so strict.’ I have to shut the critic up or even get him to leave. The point of the exercise is to teach me to be less critical of myself and better understand myself.
Not too realistic
The exercise is part of the research that earned Elise van der Stouwe a 65,000 euro grant last year. She’s researching how virtual reality can help us be more compassionate towards and less critical of ourselves. More than one hundred people have participated in the study so far.
‘We wrote a script and then figured out how to design everything. We didn’t want the virtual critic to be too realistic, to prevent test subjects from being bothered too much’, says Van der Stouwe.
Other than that, the virtual environment is as realistic as possible. ‘If people don’t believe they’re truly in that living room, the whole thing doesn’t work.’
Psychological symptoms
Criticising yourself too much can lead to psychological symptoms such as depression and social anxiety. Being more compassionate towards yourself makes you more resilient and can help you overcome these symptoms. The research goal is to figure out if virtual exercises help participants be more compassionate towards themselves.
Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used to combat stress, depression, social anxiety, and psychoses. A computer creates a virtual but realistic world where patients, through the use of VR glasses, can learn to deal with difficult situations and decrease their symptoms.
‘We want to figure out what works for students, since that’s a group that tends to be particularly critical of themselves’, says Van der Stouwe.
Multiple environments
The living room isn’t the only place the VR glasses can take you. You can also visit a supermarket, a park, a bus, a shopping street, and an alleyway. All virtual.
‘You can also visit the presentation room, where you can practise giving a presentation if that is something that gives you anxiety’, says research associate Marit Hidding.
Why can’t people practise things like these in a real environment, you might think. As Marit explains, reality is more difficult to influence. A virtual environment allows the practitioners to control every single detail, from the rooms to the number of avatars. ‘You have complete control. Earlier research has shown that this works really well.’
Another advantage is that VR buddies never get tired; you can practise as much as you want. ‘You don’t need a shopping street full of actors. You have a safe space that you can personalise to practise with your clients’, says Marit.
Changed perspective
After the conversation with my inner critic, I watch the video back, this time from a third-person perspective. This changed perspective is a relatively new technique in VR. The researchers want to know if it helps patients to develop even more self-compassion.
‘We expect the changed perspective to have an even more positive effect. However, in reality, Marit noticed that students became even harsher critics of themselves’, says Van der Stouwe. ‘Nevertheless, both exercises have a positive effect, even if it’s difficult to hear yourself speak at first, so that’s really cool.’
It really does seem to work, because I genuinely feel a little lighter. After the virtual conversation with my inner critic, I return to the real world feeling content. Next time, I will tackle the inner critic in my head.
- Study: VirtuS
- Duration: approximately one hour
- Remuneration: none