Digital demons: the radical new treatment helping people with psychosis
Jan 27, 2025
auto_awesome
Join Guardian journalist Jenny Kleeman as she delves into groundbreaking avatar therapy for psychosis. She shares how patients create digital avatars of their hallucinated voices, leading to transformative therapeutic interactions. Listen as she recounts a personal journey battling psychosis, highlighting emotional struggles and societal stigma. The discussion also touches on the innovative treatment's potential to alleviate distress and improve self-esteem, offering hope and insight into the future of mental health care.
Avatar therapy allows patients to confront hallucinations by creating digital avatars, which significantly improves their emotional distress and quality of life.
The potential of avatar therapy extends to other mental health conditions, raising both hope for better treatment accessibility and ethical concerns regarding technology use.
Deep dives
The Impact of Psychosis
Psychosis significantly disrupts daily life, causing individuals to experience hallucinations and delusions that can lead to severe emotional distress. Many people, such as Claire, who has endured decades of these symptoms, find it difficult to establish relationships or maintain employment, which exacerbates feelings of isolation and despair. Despite attempting various treatments, many do not find relief from their voices, leading to a persistent cycle of suffering. The recognition that psychosis can stem from childhood trauma adds complexity to the condition, highlighting the interplay between mental health, experiences, and environment.
Introduction of Avatar Therapy
Avatar therapy represents a groundbreaking approach to treating persistent auditory hallucinations by utilizing technology to help patients confront and interact with their internal voices. This method allows patients to create digital avatars that embody the voices they hear, facilitating guided conversations through a therapist. The innovative technique enables patients to externalize their hallucinations, providing a new way to process and manage their experiences. Early pilot studies suggest that this therapy can significantly reduce distress and, in some cases, even eliminate the voices altogether, transforming the patients' quality of life.
Future Potential and Broader Applications
The potential applications of avatar therapy extend beyond psychosis, with ongoing research exploring its effectiveness for other mental health conditions, such as eating disorders and severe depression. The upcoming Avatar 3 trial aims to test this therapy across various cultural contexts and assess the feasibility of using artificial intelligence to voice the avatars in the treatment process. While this raises ethical concerns about reliance on technology for therapeutic purposes, it also offers hope for more accessible mental health care. The positive results seen thus far indicate that avatar therapy could fundamentally reshape the treatment landscape for individuals grappling with complex psychological issues.
Jenny Kleeman reports on a new therapy where patients who suffer from psychosis create a digital avatar of the voices they hear. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode