Public transport and bus anxiety treatment with VR Exposure therapy

How do you get rid of OV fear of buses?

An anxiety disorder is always a nuisance. Especially since an anxiety disorder often prevents you from moving freely and carefree in society. There are anxiety disorders, such as agoraphobia, fear of heights, claustrophobia and train anxiety, which can lead to social isolation. This also applies if you are afraid to travel by bus. You then have developed a bus anxiety. If, in addition, you are dependent on public transport to get somewhere, being afraid of the bus becomes very difficult and you can drastically isolate yourself from society.

What is bus anxiety?

With bus anxiety you are afraid to travel by bus. Although travelling by bus and public transport is generally much safer than travelling by private car, the fear of something bad happening prevails. Bus anxiety can be a form of claustrophobia. You feel locked into a cramped space where you cannot quickly leave. You are also close to other and unknown people, and you don't know how they will react. You also have no control over the wheel, so an accident can happen at any time. These fears are very troublesome, so it is wise to seek help in case of bus anxiety.

How does bus anxiety arise?

Normally, bus fear is not a natural fear. It is a typical fear that arises because you once had a traumatic experience and did not or did not sufficiently process it. You may also be dealing with excessive stress and tension, such as burn-out or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and this, too, is often derived from a trauma. The fear concentrates on fear of the bus, but it can just as well be the train, the aeroplane or an elevator . The main thing is that you want to be in control. When you are in control, you are also in control of your trauma, and that is central to bus anxiety.

What are symptoms of bus anxiety?

The symptoms of bus anxiety are similar to other types of anxiety. Firstly, you will do everything in your power to avoid taking the bus. If you do come into contact with the bus, you will start to sweat, have palpitations or even hyperventilate. A panic attack is also possible once you are on the bus. The symptoms are a physical reaction to your fear and in general not dangerous. Much more drastic is the fact that you avoid public transport and thus end up in social isolation. This has a much greater impact on your life and mental state.

Is bus anxiety treatable?

Bus anxiety is easy to treat. Depending on the complaints and the cause, EMDR or exposure therapy.

EMDR therapy

Is bus anxiety clearly caused by a trauma and is this trauma still unresolved? Then EMDR is the right solution. The treatment is not focused on the bus anxiety, but on processing the underlying trauma. How exactly EMDR effects the brain is subject to research by scientists. That it works has been confirmed by science. EMDR is about overloading the working memory by means of distraction. The patient has to recall the memory of the traumatic event and at the same time is distracted. This is done with a hand movement by the therapist or with a sound signal. By repeating this over and over again, the trauma can be put away and recalled more easily, without intense emotions being involved. When the trauma has been processed, the bus anxiety will also disappear.

Exposure therapy

Another successful treatment method is exposure therapy. It has been proven that confronting the trauma is very successful in overcoming fears. So you go with the therapist into the bus to overcome bus fears. You will see that nothing strange will happen. Even if you find the bus scary for a while, you will get used to it and gradually grow over your fears.

Overcome bus anxiety with the help of Psylaris

For both practitioners and patients, Psylairs has developed modern tools for the mental health sector. For practitioners, treatments become easier and more modern and for patients more accessible. EMDR can nowadays take place via virtual reality. For this purpose, Psylaris developed EMDR-VR . With VR glasses on, the patient is distracted more intensely and the practitioner has more distraction tasks available. Psylaris also developed EMDR-remote. . This is an online platform, whereby EMDR is possible at a distance by means of online calling. Virtual reality is an excellent method for exposure therapy. When putting on the VR goggles, the patient leaves reality and really gets to sit in a bus. This form of exposure therapy is cost and time effective because the exposure can take place in the safe environment of the treatment room or even at home. Virtual reality also usually allows for more frequent treatment, resulting in faster recovery.

Exposure in virtual reality

The goal of Psylaris is to support therapists even better with innovative techniques and tools. Virtual reality plays a leading role in this. With EMDR-VR and EMDR-plus an EMDR treatment is possible using virtual reality. The practitioner can use distraction tasks even better and the client can also be treated remotely. Virtual reality is ideally suited for exposure therapy. The client is confronted with his/her fears. It is no longer necessary to visit a physical location, such as an elevator in case of elevator fear or a shopping mall in case of agoraphobia. With the VR glasses on, the client is confronted with the fear in the safe environment of the treatment room or his/her home. Psylaris has developed modules for various types of fears that require exposure therapy. This saves costs and time, and the client can be treated more frequently, which results in a faster recovery.

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