Tag: Depression

My Notes from an XRHQ Live Streaming Event on LinkedIn and YouTube — Pixels & Pills: Breaking Research on Immersive Treatment for Mental Health, using the Apple Vision Pro and Explore POV (January 29th, 2026)

PLEASE NOTE: This is now a somewhat edited first draft of the notes I was frantically taking during this livestream, because I wanted to get the information out there on this very interesting application of the Apple Vision Pro! Yesterday I came across this announcement of how the Apple Vision Pro was being used in research to determine its effectiveness as a support for those suffering from anxiety and depression. As an avid AVP user, as a subscriber to Explore POV, and as a mental health consumer, I was definitely not going to miss this presentation, which was being streamed on LinkedIn (a first for me; usually I am on Microsoft Teams or Zoom for this sort of online event).

I was originally thinking I would go in using my AVP’s Virtual Display feature with my MacBook Pro (my usual work setup lately, what with my neck and shoulder pain), and then I thought: naaah, let’s not overcomplicate things. Apparently, this is also being streamed to YouTube, which I will look for later. UPDATE: Added the YouTube link at the end.

Any omissions and errors are my fault; sorry guys, I can only take notes so quickly!

The speakers in the livestream were:

Hala Darwish, Associate Professor, School of Nursing/Neurology/Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan (currently conducting research, still in its very earliest stages)

Jeremy Dalton, XRHQ (moderator of the event; formerly PwC Head of Immersive Technologies)

James Hustler, Explore POV (3D video creator, whose app was chosen as the Apple Vision Pro App of the Year 2025, https://exploreimmersive.com)

Event description: By immersing patients in breathtaking natural environments using the Apple Vision Pro, research is now underway to discover whether these experiences can support those suffering from anxiety and depression. Join James Hustler, creator of the award-winning Explore POV app, and Dr. Hala Darwish, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, for a live discussion hosted by Jeremy Dalton from XRHQ. Together, we will explore the technology, the clinical thinking that inspired it, and what it could mean for the future of digital therapeutics.

(Unfortunately, I missed the first few minutes while I was fiddling with my sound settings, and trying to get my earbuds to work properly, so I missed Jeremy’s and Hala’s introductions.)

James Hustler travels the world to record amazing 3D videos and share them via his subscription service, Explore POV (which I have written about before here). He had been living in a motor home in New Zealand during the pandemic, when he had started recording 3D videos to share with friends.

Hala is in early stage research, interested in the relationship between mental health and the environment. Many people do not have access to certain environments (e.g. an urban environment with very little nature). Also, people can have access issues (e.g. a disability). Hala was looked into VR as an alternative to real-life nature experiences, and in 2019 when she started, the tech wasn’t quite ready (they tried with 360-degree videos, and she felt it didn’t really work well, i.e. low resolution; caused motion sickness, etc.). She then tried computer-generated nature graphics for patients with MS (multiple sclerosis). In 2023, the Apple Vision Pro was released, and Hala had a demo. The decision was made to switch from 360-degree VR video to 180-degree VR video.

James: The VR 360-degree video format is not new, but until recently, it hasn’t been at a high-enough resolution to create a true sense of presence. i.e., it changes from an intellectual response to an emotional response of being there. Explore POV is now recording at 16K resolution, and experimenting with Apple Immersive Video. The goal is to capture a scene so that the user feels like it’s lifelike and real to them.

Hala: transporting the individual to these natural environments does appear to have health benefits (mental and physical health, stress relief, etc.). In addition to anxiety and depression relief, Hala’s area of research, VR is also being used for the treatments of phobias (exposure therapy), performance anxiety (e.g. fear of public speaking), and as a method of pain management and distraction, among other uses.

James, when asked about feedback to his videos: Explore POV was created as a travel app, but people by the hundreds are contacting him about the mental and emotional response to the VR video scenes, telling him it’s the first time they’ve climbed a mountain or paddled a kayak. People have told James that they use the Explore POV app to relax after a stressful day’s work. This sort of feedback has opened James’ eyes to the possibilities of 3D video in VR. He had originally approached his work from a technical challenge (e.g. how do I create the highest-resolution 3D videos in VR?). He stressed that all these responses are anecdotal, but that we need scientific evidence.

Hala, in talking about her research: we want to run clinical trials (but we are currently testing feasibility and safety with a limited number of patients with progressive multiple sclerosis and depression). If we give AVPs to patients to use at home (e.g. with disability), how are they going to be able to use the headsets? The first study splits the patients into three groups. It’s a cross-over study: one group gets standard treatments first, then VR treatment, the second group gets VR treatment first, then standard treatments. The third group has just standard treatments, with no VR intervention. It is an early-stage feasibility study, with 14, 14, and 12 patients in the three categories of patients being looked at. She is also interested in researching longer-term responses to VR treatment.

Hala: in my opinion, exposure to natural scenes in VR appears to be a good adjunct to standard therapy. It’s still too early to come to any definitive conclusion. We first want to see if it has an impact on stress and anxiety levels, and then eventually expand to a larger number of patients (right now it’s a small number).

Which environments create greater impacts? James: we would expect to see what we’ve seen compared to previous academic research studies using real-life nature scenes (e.g. MRI brain scans after exposure to nature, e.g. taking a hike). There is already a good body of academic literature dealing with the impact of real-life nature on people’s anxiety and depression.

But we don’t have anything beyond anecdotal results for the use of nature in VR so far, nothing scientific; this research is still in its very earliest stages. For example, one early patient had a very good response to a desert environment (but it’s only a sample size of one!). James: if we’re aiming for calmness, certain VR video environments would probably help with that, e.g. flowing water, watching a sunset while sitting on a mountain, etc.). But again, at this point it’s purely anecdotal.

I asked a question in the text chat during the livestream that was actually asked of James, the creator of Explore POV, which was: Has James created specific VR video environments for Hala’s research? The answer was no; James has not yet created specific VR video environments for Hala’s research. However, they’ve now shot approximately 200 videos in 20 different countries so far for the Explore POV app (I think he said 200, but it was hard to take accurate notes!). He notes that they are a small, nimble team who can rapidly adjust to meet any requests from Hala’s research team, if needed in the future.

My question got asked!!

In response to a question from another user about the use of Apple’s SharePlay feature, where you can share an experience together with other Apple users via their Personas: James would love to add this feature, if he can. Yes, he would love to make Explore POV more of a multiplayer experience, if possible. He talks about people sequentially experiencing the same VR video in Explore POV, and thereby “sharing” the experience with others (e.g. a father and his daughter, if I remember correctly).

James: for people who can’t physically travel due to disability or for soke other reason, the technology is unlocking experiences that they might never experience otherwise. He thinks that it’s an amazing position to be in where we can give some of these people a taste of visiting remote places, with impacts in not just healthcare but also conservation, education, etc.

Hala: the academic research process is slow due to recruitment bottlenecks, but she estimates 2 years for the duration of the study (before results are published). he notes that most of the time, the people who most need the nature exposure do not have the opportunity to access it (for example they cannot afford an Apple Vision Pro).

(Unfortunately, Hala crashed out of the stream soon her comments, and the other two speakers wrapped it up!)

Conservation, education and healthcare are the three areas of what James wants to focus on with Explore Immersive. In addition to working with Hala on her research study, he’s also working on conservation and education applications as well. He hopes to start new partnerships in these three key areas, and wants to make Explore POV more than “just a travel app.”

Here’s the 53-minute YouTube video, in case you missed the livestream (unfortunately, you do have to actually go over and watch it on YouTube, as I am not allowed to embed it into my blogpost). Sorry! I do very strongly urge you to go over and watch it, though; it was amazing and inspiring.

AN UPDATE, January 7th, 2025: Why My Blog Is On Hold (And Why I Am Not Making A Final Decision Until Later this Year)

A sampling of today’s news headlines from Google News. Shit is gettin’ WILD, y’all.

Today, I wrote the following post on the new Second Life social media platform, Primfeed (which you can currently only read if you already have an account on Primfeed, as I have not yet chosen to make my Primfeed profile and posts publicly viewable):

With all the batshit-crazy political news coming out of the U.S. today making me feel anxious and depressed, I have decided that, in order to preserve my mental health, I now have to abandon the very last traditional social media platform I used daily: Reddit. This means that, from now on, I am only going to be using Primfeed, and NOTHING ELSE: No Reddit, no Mastodon, no Twitter/X, no Facebook, no Instagram, no TikTok.

Corporate-run social media platforms are all becoming a toxic cesspool and dumpster fire, with negative effects on my mental health. I quit Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter years ago, and I have never bothered with TikTok. I haven’t bothered checking into Mastodon in well over half a year now. Reddit was my last refuge, but alas, no longer. I am OUT. (I announced late last year that I was shutting down my blog, but in light of me now leaving Reddit, I will have to take some time to reflect a bit more on that decision. I also need to think about whether or not I want to make my Primfeed profile public.)

It looks like 2025 is shaping up to be an even crazier and more chaotic year than 2024, and I might need to escape to my beloved Second Life now more than ever!

A quick update: last November, my doctor stepped in and put me on full-time sick leave for a couple of weeks. I then went back to work on half-time sick leave, and at the moment, that arrangement will continue until the end of April, 2025. My supervisor at work has also stepped in to address my current workload, and I am no longer working on the project of setting up the virtual reality lab at my university library system. I am just feeling incredibly burned out and utterly exhausted, still, and it is probably going to take me quite some time to rest and recover.

In light of my decision today to quit Reddit (the last traditional social media platform I was still using, albeit without setting up an account, i.e. read-only and anonymously), I do now need to re-evaluate my decision late last year to stop blogging completely. The truth is that I am still feeling tired and burned out, and I don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to blog. So I honestly don’t know where things stand for the blog right now.

My blog will remain up; I do not plan to take it down. I will also keep my associated Discord server running, as it is still being used by a good number of people. I have zero plans to take the RyanSchultz.com Discord server down. However, I have, as of January 1st, 2025, suspended charging my existing Patreon patrons (and a very big thank you to those of you who have chosen to support me financially via Patreon these past five-six years; it has been, and is still, greatly appreciated).

Right now, I need to focus on my physical, mental and emotional health, and I need to focus on returning to my paying job, full-time (minus the VR lab project). Those are my priorities at the moment. In order to help achieve that focus, I am avoiding all social media (except Primfeed), and all metaverse platforms (except InSpaze on the Apple Vision Pro, and my beloved Second Life, which reliably puts me in a comfortable flow state during the creative process, and which consistently brings me happiness, especially with so much bad news happening in my real life).

Everything else must wait, including this blog. I will not make a final decision about my blog until much later this year, once I am in a better place. Thank you for your support over the past 7+ years.

UPDATE Jan. 8th, 2025: Meanwhile, over on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter):

UPDATED! InnerWorld: Peer-Based Mental Health Intervention Using Social VR

PLEASE NOTE: InnerWorld used to be called Help Club, and Very Real Help. I have updated the title of this blogpost accordingly. Here’s the InnerWorld website (which frankly looks like needs some work).

What if a virtual reality headset isn’t just for gaming, but instead it can deliver an intervention that’s appealing to a younger generation and allows them to anonymously explore problems with a virtual coach as much as they want, whenever they want, all for the cost of two therapy sessions?

—Noah Robinson

I have been meaning to write about Help Club and Very Real Help for quite some time now! I’m glad that today I have finally had the opportunity to talk about a program that is very special to me.

Help Club is the brainchild of Noah Robinson, the founder and CEO of Very Real Help, the company that is building this social VR platform, and a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University. (Many of you will no doubt remember Noah as PsychNoah, one of the three convivial hosts of the former popular VRChat talk show called Endgame, which I have previously written about on my blog here, here, here, here, and here).

In the following TEDx Nashville talk (which I highly recommend you watch in full), Noah explains how he turned his early experiences with virtual worlds and virtual reality into an idea for a portable, accessible, anonymous, and more affordable solution for those battling mental health and addiction issues:

The purpose of Help Club is to provide a safe social space for peer-based mental health and addictions support, combining cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) tools with social virtual reality in a process called Cognitive Behavioral Immersion (a term which Very Real Help has trademarked). According to their website:

Help Club utilizes the immersive nature of the VR ecosystem to help users defy distance and the physical constraints of the real world, transporting them to their own happier place. Once transported to our built-for-wellness worlds, users will be immediately provided with resources, calming games, and guided exercises to help them recenter, recharge, and reenergize their mental wellbeing.

After passing a short screening, most users will also have access to a groundbreaking form of group intervention called Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™. This proprietary, peer-led group approach gives users unlimited access to potentially life-changing mental health help. These event-based group sessions focus on issues that are important to users. These aren’t led by therapists or doctors—anyone can train to become a helper and begin to make an impact in the lives of others.

We will also have staff in Help Club 24/7 to ensure a positive, curated experience for all.

Noah describes his model for Help Club in a quote from the above TEDx talk:

In cognitive behavioral therapy, we have three ways to address negative mood: examine thoughts, change behaviors or adjust physiology. What we’re seeing with VR is that there may be a 4th way to change mood—by immersing the person in a virtual environment…

We’re building an intervention that’s more portable, accessible, anonymous and affordable than therapy. Instead of using a therapist, we’re teaching peers how to help each other—an immersive, therapeutic social world filled with people, represented as anonymous avatars, who can teach each other the key skills in therapy…

We can provide a change in environment—the thing that’s being sought through drug use—to give immediate relief to people. Yes, it’s an escape into a virtual world, but when they escape—when people escape to get very real help, we can help them confront the situations that lead them to want to escape, in the first place. And our research suggests that we can train peers on how to help each other to make it much more affordable and accessible, and just as effective as therapy.

Help Club is available for in a VR version for users of both tethered and standalone headsets, including the Oculus Quest via the App Lab, and in a flat-screen version for Windows and MacOS users (there’s also a beta iOS mobile client). You can download client software here.

Specially-trained volunteers take turns as moderators, guiding small groups of users in hour-long virtual meetups scheduled throughout the week, in which they discuss issues in their daily lives, troubleshoot solutions, and provide positive affirmation for each other. I can tell you that during the pandemic, it was wonderful to be able to slip on my Oculus Rift or Valve Index VR headset and attend a meeting, rather than having to put on my parka, get into my car, and drive somewhere across town! I always came away feeling that I had been listened to, heard, affirmed, and empowered.

After a closed beta-text period (full disclosure: I was one of the people who participated in group sessions and helped test and debug the platform late last year and earlier this year), Help Club is now available to everyone who is interested. Please note that there is a short screening process which takes place, to explain how Help Club works, what your responsibilities are, and to give you fuller access to their Discord community, which is a key part of the program. Everyone assumes an anonymous avatar identity for privacy purposes, both in-world and on Discord. So I am not “Ryan Schultz” on Help Club…but if you do decide to join based on this blogpost, tell’em Ryan sent you! 😉

For further information about Help Club, you can visit their website (there’s a contact form at the bottom of the home page), join their Discord server, or you can follow them on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. (You can also follow Noah Robinson himself on Twitter or LinkedIn, where he shares some of the interesting work he is doing in the area of mental health and addictions using virtual reality.)

UPDATED! Pandemic Diary, May 22nd, 2021: Cruel Summer

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

Today is officially Day 433 since I began working in self-isolation from home for my university library system. The Victoria Day long weekend marks the beginning of summer up here in Winnipeg, but I am not in a summery mood at all.

Both Winnipeg’s mayor, Brian Bowman, and Manitoba’s premier, Brian Pallister, have called upon the Canadian federal government to send healthcare workers and contact tracers to cope with the worst situation we have been in since the pandemic started (even worse, they are squabbling with each other). This past week, Manitoba has broken records for both the number of those infected with COVID-19 and for those who are in intensive care in hospital. In fact, the circumstances are now so bad that we have begun to ship patients next door to cities in northwestern Ontario and even as far afield as Ottawa (and they are still having troubles of their own in Ontario). Things are pretty fucked up here right now.

The entire province is essentially on lockdown, and I am in a black, despairing mood, stuck in my apartment. The province even sent out an emergency warning to everybody’s cellphones last night (usually only used for child abductions), to sternly warn people to stay home and only go out for essentials. (I would have normally saved it and pasted it into this blogpost for posterity, but why bother?)

I have gone 15 months without a hug, or being in close proximity to anybody but a doctor. I cannot get a straight answer from anyone as to when I can get my second shot of COVID-19 vaccine, or even what brand I will get (my first shot was Oxford/AstraZeneca, but I could receive Moderna or Pfizer for my second shot, or maybe not?). I am losing my psychiatrist, and it is unlikely that I will be able to find a new one who can take me on as a patient. I am angry and tired and just plain FED. UP.

So forgive me if I use this blog, normally about social VR, to vent. This is turning into a cruel summer. I leave you with the following tweet, with which I agree wholeheartedly:

I only want to see one more [Brian] Pallister press conference. At it he will:

1. Ask for forgiveness from Manitobans for the incompetent performance of his government, resulting in far too many avoidable COVID-19 deaths;

2. resign;

3. instruct his successor not to repeat his mistakes.

UPDATE May 23rd, 2021: Today CBC News reported:

When Premier Brian Pallister says Manitobans are living through the darkest days of the pandemic, there are plenty of measures to back that up.

For starters, there are more COVID-19 infections in this province than ever before. On Saturday, the seven-day average daily case count rose to 482, a new pandemic record.

That works out to a daily infection rate of 34.3 new COVID cases each day for every 100,000 people, the highest infection rate among Canadian provinces and U.S. states. Alberta is a distant second, with 20.6.

New infections today lead to more hospitalizations down the road. During this third wave of the pandemic, a greater proportion of COVID hospital patients require intensive care.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Manitoba ICUs hit a record 80 earlier this week and is technically higher now. There were 74 COVID-19 patients in Manitoba ICUs on Saturday and seven more Manitoba patients in Ontario hospitals, some now located as far away as Ottawa.

In living memory, Manitoba has never had to ship ICU patients out of province simply to relieve the pressure on hospitals that are now struggling to deliver basic care. Hence Pallister’s request on Friday for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to send Manitoba nurses and respiratory therapists.

As well, Winnipeg’s five-day test positivity rate reached a new pandemic record of 16.8 per cent Saturday.

In its analysis, the CBC lays the blame for this situation firmly at Brian Pallister’s feet:

Sadly, Manitoba can not vaccinate its way out of an immediate hospital crisis. The time for long-term solutions ended in early April, when COVID-19 cases in this province began an exponential rise.

When the top priority in this province would appear to be staunching the spread of COVID-19 in Winnipeg, the epicentre of the pandemic, non-essential businesses remain open, office workplaces are not compelled to allow their employees to work from home and manufacturers are not taking a break to give the alleged circuit breaker more teeth.

Only the province could order such measures, which were implemented in part during an April 2020 first wave that turned to be a ripple in Manitoba.

Instead, the province has opted against the most effective measures at its disposal during its greatest time of need.

…Manitoba’s premier is throwing shade at a U.S. president — and asking the Canadian prime minister for help — while this province declines to do everything it could to combat a third wave that’s been gaining momentum for eight weeks.

There were many voices calling for a short, sharp lockdown weeks ago, calls which Brian Pallister and his ministers ignored. And yet he has the gall to suggest that it is Manitobans themselves who are to blame. Countless Manitobans have become sick, and some have died, due to Brian Pallister’s ineptitude.

I am absolutely incandescent with anger this weekend, walled within my apartment to protect my health and safety as one in six Manitobans tests positive for COVID-19. The next few weeks are going to be ugly, and much of it could have been avoided if we had had a truly effective, proactive, competent provincial government.

And I vow that, if I should survive this pandemic unscathed, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the opposition wins the next Manitoba election. Enough is enough.