How Virtual Reality Is Helping Heal Soldiers With PTSD – NBCNews.com

Weighted replica rifle are used to heighten the reality of the virtual experience. USC Institute for Creative Technologies

It is fast becoming one of the most affordable treatments available.

But while PTSD treatment evolves, Castellanos believes that, within the military, the understanding of its effects is still in the dark ages. "In the military PTSD is almost synonymous with weakness," he says. "Nobody talks about it. Nobody gets evaluated." The statistics, meanwhile, show PTSD is close to an epidemic. According to official figures, between 11 percent and 20 percent of soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2010 experience PTSD in any given year.

According to the RAND Corporation, almost half of the vets diagnosed with PTSD

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This is the irony of its stigma, particularly in relation to the military. If properly treated, soldiers with PTSD are able to get back to work much more quickly. "I'm probably the team member who has fared the best," Castellanos says. "Many of the others can't maintain jobs, can't maintain relationships. They are still angry, thirteen years later."

By maintaining the taboo, the system is weakened. "The end goal," DiFede says, "is that soldiers

For Castellanos, while VR offers a technological way to salve the effects of PTSD, it doesn't factor out the role of the human approach in the equation.

"I always post about my treatment online," he says. "I talk to veterans. One of the interesting things is that veterans often won't talk about this stuff unless it's to another vet. I've learned ways to tease out the story. As long as I let them know it happened to me, they completely open up. It quickly turns into a conversation about their symptoms, and their fears about getting help. I hope they do. If they hear it from another Marine, about how it can change lives, I hope they do."

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How Virtual Reality Is Helping Heal Soldiers With PTSD - NBCNews.com