We’re a startup looking for feedback on this beta software. The idea is to vape/smoke/snus during short ‘aversion’ sessions in VR, and then quitting (for most people) happens automatically (the tobacco suddenly tastes/smells terrible).

There’s also some coaching and anxiety exercises.

It’s our 1.0, so if you have any feedback please let us know!

  • @Confuzzeled
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    31 year ago

    I think it’s more likely that you’ll train people to associate nausea with their vr headset and spoil any enjoyment they get from their headset.

    • @tomasOP
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      11 year ago

      It doesn’t work like that. The effect is called the ‘Garcia’ effect and it’s completely tied to smell and taste.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditioned_taste_aversion

      Although that’s a good point, if you don’t smoke/snus/vape, then don’t do the aversion treatment part. It might accidentally cause you to get a life-time aversion to something you ate in the 6 hour window before doing the session.

      Although I have to say it’s pretty funny trying to walk around after taking the pills, feels like being hammered drunk.

        • @tomasOP
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          1 year ago

          Boom! We get that a lot.

          Although in Clockwork Orange they used apomorphine which was the thing in the '50s/60s:

          A fourteen-year-old boy was said by his parents to have started smoking at the age of seven, and to be spending every penny of his pocket money on cigarettes.

          He had at one time regularly smoked 40 cigarettes per day, but was now averaging about half that number because his pocket money had been reduced. He said he wanted to give up smoking because he had a smoker’s cough, was breathless on exertion, and because it was costing so much money.

          On the first occasion he was given an injection of apomorphine 1/20 g, started smoking, he became nauseated and vomited copiously.

          Four days later he came for the second treatment, and said that he still had the craving for cigarettes, but had not in fact smoked since the previous session because he felt nauseated when he tried to light one. He was given an injection of apomorphine 1/20 g, and after seven minutes he lit a cigarette reluctantly, and immediately said he felt ill. He was encouraged to continue smoking, and he collapsed.

          When he next attended he said he no longer had any craving for cigarettes, “Just smoke from my father’s cigarette makes me feel ill”.

          Two months Iater he left school and started working. He said he had “got a bit down” at work and wanted to “keep in with the others”, so he had accepted a proffered cigarette. He immediately felt faint and hot, and was unable to smoke. It is now a year since his treatment, and his parents confirm that he no longer smokes.

          Stern G. (1957). A case of excessive smoking. London Hospital GazeNe, 1957. p. 144–145.