Chronic anxiety got you stressing every tiny facet of your life? You might be able to cure it with two hours in front of a computer. Cognitive-bias modification (CBM) is an automated treatment shown to be effective for psychological conditions like depression and anxiety. It sounds too good to be true. (And probably is.).

CBM rests on the premise that people suffering from anxiety have a cognitive "bias" towards anxious thoughts. CBM moves this bias towards happy, soothing thoughts. Here's how it works, according to the Economist:

A common way of debiasing attention is to show someone two words or pictures-one neutral and the other threatening-on a computer screen. In the case of social anxiety these might be a neutral face and a disgusted face. Presented with this choice, an anxious person instinctively focuses on the disgusted visage. The program, however, prods him to complete tasks involving the neutral picture, such as identifying letters that appear in its place on the screen. Repeating the procedure around a thousand times, over a total of two hours, changes the user's tendency to focus on the anxious face. That change is then carried into the wider world.

The Economist says one study showed that after "eight short sessions" of CBM, the majority of volunteers "no longer seemed anxious." Yeahhhhh right. And I've developed an Xbox game that cures impotence.

But if it works, great! Adobe Therapists Office Version 3, here we come.

[Image via Shutterstock]