About
The story behind Senti-mental
Another habit tracker? Or an analytical approach to uncovering triggers for negative mental health, and an opportunity to discover ways to get better
1. The Story
I am an analytical person, and a few years ago I went through a really challenging period in my life. It felt like I had no control, like each day was happening to me and I was a passenger in my own story. On any given day I could have a panic attack, or feel reclusive and avoid my social circle, I felt like the decision wasn't up to me.
I hated having negative thoughts, anxiety attacks, and a general lack of confidence, but even more than that, I hated that it was so inconsistent and abrupt. One day could be manageable, and the next day could be awful.
My solution was to begin an excel doc where I tracked as much about my day as I could and see if I could find out what ingredients made a good day, and what triggers might cause a bad one.
Over time I added more inputs, tried to build connections, I wrote some notes. My first attempt at a tracker was rudimentary, but it felt infinitely better than a journal, it felt like I was getting some real data, and the entire time I just wished I had more.
I also struggled to talk with my wife about how I really felt, difficult emotions are hard enough to endure, but to try and tell them to a loved one somehow seems harder. But I felt able to share my tracker with my wife, it felt like I could expose the details, without having to be forced to articulate them.
Over time, collecting data and tracking the process helped me, my anxiety attacks subsided, I built confidence, and today I feel like I am in control again. My hope is to enable people who are struggling to have an opportunity to understand what impacts their mental health, and to take back more control to get better.
I am an analytical person, and a few years ago I went through a really challenging period in my life. It felt like I had no control, like each day was happening to me and I was a passenger in my own story. On any given day I could have a panic attack, or feel reclusive and avoid my social circle, I felt like the decision wasn't up to me.
I hated having negative thoughts, anxiety attacks, and a general lack of confidence, but even more than that, I hated that it was so inconsistent and abrupt. One day could be manageable, and the next day could be awful.
My solution was to begin an excel doc where I tracked as much about my day as I could and see if I could find out what ingredients made a good day, and what triggers might cause a bad one.
Over time I added more inputs, tried to build connections, I wrote some notes. My first attempt at a tracker was rudimentary, but it felt infinitely better than a journal, it felt like I was getting some real data, and the entire time I just wished I had more.
I also struggled to talk with my wife about how I really felt, difficult emotions are hard enough to endure, but to try and tell them to a loved one somehow seems harder. But I felt able to share my tracker with my wife, it felt like I could expose the details, without having to be forced to articulate them.
Over time, collecting data and tracking the process helped me, my anxiety attacks subsided, I built confidence, and today I feel like I am in control again. My hope is to enable people who are struggling to have an opportunity to understand what impacts their mental health, and to take back more control to get better.
2. The Why
The concept of trackers is common in so many aspects of life, people track their finances, physical health, and sleep all in efforts to try and understand the impact to their well-being.
People seldom apply the same analytical approach to their mental health.
Senti-mental is intended to build a personalized analytics engine to chart the best path to improving and optimizing mental health.
The concept of trackers is common in so many aspects of life, people track their finances, physical health, and sleep all in efforts to try and understand the impact to their well-being.
People seldom apply the same analytical approach to their mental health.
Senti-mental is intended to build a personalized analytics engine to chart the best path to improving and optimizing mental health.
3. The Rules
There are a few constraints by which Senti-mental will be bound.
No Streaks - The intention isn't to pressure users into participating or punishing those who miss a day. Building positive habits is hard, and the first steps on the journey are the hardest. Senti-mental intends to operate at your pace.
No Ads - The intention of the product isn't a data harvesting exercise to get you to view ads. The free version will be truly free. The paid version will be intended for those who arent interested in a casual tracker and want to get serious about the data, intend to leverage it for managing substances/medication, or intend to leverage Senti-mental in support of active therapy or in connection with other active mental health support.
No diagnostics - Senti-mental is not a replacement for medical advice, it is a tool to draw connections between behaviour or events, and their impacts on your mental health. Senti-mental will never diagnose a condition or try to prescribe medication or suggest behavioral changes. This is an analytical tool to help the user make decisions themselves.
No nagging notifications - The default is a once daily check-in to ensure consistency and build trends. If a user misses, there is no guilt trip or impact to the underlying usefulness of the tool.
Private - No social component, data privacy is a key component of the platform. Users will have the ability to share a snapshot of their personal data with loved ones or professionals, but they will be prompted each time, nobody else will have access to your data apart from you.
These aren't features, they are core to the concept.
No Streaks - The intention isn't to pressure users into participating or punishing those who miss a day. Building positive habits is hard, and the first steps on the journey are the hardest. Senti-mental intends to operate at your pace.
No Ads - The intention of the product isn't a data harvesting exercise to get you to view ads. The free version will be truly free. The paid version will be intended for those who arent interested in a casual tracker and want to get serious about the data, intend to leverage it for managing substances/medication, or intend to leverage Senti-mental in support of active therapy or in connection with other active mental health support.
No diagnostics - Senti-mental is not a replacement for medical advice, it is a tool to draw connections between behaviour or events, and their impacts on your mental health. Senti-mental will never diagnose a condition or try to prescribe medication or suggest behavioral changes. This is an analytical tool to help the user make decisions themselves.
No nagging notifications - The default is a once daily check-in to ensure consistency and build trends. If a user misses, there is no guilt trip or impact to the underlying usefulness of the tool.
Private - No social component, data privacy is a key component of the platform. Users will have the ability to share a snapshot of their personal data with loved ones or professionals, but they will be prompted each time, nobody else will have access to your data apart from you.
These aren't features, they are core to the concept.
4. Who this is for
There is no strict definition of who will benefit from Senti-mental and who won't, but if people are dealing with certain challenges they are more likely to experience better outcomes.
There is no strict definition of who will benefit from Senti-mental and who won't, but if people are dealing with certain challenges they are more likely to experience better outcomes.
Managing a condition - For those with common mental health issues, Senti-mental can help build a foundation for understanding how to live with those conditions, and to help identify which lifestyle decisions keep most symptoms at bay and get you better.
Managing substance abuse or addiction - The path to sobriety or managing addiction is building positive habits and avoiding pitfalls, Senti-mental can help understand what works and what doesnt and track the journey.
Recovery - Life can throw curve balls, the loss of a loved one, a layoff, an injury or health condition or a million other events can truly derail you and put you in a position you never thought you would be in. Senti-mental can be a tool to get back on your feet.
Therapy support - The act of visiting a professional shouldn't involve math or analytics, and by no means is Senti-mental an alternative to therapy. However, many people who have professional support for mental health or addiction do so weekly at best. Senti-mental can be a tool for helping ground that conversation in real lived experience, and ensure build the muscle of focusing on mental health daily.
Beyond obvious use cases, Senti-mental can be used by anyone in a challenging time in their life trying to find a way to figure out what works. Work stress, relationship issues, a general sense of unease. It is a universal experience to manage these challenges, for people who wish to understand more about how external factors impact daily lived experience, Senti-mental is a technical analysis of what impacts you the most.
Managing a condition - For those with common mental health issues, Senti-mental can help build a foundation for understanding how to live with those conditions, and to help identify which lifestyle decisions keep most symptoms at bay and get you better.
Managing substance abuse or addiction - The path to sobriety or managing addiction is building positive habits and avoiding pitfalls, Senti-mental can help understand what works and what doesnt and track the journey.
Recovery - Life can throw curve balls, the loss of a loved one, a layoff, an injury or health condition or a million other events can truly derail you and put you in a position you never thought you would be in. Senti-mental can be a tool to get back on your feet.
Therapy support - The act of visiting a professional shouldn't involve math or analytics, and by no means is Senti-mental an alternative to therapy. However, many people who have professional support for mental health or addiction do so weekly at best. Senti-mental can be a tool for helping ground that conversation in real lived experience, and ensure build the muscle of focusing on mental health daily.
Beyond obvious use cases, Senti-mental can be used by anyone in a challenging time in their life trying to find a way to figure out what works. Work stress, relationship issues, a general sense of unease. It is a universal experience to manage these challenges, for people who wish to understand more about how external factors impact daily lived experience, Senti-mental is a technical analysis of what impacts you the most.
5. My hope
The difference between those who are thriving and those who are surviving is so narrow these days. My hope is to build a tool that can help surface risks, highlight opportunities, and give people a better understanding of what impacts their mental health will help people chart a path to calmer waters and allow them to stay there.
I want people to get better at their own speed, and I want to show people, using their own data, what works for them and what doesn't.
I want people to be able to look back 1 year and see in the data how much more control they have over their emotions, conditions, and mood.
The difference between those who are thriving and those who are surviving is so narrow these days. My hope is to build a tool that can help surface risks, highlight opportunities, and give people a better understanding of what impacts their mental health will help people chart a path to calmer waters and allow them to stay there.
I want people to get better at their own speed, and I want to show people, using their own data, what works for them and what doesn't.
I want people to be able to look back 1 year and see in the data how much more control they have over their emotions, conditions, and mood.
The analytics engine for mental health
The analytics engine for mental health
Understand how to optimize and improve your own mental health, and what pitfalls to avoid to keep moving in the right direction
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