Startup Idea: Comprehensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy App
I come from a family with a history of depression (mother's side) and have received various forms of treatment throughout my life. I, somewhat by chance, was directed to a CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) out-patient program.
That was by far the only really effective therapy I've ever been through but I've run into one problem that I think a simple piece of software or an app could solve (and I'm learning programming currently to make my own rookie version for personal use in case nobody ever picks up this idea).
CBT is extremely effective in treating a range of mental illnesses but none of the apps currently available seem to hit on anything beyond very basic (and in my opinion not very helpful) aspects of the therapy. The thing I found with CBT that made it so effective was the amount of structure to it - we're not talking qualitative "let's talk about our feelings" therapy, it's very quantitative, which for a pretty logic based thinker like myself was game changing.
I've searched high and low with no luck but if I would pay a good bit of money for software (or preferably an app that could send notifications to my phone, as I use a number of different computers throughout the day) if I could find something to do the following:
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Offer tracking with suggested inputs as well as user-created ones that one could look at in various time views (week, month, etc) to gain a sense of what aspects may be connected to changes in mood. So, it'd need to ping me to record various things at the end of the day along with my mood (How many drinks today, how many hours of sleep, been drinking water, meditation, etc.) - for me personally I have a pretty good idea that drinking even small amounts has an effect on my mood the following day, and to be able to accumulate data on that would be huge.
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Would have a GOOD library of exercises and articles on various topics covered during CBT.
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I'd want the app to have a set schedule, or me be able to set one based on my personal goals, so that it would prompt me one or more times a day to do an exercise or read an article related to that week's focus. So if say that week was about mindfulness it may prompt me to find time today for a 5 minute mindful walk and to write comments about my successes/difficulties with that, or if it were working on examining patterns of thought have it pop up asking me to fill out one of the exercises to examine rationalization vs. reality about an event that made me upset, or focusing on interpersonal communication prompt me to fill out one of the exercises that will help map out how I want to approach a difficult conversation with someone, etc.
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While I'd want the app to be able to prompt me to do exercises, as the reminder to keep practicing the skills is my BIGGEST challenge, I would also want to be able to access all those exercises anytime I wanted to without needing prompting. The app or software would also need to record all the forms with date and time so I could browse back through them to say compare how I'm dealing with a problem now vs. the same issue six months ago, or to refresh my memory on how I changed my thinking about something that's come up again.
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If someone really wanted to be a genius, come up with some CBT related games. Like I love how Duolingo helps me keep my Spanish fresh and also improving, just by having fun, easy word games so it doesn't feel like a chore, sneaks into my brain under the radar.
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There are other aspects that could be guided meditation, journaling, help connecting with professionals in your area or maybe ability to connect with other software users to form support groups (even if in forum style so someone could post looking for advice on which exercises seemed to be most helpful for x or y problem). There'd be a lot of material that'd need to be part of this (for example I have one of those big 4" binders uncomfortably full with my materials) but I think from a programming standpoint it'd really be pretty easy and able to utilize entirely existing technology
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It needs to be able to track various inputs but everything from the exercises to the tracked data is text input.
If this is something you do end up deciding to try and develop a program for I'd be happy to assist if able and if looking for materials a good place to start would be to try and connect with UVM's Seneca Center program.