Self Help, CBT and quantified self Android applications
A lot of people on LW seem to hold The Feeling Good Handbook, of Dr. Burns in high regard when it comes to effective self-help. I am through the process of browsing a PDF copy, and it indeed seems like a good resource, as it is not only written in an engaging way, but also packed with various exercises, such as writing your day plan and reviewing it later while assigning Pleasure and Purpose scores to various tasks.
The problem I have with this, and any other self-help-exercise style of books is that I am simply too lazy to regularly print, draft or fill written exercise sheets. On the other hand—I have noticed that when prompted to do so by phone notification, I can usually be trusted to regularly fill in the forms of QS apps I have installed on my mobile or do exercises such as duolingo language tests.
Since the topics of CBT, depression and such seem to be quite widely discussed, I have two rather general questions I would like to ask to the community:
1) Do you know about any battle-tested mobile applications that implement CBT exercises as mentioned in the book of Dr. Burns? If so please do name them, as I would love to install one as well.
2) Do you think that creating a new mobile application to collect all Feel-Good-Hanbook exercises in one place, and remind user to do them regularly (i.e. once daily/weekly in most cases) is a good idea? Would you use such an application for yourself? I am a MSc Comp Sci student looking for some fun and useful projects to polish my android skills a bit, and I would love to work on something that might be useful to a wider community.
[pollid:852]
I think the problem is a good problem to work on. The potential benefit is huge.
The core reason to recommend Burns book over other resources is that he actually run a study to show that the book works. If you on the other hand want to create a completely new product I don’t think it makes sense to copy the exercises directly.
A book is a different medium than an app and your goal is to optimise for the App medium.
The book was written 25 years ago. It feels dated.
That’s before we had Martin Seligman campaigning for positive psychology. If I remember right Burns book lacks gratitude exercises.
I also consider it very helpful to locate emotions in one’s own body and be aware of them on a kinesthetic level and I don’t think that thought was in Burns book.
Self Help, CBT and quantified self Android applications
A lot of people on LW seem to hold The Feeling Good Handbook, of Dr. Burns in high regard when it comes to effective self-help. I am through the process of browsing a PDF copy, and it indeed seems like a good resource, as it is not only written in an engaging way, but also packed with various exercises, such as writing your day plan and reviewing it later while assigning Pleasure and Purpose scores to various tasks.
The problem I have with this, and any other self-help-exercise style of books is that I am simply too lazy to regularly print, draft or fill written exercise sheets. On the other hand—I have noticed that when prompted to do so by phone notification, I can usually be trusted to regularly fill in the forms of QS apps I have installed on my mobile or do exercises such as duolingo language tests.
Since the topics of CBT, depression and such seem to be quite widely discussed, I have two rather general questions I would like to ask to the community:
1) Do you know about any battle-tested mobile applications that implement CBT exercises as mentioned in the book of Dr. Burns? If so please do name them, as I would love to install one as well.
2) Do you think that creating a new mobile application to collect all Feel-Good-Hanbook exercises in one place, and remind user to do them regularly (i.e. once daily/weekly in most cases) is a good idea? Would you use such an application for yourself? I am a MSc Comp Sci student looking for some fun and useful projects to polish my android skills a bit, and I would love to work on something that might be useful to a wider community. [pollid:852]
I think the problem is a good problem to work on. The potential benefit is huge.
The core reason to recommend Burns book over other resources is that he actually run a study to show that the book works. If you on the other hand want to create a completely new product I don’t think it makes sense to copy the exercises directly.
A book is a different medium than an app and your goal is to optimise for the App medium.
The book was written 25 years ago. It feels dated.
That’s before we had Martin Seligman campaigning for positive psychology. If I remember right Burns book lacks gratitude exercises.
I also consider it very helpful to locate emotions in one’s own body and be aware of them on a kinesthetic level and I don’t think that thought was in Burns book.
Newer CBT books might also provide good input.