Wellbeing
This is a difficult time for everyone, and you’ve chosen to take this summer to learn about and do work in the field of concussion. It can be discouraging to understand the scope of the problem, the frequently poor level of concussion management, and the potential, in some cases, for long-term symptoms or even neurodegenerative issues. On the positive side, it’s heartening to learn about new types of therapy and to feel one is contributing to a solution — but it still can be hard.
With this in mind, we want to focus on your well-being as you work with Concussion Alliance this summer. We are working on making this internship a welcoming, positive experience, including various types of “touching base” via Zoom. We will be asking you for feedback — and we welcome feedback — about how we are doing.
As a secondary approach, we thought we’d use this page to share tools that we have listed in various places on ConcussionAlliance.org — most frequently in the Self-care section, but also in our newsletter. In putting this together, I realize we can use this material to update the Self-care page.
Apps to help with sleep, plus meditation apps reduce stress and help with sleep
CBT-i Coach is a free app to help with sleep, using cognitive behavioral therapy
CBT-i Coach is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) app developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy apps were found to be effective in combating insomnia in a 2017 research study. The study also concluded the CBT apps have “likely benefits beyond sleep to mental health and well-being.” NPR has an excellent article (Oct 8, 2018) about CBT apps for insomnia, in which several sleep doctors recommend the CBT-i Coach.
Download the app for free on iTunes and Google Play.
Oak is a free app which was named a "2018 New Apps We Love" by Apple and is only available iOS (Apple) devices. "We have guided meditations starting at just 5-minutes in length. If you're on the go, decompress with breathing exercises that can be practiced anywhere. For those with trouble sleeping, fall asleep to our background sounds like distant rain, crackling fire, white noise and many more."
Headspace app aims to helps you meditate, reduce stress, focus, and sleep better. The app has a specific “Meditation for Sleep.” Headspace has a 2-week free trial and then a student plan that costs $9.99 per year. They also have a collection of meditations that are free during the pandemic.
Mental Health and Resiliency
SuperBetter’s mental health resiliency app tackles COVID-1
From our 4/2/20 newsletter
The continued expansion of technology into our lives has fostered new possibilities for apps for therapy and medicine. SuperBetter tries to improve mental health using a technique called gamification, a strategy using incentives, and a step by step process to make accomplishing tasks easier. Through a combination of rewards for completing small tasks like drinking a full glass of water in the morning and scientific and perspective-altering advice, the app fosters mental health resilience. Through teaching users how to be kinder to themselves and reward positive behaviors, these new habits become self-reinforcing. SuperBetter advertises itself as a resource for helping those struggling with anxiety, depression, stress, and concussion recovery. Their resources also include free bonus features, which are designed to help those recovering from concussion as well.
Now their designers are expanding to include a free app that gives daily rewards specific to coronavirus with virtual scavenger-hunts and social elements to foster more robust social connections. SuperBetter is focused on helping with coronavirus-related anxiety and has had a 40% increase in usage time this past week. Importantly, as Superbetter creator Jane McGonigal — a concussion patient herself — says, “the game isn’t therapy, and shouldn’t be used in place of therapy.”
Online tools: licensed therapists and free chatbots
From our 4/2/20 newsletter
There are online options both for talk therapy with a licensed therapist and for helping people in crisis, according to an article in Vox. Online therapy companies TalkSpace and BetterHelp are experiencing increasing use, as is the nonprofit, volunteer-based Crisis Text Line. There are also artificial intelligence chat tools for mental health, such as Woebot, a free app that provides cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is one of the therapies advocated for concussions by the International Consensus on Concussion in Sport. A study of Woebot published in JMIR Publications found “Conversational agents appear to be a feasible, engaging, and effective way to deliver CBT.” Wysa, another chatbot, is promising that during the pandemic “AI chat, and tool packs for anxiety and isolation support will remain free.”
