SuperBetter: Mental Health

I’ve barely used this app - in fact I just downloaded it today. But I can already tell that it will help me with my depression. I have fairly severe depression, so everything is a battle; therefore, doing these little challenges, like drinking a glass of water, not pinching your fat, hugging yourself, etc. make it feel like I’ve accomplished something, anything. This app makes necessary and helpful tasks into power-ups to be earned, and “bad guys” to be defeated. And when you have absolutely no motivation for anything, the idea of beating a challenge, getting points, and leveling up at least makes it easier to walk my dog, or get off the chair when I can’t seem to move. This may not help everyone, but I think it will certainly help me.

I’ve just started to use this app, but like it a whole lot already. It turns something like battling depression (a typically miserable endeavor) into an epic adventure. I can see how this app wouldn’t be for everybody, but if you’re a creative or imaginative type, it’s the best. Every day you give yourself power-ups and complete quests that help you on whatever personal journey you may be on. It doesn’t have to be depression; it could be anything you’re struggling with. The one drawback is that I didn’t care for any of the pre-made “powerpaks” of suggested power-ups, bad guys, and quests. For instance, sometimes a quest just involved completing certain power-ups. I didn’t see the point of that overlapping. Or with the bad guys, sometimes there was no instruction on how to “fight,” or it would be something vague, like “practice self compassion.” The saving grace of all this is that you don’t have to use these and can fully create your own tools to personalize the experience. It took some time but I enjoyed brainstorming my own bad guys with strategies to beat them and creating power-ups and quests that are relevant to my experience. Once I got these set up, the app became a lot more fun and useful. Overall, I think this is a great app for anyone who wants to add some fun and creativity to their personal struggles. Just be ready to add your own content to the mix.

This app if you actively use it, will be a life saver. I’ve been using it for years off and on. It helps put you in the right frame of mind to take on anything. Chronic Pain, family issues. It I went from a bedridden disfunctional disabled person with a pure negative attitude and absolute hopelessness to someone who was more positive, could deal with my pain and responsibilities and even started helping my own families issues as a true mother and wife. My relationships improved, the pain levels were more manageable and slightly less frequent. Nothing externally changed. My perspective changed and things slowly got better. I wouldn’t say I’m a superbetter person but definitely a better more functional one. The other thing I liked about it. Is that it’s customizable. You can created your own aspects of “the game”. Also, treating it like a game made it fun. Say you are an alcohol and want to put the 12 step program element in your challenges, if they don’t already have a pack for it. You can make one specific for you. Also, being a person with chronic migraines I was able to put in my triggers and plan how do deal with. I would recommend this application for anyone. Even just if you want a superbetter life than you already have.