When it comes to mental health, there are millions of people suffering from issues knowingly as well as unknowingly around the world. Despite this, there is still a strong stigma about this topic. This is not only because of the lack of information but also because of the orthodox thinking of people who give lesser importance to mental fitness and health, along with the introversive and non-trusting behaviours formed by it. How might we find a way to stop from people going to the deep end by taking precautions to prevent depression?
Knowing how it feels to be in depression and also knowing what causes it, I feel that there is always a way to prevent it. I somewhere found that what helped me get out of depression was who I am as a person. What helped was to speak out about everything and to think over it in a radical way along with a person to hear you out and reflect. And thus I decided to try and bring it out to be of help to others who face similar issues. But why ail a wound after it is done, rather take precautions to never cause it. So here I am with a thesis project to find a precaution/way of preventing mental issues using my knowledge about human psychology and technology.
MIND+ is a platform built while keeping in mind the importance of mental health and problems that can cause mental issues. It aims at strengthening an individual by making them more independent and self-sufficient. This platform acts not only as a prevention measure but also as a helping hand in the healing. Since mental health is equally as important as physical health, this app aims to become a daily driver for people in need of it just like Apple Fitness+. The app comes with certain functions that help an individual develop new habits to overcome self-doubt, demotivation, feeling of failure, loneliness, dependency on others etc. while motivating them and always pushing forward to do better and build faith in themselves.
No two individuals are alike and thus this being more of a psychologically-based project, it is difficult to have a completely proven solution that suits all. Having this solution as an app helps to keep it growing and developing according to the user's needs. It also adds to having more personalised solutions. Going further one of the biggest challenges is to make it more acceptable to the people and also something that does not impose any mental issues but is a companion to help them not fall prey to any. The choice to not develop an entirely new device but an app is to think about its ecological effect and also to make it more affordable and thus more accessible to everyone.
Now the plan ahead is to figure out the details and the user journey of this concept. To test out its usability from various channels and to make it a realistic solution for the problems which I am trying to tackle. To build upon it using the core ideas of the Apple ecosystem and to make it integrable for their devices. I chose Apple Inc. as it is today one of the leading influencing brands that also focuses on the wellbeing of the people and has a well-developed ecosystem to help this solution grow. As I am currently working on this project, I appreciate all feedback and questions from everyone. If you are interested in this project, please feel free to get in touch with me here.
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