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Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

shimmer.care

231–240 of 283 posts

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#231
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Coaching works best for those who are ready for forward movement" Meaning "if our product doesn't work, it's really your fault"

I read it as “you get out of it what you put into it”

Exactly. The coach cannot do the work for you, but will support you along the way.

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#232
post #56

I absolutely adore this. Gonna message you Christal and Vikram, but what a lovely, thoughtful, difficult, energetic show HN. Having spent years battling through medical services and alternatives, and doing self work, and being in community to handle this, it's such a breath of fresh air to see it being done well and in celebration of what ADHD can be.

Thank you, anonymous person! I appreciate the recognition a lot. I have personally gone through many routes as well, in support of my ADHD, and I hope to be able to continue creating & working on a piece of the solution that is beneficial to the community! My favorite part about work is hearing success stories or members working through challenges. It's an honor to be a part of their ADHD journey!

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#233
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both PTSD and ADHD (and any other mental "disorder") are _defined as_ a list of symptoms, and do not imply different root causes. see e.g. "The hidden links between mental disorders" https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00922-8 available on sci-hub "Since the 1950s, psychiatrists have used an exhaustive volume called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, currently in its fifth edition. It lists all…

Yes, they do imply different root causes. PTSD requires a root cause of experiencing trauma. ADHD is not PTSD because it is not caused by trauma, and therefore therapy to deal with childhood trauma will not benefit people with ADHD. It is, however, very true that they can look the same. I work with kids who have been through trauma and it is only on the order of years since people started recognizing that in these ki…

Therapy to deal with childhood trauma can absolutely benefit people with ADHD. Having ADHD doesn't magically make you immune to PTSD or other impacts of childhood trauma. It just means you also have ADHD. I know this because I have both ADHD and C-PTSD, and the ADHD was very, very present by the time the trauma started. Trauma symptoms exacerbate ADHD symptoms, and often vice versa. Both need to be treated. If kids' ADHD symptoms improve with trauma treatment, that doesn't necessarily mean they never had ADHD. It just means their overlapping symptoms might be less difficult to handle or, just as likely, mask. Ignoring the reality of overlap between trauma and ADHD serves only to erase people who have both. It benefits no one.

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#234

That’s a lot of text for a landing page targeting people with ADHD. After a quick skim of it, I still don’t know why shimmer is any different than any other e-therapy service. Edit: just noticed you mentioned the stream lining of your site in your also very-long-post. The sign up is a type form. Why? That’s actually another barrier to signing up, and it feels weird being “off site”.

Thank you—we have received this feedback a few times, and will definitely be decreasing the size and amount of text on our homepage. With 2 FTE (me and my co-founder & CTO Vikram), we haven't gotten around to it yet (but it's high on our list!). I think right now the website reflects a bit of my writing/speaking style, which is a bit of "oversharer" but working on changing that.

The biggest difference between Shimmer & e-therapy is that we offer Coaching. Coaching is a partnership for action—for goal-oriented action. You partner with your coach and make changes in your life to reach those goals: e.g. you may be perfecting your morning routine or working on your habits for work-from-home, whatever it may be. For e-therapy, or therapy, it's more about unpacking past to present, talking, processing, etc.

Lastly, for Typeform, we are also working on moving off of it, bad reason but also because we are a lean team and test each part of our flow first (with 3rd party services) and have slowly been migrating to build in house for parts most important. Right now many of our priority features are focused on member experience with coaching for building in-house.

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#235

I don't really understand what this could do. If you have ADHD, you can know everything in your head and still fail to put it into practice. Are there productivity hacks that can overcome that?

I love this question! This is the exact problem (or one of them) that we're solving. All the info is out there, but it's about practice. With your coach, you'll be experimenting each week with different skills or habits and trying to arrive at the system that works best for you. Your coach will help you prioritize & keep you accountable, but also help you remove roadblocks and learn from reflections. There are also "hacks" as well that our coaches and members share with each other, for sure.

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#237
post #131

idk much about this, maybe it's really great, but i get a lot of instagram ads from a lot of no-name companies preying on people with ADHD, and their tendency to forget. they all follow a similar cringe tiktok formula "I have ADHD, after using XYZ, i've become so organized and productive!". their aim is to hit the user with a high subscription cost after a short trial. one of the scummier ads i've been shown is for "…

I've seen the same ads, and we definitely don't advertise to "cure" ADHD in any way. We actually don't even do a free trial, as we want our members to be committing to the coaching process intentionally. We try to make our processes the opposite of predatory—e.g. if a member is inactive for 40+ days, we check with their coach and automatically cancel them. If they forget and tell us when the bill comes, we refund them.

Unfortunately ADHD-specialized therapists are few and far between, especially once you layer in insurance. We are working on creating recommendations & databases of other ADHD-specialized helping professions like therapists to informally connect our members to when they need that!

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#238
post #104

Hi Christal and Vikram — I'm working on something in the same space but for autism and social skills. I'd love to hear more about how you went through the process for HSA/FSA eligibility.

Yes, definitely! Would love to chat and hear more about what you're building, and share whatever we can to help. Email us directly at hi@shimmer.care, both Vikram & I get emails from there!

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#239
post #104

Hi Christal and Vikram — I'm working on something in the same space but for autism and social skills. I'd love to hear more about how you went through the process for HSA/FSA eligibility.

I assume this is basically their main "secret sauce". I wouldn't count on it being shared.

We have a community of ADHD, Autism, and generally mental health founders that we build alongside of. Starting a startup is hard, especially when you're mission-driven, so we love helping wherever we can and will take the help we can get to! It's a big, interrelated problem we're solving and we need to work together to get us closer (because we are VERY far off).

Re: Show HN: Shimmer – ADHD coaching for adults, now on web

#240
post #164

It seems like so much of the confusion and distrust just comes from using the term "ADHD". Why not just talk about "focus", "motivation", etc.? You can still SEO the shit out of your product with more terms like "ADHD", "dopamine", "discipline", etc. and not have to wade through all this vitriol associated with insinuating licensed treatment of a medical disorder as a hook / marketing ploy.

You’ll find that ADHD is a really hot topic at the moment. Everyone I know is getting diagnosed and the stigma is disappearing. It’s actually to the point that you will get cancelled if you question the “science”.
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