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Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

roadmaptogrow.com

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#31
post #15

I like the gamified approach. I'm starting to think of doing similar for some productivity ideas I have. Too much going on to start something new though.

Ah but you don't have to; there's a number of gamified apps out there already. It doesn't sound like you need any help with productivity if you've already got too much going on though.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#32
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even see a privacy policy (not that those are in any way binding), but even it isn't doing that today who knows what will happen to the data they're collecting/have collected in the future, and like I said, smart phones aren't secure or private and they are designed to exploit users. If you need help with your mental health, please talk to a medical professional where you have at least some measure of protec…

Hm, they do collect user and usage data and they say they might share it with others. https://www.roadmaptogrow.com/privacy.html It's unfortunate. We’ve made a similar app (to combat sugar addiction), but we made a conscious decision to avoid collecting any information we don't have to. Our privacy policy is just that we get the data App Store shares with us and that when a user sends us an email we are going to keep…

> We’ve made a similar app (to combat sugar addiction), but we made a conscious decision to avoid collecting any information we don't have to.

That was intriguing to me (especially the respectful data collection). Found the app through your profile, but it’s not available in my country.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#33
post #16

This is essentially a medical device for administering behavioral therapy to treat social anxiety, and I don't see any indication that it was developed with any kind of input or review from experts in the field. I honestly feel that borders on irresponsible. A review from a psychologist specializing in social anxiety would be a good idea.

I don't see the issue personally. You don't need to be a psychologist to set people small achieveable goals and gamify them. That said, people that reach for this app should probably see a psychologist / psychotherapist first and foremost; while self-diagnosis is valid to a point and apps (or self-help books for that matter) may help and provide comfort, there may be more to one's mental health issues that an app won…

The small goal setting is the happy path of its usage. As you rightfully notice, those actually in need of such app should seek real treatments and gamification could be part of them - if and only if those doctors recommend it. Otherwise I can imagine the app also building (untreated) frustration if some goals are not correct for whatever reason, and also frustration because some would think they get real treatment while they're not. Just guessing as I'm not a psychologist.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#34
I appreciate the effort but can't help feeling the app trivializes and infantilizes the issue of 'social anxiety' with it's one-size-fits-all approach. There may be many reasons a person has social anxiety. Maybe they were severely abused and learned to be fearful of people. Maybe they have autism and find themselves anxious trying to communicate with neurotypical people. Maybe they're just... shy and haven't been in the world enough. We really don't know what the issue is and I do think the context matters if you're trying to help.

Apps like this are asking for trouble because rather than having people invest in an approach that may work (like a clinical psychologist) they try something like this and end up coming away feeling alone and let down. Maybe now the person won't bother to seek real help because they feel it will be more of the same. I think if you're going to venture into ad hoc mental health treatment you ought to know what you're doing. And I can't say I think the author does here.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#35

I appreciate the effort but can't help feeling the app trivializes and infantilizes the issue of 'social anxiety' with it's one-size-fits-all approach. There may be many reasons a person has social anxiety. Maybe they were severely abused and learned to be fearful of people. Maybe they have autism and find themselves anxious trying to communicate with neurotypical people. Maybe they're just... shy and haven't been in…

I fully agree, also on the practical side it's likely there are rational reasons why not to do a certain activity. E.g. about sharing a side project, maybe the person cannot really stand up for an idea, in fact it might be hard to explain without the right context and would stop the project despite being doable. Life isn't a computer game anyway...

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#36
post #15

I like the gamified approach. I'm starting to think of doing similar for some productivity ideas I have. Too much going on to start something new though.

Ah but you don't have to; there's a number of gamified apps out there already. It doesn't sound like you need any help with productivity if you've already got too much going on though.

Definitely a red ocean market.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#37

I appreciate the effort but can't help feeling the app trivializes and infantilizes the issue of 'social anxiety' with it's one-size-fits-all approach. There may be many reasons a person has social anxiety. Maybe they were severely abused and learned to be fearful of people. Maybe they have autism and find themselves anxious trying to communicate with neurotypical people. Maybe they're just... shy and haven't been in…

I share your concern about using an app to deal with a psychological problem, but I think a counterpoint to your concern about this app being one-size-fits-all is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The central premise of CBT is that it doesn't really matter what the roots of the behaviour a patient wants to change are. Reprogramming our behaviours is enough.

This is really the opposite of the old Freudian ideas that a therapist must get to the root of the problem (which might have been in childhood) before progress can be made on the neurosis.

Perhaps the author here is approaching social anxiety from the CBT perspective.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#38
post #16

This is essentially a medical device for administering behavioral therapy to treat social anxiety, and I don't see any indication that it was developed with any kind of input or review from experts in the field. I honestly feel that borders on irresponsible. A review from a psychologist specializing in social anxiety would be a good idea.

TLDR; creator should get a psychologist behind this project to avoid negative views. Disclaimer: I do not mean to belittle the author of the comment above in any way. I'm sharing my views on why I find it absurd to call a mental health tool like this irresponsible without a greenlight from a psychologist. I don't understand how people find these things so irresponsible. It's the same with using an LLM for therapy. Ma…

> It's the same with using an LLM for therapy. Many therapists are furious with that, regardless of how effective it has been for many people.

I doubt therapists would get furious at people getting better, regardless of the mechanism, in the same way that doctors wouldn't be furious about a weird trick to cure rheumatism, the common cold, or any other malady.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#39
post #28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really fantastic! Ofcourse the techy in me wishes for a one time payment to selfhost the data but know it's the openai bits that are expensive :) I would love a way for this to be fed into my Obsidian daily journal. You're actually inspiring me to see if something similar is available for obsidian. One small feedback, if I'm on the add an entry page and I swipe back it closes the app.

Also please don't hide the iOS button from me when I'm on Android :) I had to double check from desktop if iOS was available before sending to a friend.

That’s a great idea. Glad you like it! You can actually export your diary on the profile page and it will give you a tree of mp3 and txt entries along with a nice pdf. Hopefully this will be enough for you to work with obsidian.

Re: Show HN: Roadmap – A Personal Growth Game for Social Anxiety

#40

I appreciate the effort but can't help feeling the app trivializes and infantilizes the issue of 'social anxiety' with it's one-size-fits-all approach. There may be many reasons a person has social anxiety. Maybe they were severely abused and learned to be fearful of people. Maybe they have autism and find themselves anxious trying to communicate with neurotypical people. Maybe they're just... shy and haven't been in…

I share your concern about using an app to deal with a psychological problem, but I think a counterpoint to your concern about this app being one-size-fits-all is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The central premise of CBT is that it doesn't really matter what the roots of the behaviour a patient wants to change are. Reprogramming our behaviours is enough. This is really the opposite of the old Freudian ideas that a th…

> I think a counterpoint to your concern about this app being one-size-fits-all is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is absolutely a one-size-fits-all solution though, and in my opinion quite harmful in many ways. The core premise of CBT is more or less "it's all in your head". I'm sure for some people it is, but for many (myself included when I tried it), it is absolutely not all something I could just handwave away with positive thinking.

CBT comes down to just sucking it up and accepting your place in life, when for many people it's that very place in life that is destroying their mental health and the right thing to do isn't to suck it up, it's to make concrete changes to their life and get out of that situation. However, CBT is cheap to provide, so is the darling of health systems the world over. Just do some colouring in while thinking about how great life is really folks, the world burning around you is keeping you warm.

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