Are you stressed and don’t know why?
by Dr. Sara Simblett
Perhaps you’ve completely missed the early warning signs and now you’re feeling full-on overwhelmed, or maybe your body is reacting in weird ways — stomach pains one day, a headache the next, but your doctor is telling you you’re physically fine!
You’re listening to the same song over and over again, knowing that there’s something about those sad lyrics that resonate with how you’re feeling and you’ve stopped replying to messages from friends because it all feels too much.
These are all situations I’ve found myself in and I’ve always wondered if there might be a way to better understand my mind, body and behaviour, a way that does not rely on me becoming even more aware than I already am, that I sometimes have mental health problems.
For a long time I searched for answers to this question through psychology. I researched the theory, went to the best universities I could find, and trained to be a clinical psychologist.
But something was not right.
Something was missing.
We still rely on people recognising and reporting their signs of becoming unwell. It was while working in a post-doctoral researcher role that I found hope for a new approach.
Then I started dreaming…
What if one day you could download an app to your phone, give it permission to track your movements, your daily interactions, your music listening habits, your physical vitals and, for a short period, tell it how you feel each day, and after a while, it feeds back to you the things you do that keeps you well?
What if it also gave you a friendly nudge to reach out for more support? And did all of this before you got to the point where the stress became too much?
This is how I came to be involved in Devas, and is exactly what we are trying to do.
I work with a fantastic team (Michael Heap - CEO, Zach Blender - Head of Product, and Dr. Sagar Jilka - Lead for Data Science), all with their own personal journeys for getting here, and we share a vision to reach as many people as possible to prevent and manage mental health problems.
We are developing the technology to make this possible and we believe this is the future.
Come and join us, sign up now and be first to try Devas when we launch.
Dr. Sara Simblett is a Clinical Psychologist for the NHS and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. She holds an MSc and PhD in Neuropsychology from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge respectively and is a Co-founder and Chief Medical Advisor at Devas.
