Can an AI app track my mental health progress?
By Siri Bandagiriye · It can give you a rough picture of how things are shifting, but time spent in an app isn't progress. Real progress shows up in your life: better sleep, a call to someone you love, a small step actually taken.
It can give you a rough picture of how things are shifting. But be careful what "progress" means. Time spent in an app is not progress.
The progress I care about shows up in your life. Are you sleeping a little better? Did you call your sister? Did you take the small step you planned?
Saati's journal keeps those small steps in your own words, so you can look back and see what actually moved.
What the research says
In a 30-day study of 234 users of a mood self-monitoring app, greater engagement predicted decreases in depression and anxiety and increases in well-being. The study had no control group.1
In a randomized trial of 14- to 24-year-olds, tracking mood, stress and coping on a phone increased emotional self-awareness, which lowered depressive symptoms.2
Written by Siri Bandagiriye
I've been a Buddhist monk and mindfulness teacher for 30 years, and for six years a chaplain with Correctional Service Canada, sitting with people in crisis. I built Saati in Halifax as a companion for the ordinary hard days. If you'd like to see what it's like, it's free to try.