Log anxiety attacks, take control of them with Worry Watch
Worry Watch is an app that acts as a journal for tracking moments of worry, anxiety or panic. You log moments throughout your day when you're feeling anxious or nervous and what the outcome eventually was. Overtime, the app shows you a break-down of all your moments of anxiety to help you better understand and perhaps cope with these issues as well as whether they were even worth worrying about or not. It's available for iPhone and iPad for US$1.99.
As someone who suffers with anxiety, I was eager to test this app out to see its features and if it overall really works by helping me to see what I struggle with at a glance. Worry Watch's home screen is blank until you hit that Plus icon on the top right to add a new event. Here you type in a title, choose a date and optionally add a reminder and notes. That's where the similarities to a regular calendar or journaling app end. There's two additional fields in Worry Watch for Context and the outcome of the situation, which become very important to the app and hopefully down the line, your health.
If you tap "Context," you have six categories to choose from: Career, Family, Finance, Health, Other and Social. You choose based on which aspect of life is affecting this particular moment of anxiety. The app allows for complete customization of these as well in the Settings. I decided to change the "Other" context to "Unknown" for the occasional bursts of anxiety or panic some people may experience that seem to have absolutely no reason or purpose.
Along the bottom are three additional views: Filter, Data and Settings. The filter displays your entire list of logged anxieties on the home page the way you want them organized: by outcome, context, date or day. The Data page provides charts for outcome, context or date to help you determine how often your anxiety might not have been necessary based on outcome or perhaps in what contexts you seem to develop fear the most. Self-awareness is key to overcoming anxiety.
I've only been using Worry Watch for a short period of time and I can already tell from experience that down the line it's going to be extremely useful. I logged a few issues over the past few days and seeing the outcome pie chart essentially inform me that my worries were all unwarranted is gratifying. Tools like these are essential for controlling yourself in the future and not letting anxiety get the best of you.
Settings features the ability to set a passcode and restrict access to your journal, customize contexts as previously mentioned, set the default outcome and a few other options to suit your tastes.
I highly recommend that anyone with an anxiety disorder, panic disorder or even just those who find themselves worrying more often than they should give Worry Watch a go. The benefits it brings for self-awareness and a better understanding of your issues are immensely useful and reassuring. Get Worry Watch in the App Store for $1.99.
