After watching how addiction affected my stepfather and ravaged the lives of so many of my friends, I knew I had to do something. I grew up in the small town of Marion, Ohio. While it still exudes the historic charm of a simpler time, Marion is facing a very serious modern-day issue. Like many other communities in America, Marion has a heroin problem.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of people who tried heroin for the first time doubled between 2006 and 2012. Today, someone uses heroin in the U.S. about every 45 seconds, and those are just the people who admit to using it. There are undoubtedly many, many more who use heroin secretly, and my hometown is not immune. So many of my friends were falling prey to this destructive drug that I decided to get a doctoral degree in addiction psychology and literally make it my job to help addicts quit.
Want to Quit? There’s an App for That
I’ve learned through both personal experience and professional training that the people who are most likely to overcome addiction and stay clean are those with a strong social support network. That’s why I decided to develop an app that puts support in the palm of a recovering addict’s hands, 24 hours a day.
The addiction recovery app, which I created with a team of computer science students, is based on addiction medicine specialist Brad Lander’s theory of how the brain can be influenced by drugs and alcohol. The theory suggests that an addict’s higher brain function is in constant competition with lower brain function, or “squirrel brain,” which focuses solely on pleasure-seeking activities and blurs consequences of actions. To overcome addiction, patients need conscious reminders to adhere to their higher brain function and avoid the self-destructive tendencies of the “squirrel brain.”
How the App Works
There are other apps for addicts on the market, but unlike many others, this one is free of charge. I want it to be available to addicts without any barriers, and I worked hard to make it as comprehensive as possible, starting with an addict’s support group. Addicts can enter contact information for a 10-person support team and, in case of emergency, the app features a one-touch panic button, which immediately alerts the entire support team that the addict is in dire need of help.
At several points during the day, the app prompts addicts to rate their mood, urges and stress levels. The app shares this information with the support group so they can track the addict’s progress.
The app also asks addicts to pre-program times of the day during which they’re typically tempted to relapse, and sends them timely reminders to refrain from drug use. The app rewards sobriety with coins and offers testimonials from other recovering addicts to serve as motivation.
Plenty of Smartphones, Not Nearly Enough Treatment Facilities
Not long after I began interning at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center Talbot Hall, which is a renowned comprehensive drug and alcohol addiction treatment facility, I decided to develop an app to help addicts. I noticed many addicts who came into our facility seeking treatment used smartphones, regardless of socioeconomic status. While smartphone access is readily available among most addicts, access to treatment facilities is not. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there are about 14,500 drug treatment facilities in the U.S. However, between alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medicines, there are some 86 million Americans who battle substance abuse. That’s a ratio of one treatment facility for every 6,000 addicts, which is not nearly enough.
I’m hoping the heroin addiction recovery app can help bridge that gap by putting support in an addict’s hand 24 hours a day. Currently, the app is available for Android users. You can download it for free by going to Google Play or the Buckeye Software Vault. The app is called Squirrel Recovery.
Brandi Spaulding is a doctoral intern at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center .
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App Designed for Heroin Addicts Puts Help in the Palm of Their Hands originally appeared on usnews.com
