“Most of the evidence suggests that addiction is probably a lifelong disease. In that sense it’s like diabetes or high blood pressure. There is a need is for sustained behavioral change over a lifetime. It isn’t enough to stop for a few weeks and think that’s going to solve a problem because the psychological and physical manifestations continue after the drugs have stopped being used,” said Dr. David Sack, CEO of Promises Treatment Centers and Elements Behavioral Health. Sack has nearly three decades of experience in clinical, research and administrative psychiatry.
Elements Behavioral Health is a US-based behavioral healthcare organization that owns and operates Promises Treatment Centers. These treatment centers became famous when celebrities including Ben Affleck, Robert Downey Jr. and Lindsay Lohan checked in to Promises for rehab from substance abuse. But whether they are celebrities or ordinary people, addicts are prone to relapse. So Elements Behavioral Health turned to technology to help support their clients throughout the lifelong recovery process.
“We really developed the iPromises Recovery Companion (http://ipromises.org) as a mobile application to help our own alumni and then we realized that it could have a much broader application,” Sack said. “The withdrawal from the drugs is just the start of the recovery process and it’s where treatment begins. Once someone has stopped using, there are a whole host of changes that can leave them vulnerable to relapse. It’s necessary to treat all the different aspects of addiction so that people have the best opportunity to stay clean and sober.”
Launched in June on the Apple App Store, there have been over 4,000 downloads of the iPromises Recovery Companion, reaching individuals in over twenty countries. Elements Behavioral Health has received hundreds of user remarks touting the app as a true accountability and support tool. The iPromises Recovery Companion allows those in recovery from addiction to keep a visual journal, contact friends for support, get a daily positive message and track accomplishments, challenges, moods, attitudes, behaviors and triggers. In some countries the app provides lists of public support meetings, but in the Kingdom it can be used to store and share the details of private support groups.
“One of the things we’ve learned about people with alcoholism, that we know continues even after people stop drinking, and which we think even occurs before they start drinking, is a condition called alexithymia. This is the inability to express their feelings,” explained Sack. “About forty percent of alcoholics who are not drinking have alexithymia which may be part of the reason that they are drawn to or attracted to alcohol because they really have trouble with their emotional experiences. The iPromises Recovery Companion endeavors to help cope with alexithymia.”
Recovering alcoholics are often stressed in many different ways. Due to alexithymia, they may not have any awareness of their feelings. The Recovery Companion app helps them see and track their emotions. If there is a change likely to cause anxiety, the individual can be alerted to get help quickly. Additionally, when an individual starts to use the app, he or she will be asked to enter in triggers — things which result in drug or alcohol abuse. While making daily journal entries, if any of these triggers appear, the app will remind the individual that additional support may be needed.
Over the next year, Elements Behavioral Health plans to continue to release updated versions of the current iPromises app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, as well as an Android version. Additionally, the mental health organization plans to develop mobile applications for impulse control disorders such as compulsive gambling, compulsive sexual disorders and possibly even eating disorders.
