Fighting existential anxiety with technology - Fall 2017
In a time where the global welfare is increasing, people's basic needs are satisfied and more complex needs of self actualization leads to increasing mental problems and existential anxiety. By caring for others, most don’t want to burden others with their mental problems. Afraid of making wrong decisions they are postponing to address the issue and instead try to find their own way out to attain a sense of control. Without guidance the mental problems might be both more intense and elongated than necessary.
I want people with existential anxiety to be rescued from their darkest moments and be guided towards a brighter future by momentarily comforting them and in the long run lead them to personal development.
To provide the momentary comfort the user a physical device was designed. The device works as a passive focus point; A pad breathing in your palm, a calming focus point. It also works as an active focus point; Based on research the pad has some shallow and some deep ridges on it which you can follow with your fingers to give you something to actively focus on if you wish.
To take the design to the next level it also provides a distant presence, when you squeeze, it give you two larger, deeper breathing pulses back from somebody that cares for you. It also provides automatic mapping of your anxiety since the device will keep track of when you have an anxiety attack and this will help you to understand your problems.
For the long term mental health improvement there is an app to guide you. You are encouraged to write down/dictate/illustrate your experience some time after an attack has occurred. This help you map out your problems for yourself or show to somebody that you would like to discuss it with.
Alongside with the option of writing down your anxiety experiences, there is also always an option to start to face your fears, starting different modules, bringing you one step at the time to get out of your anxiety.
Inside the relaxation module, breathing exercises work together with the physical device used for the stress reduction.
