AnxietyHelper

AnxietyHelper was my first app, and it was quite bad. It reached about 50k-ish people, and got a Tumblr following of 14k prior to pivoting it into my non-profit, Astra Labs.

I learned a lot from AnxietyHelper, main thing being the constant need to build software that self-cannibalizes. At first, it was one of the few free mental health resources available before we had a big cultural conversation around mental health care and accessibility.

Moreso, it was a pivotal learning in my career: to improve people's lives genuinely, focusing on mental health care and access is not enough. Safety, housing, economic opportunities, stability, love, care, forgiveness, accessibility, accountability, etc are also all neccessary mental health care.

Although I love mental health as a field and am glad I spent time there, the real work in improving lifes goes beyond reducing stigma or making meditiation more easy to do. AnxietyHelper was replaced with Aetheria in late 2020.