Just ordered an Apple Watch (Series 8): Mental health uses?

[The Cockney Rebel]

As per the title.

Just came out of hospital, due to something I did because of my mental health.

Need to turn my life around, and thought the AW would help me to do so.

Apart from Apple Fitness, what other steps (no pun intended) do you think I could benefit from, re the Apple Watch?

Wishing you all well, and thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[DD88]

It feels good to treat yourself now and again, if that’s the purpose and reason as to why you purchased the watch then I hope it serves you well. Just focus on your mental health more importantly if possible

 

[fridayxiii]

I've found Mindfulness to be a useful feature. You can set your # of notifications or sessions per day and use that as a reminder to take timeout from whatever is going on & focus on your breath for a minute (or two or three minutes) or do some light meditation, be mindful of certain things.

Good luck to you OP.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

It feels good to treat yourself now and again, if that’s the purpose and reason as to why you purchased the watch then I hope it serves you well. Just focus on your mental health more importantly if possible

Thank you for your kind words, my friend.

You’re right, treating one’s self gives you a little boost.

I’ve returned AWs before, but I’ll just keep this one. I have insomnia, so sleep tracking will be useful.

Wishing you well.

 

[Howard2k]

The new medication tracking is pretty excellent too.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I've found Mindfulness to be a useful feature. You can set your # of notifications or sessions per day and use that as a reminder to take timeout from whatever is going on & focus on your breath for a minute (or two or three minutes) or do some light meditation, be mindful of certain things.

Good luck to you OP.

Many thanks, friend.

Are you a long time AW owner?

I’ve returned them before, and haven’t really given them a chance to grow on me.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

The new medication tracking is pretty excellent too.

Thanks for that.

I’ll use it for my antidepressant & antipsychotic.

 

[bricktop_at]

Keep it this time, you won’t regret it. Wear it in good health🙂

 

[Expos of 1969]

Hope you are recovering. Focus on your health daily but also enjoy diversions which bring a smile to your face.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Keep it this time, you won’t regret it. Wear it in good health🙂

Hello, buddy!

You’re always so kind.

Thank you 👍.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Hope you are recovering. Focus on your health daily but also enjoy diversions which bring a smile to your face.

Many thanks, friend.

Wishing you well, also.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I ordered a silver SS with a size 5 starlight solo loop.

I have two braided solo loops, size 5, which fit me correctly. I ordered a size 5 in the starlight solo loop, will it fit the same?

Thanks.

 

[bobjonesco]

As per the title.

Just came out of hospital, due to something I did because of my mental health.

Need to turn my life around, and thought the AW would help me to do so.

Apart from Apple Fitness, what other steps (no pun intended) do you think I could benefit from, re the Apple Watch?

Wishing you all well, and thanks in advance for any responses.

Use it with some AirPods for music and audio books and go for long walks without your phone.

 

[JM]

Well one extremely helpful thing that makes day to day life easier is the swipe up from bottom to use the Ping iPhone. It makes the phone ring to be easier to find.

So helpful when I lose my phone in the house.

Doing physical activity (exercise, walking, whatever) is very helpful for mental health.

The watch gives reminders for stand (which is really a “get up and move around for a few seconds”)

There’s health trends every week that tells you if you’re doing better or worse towards fitness goals. You could set a goal of “I’m going to walk 8000 steps a day” or “I’m going to burn X amount of calories” and the Watch could be a tool to assist in reaching those goals.

I found the Watch very helpful when I wanted to lose weight, and the activity rings gave me something visual to work towards everyday taking walks, getting heart rate up.

Good luck! And remember that the Watch won’t be any sort of savior… it’s a great tool that can assist in physical health (and mental health! With the mindfulness, which I agree is extremely helpful).

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Use it with some AirPods for music and audio books and go for long walks without your phone.

Thanks.

I used to run, so I could start by walking.

I live near to plenty of greenery, so going for a relaxing walk would be beneficial, both physically & mentally.

 

[ShadowJade]

As per the title.

Just came out of hospital, due to something I did because of my mental health.

Need to turn my life around, and thought the AW would help me to do so.

Apart from Apple Fitness, what other steps (no pun intended) do you think I could benefit from, re the Apple Watch?

Wishing you all well, and thanks in advance for any responses.

Learn to wear it while sleeping, (use Theater Mode in control center to turn off all inadvertent lights and notifications), and use Autosleep app to measure and react to all sleeping issue. Change behaviors to get better and better sleep readings...well rested individuals trend toward better mental health. Challenge yourself daily to accomplish any wellness goals, use the breath app while forces you to stop and meditate at regular times. I load my favorite music playlists to my watch and sync my Airpods Pro to it. I typically only wear one Airpod because I don't want to isolate myself too much from the real world. Any, and I mean any followup questions, search for "iphone tricks" on FB, it is a group with 245,000 members...I am the lead admin...I will answer any questions sent my way. Good luck.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Well one extremely helpful thing that makes day to day life easier is the swipe up from bottom to use the Ping iPhone. It makes the phone ring to be easier to find.

So helpful when I lose my phone in the house.

Doing physical activity (exercise, walking, whatever) is very helpful for mental health.

The watch gives reminders for stand (which is really a “get up and move around for a few seconds”)

There’s health trends every week that tells you if you’re doing better or worse towards fitness goals. You could set a goal of “I’m going to walk 8000 steps a day” or “I’m going to burn X amount of calories” and the Watch could be a tool to assist in reaching those goals.

I found the Watch very helpful when I wanted to lose weight, and the activity rings gave me something visual to work towards everyday taking walks, getting heart rate up.

Good luck! And remember that the Watch won’t be any sort of savior… it’s a great tool that can assist in physical health (and mental health! With the mindfulness, which I agree is extremely helpful).

Many thanks for the detailed advice.

I love my podcasts, so could listen to them whilst walking.

I’ll pay the £5 per month for cellular, so I can leave my iPhone at home and partially disconnect.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Learn to wear it while sleeping, (use Theater Mode in control center to turn off all inadvertent lights and notifications), and use Autosleep app to measure and react to all sleeping issue. Change behaviors to get better and better sleep readings...well rested individuals trend toward better mental health. Challenge yourself daily to accomplish any wellness goals, use the breath app while forces you to stop and meditate at regular times. I load my favorite music playlists to my watch and sync my Airpods Pro to it. I typically only wear one Airpod because I don't want to isolate myself too much from the real world. Any, and I mean any followup questions, search for "iphone tricks" on FB, it is a group with 245,000 members...I am the lead admin...I will answer any questions sent my way. Good luck.

Thank you for your advice.

It’s really appreciated.

I’m not on Facebook, do you have a Twitter account? I haven’t used any social media for a while, but I have Twitter on my iPhone.

 

[1557750]

As per the title.

Just came out of hospital, due to something I did because of my mental health.

Need to turn my life around, and thought the AW would help me to do so.

Apart from Apple Fitness, what other steps (no pun intended) do you think I could benefit from, re the Apple Watch?

Wishing you all well, and thanks in advance for any responses.

Stay strong and be well. 👊🙂👍

Hard to add much to the suggestions above because they’re all great.

Wish you the best.

 

[JM]

Learn to wear it while sleeping, (use Theater Mode in control center to turn off all inadvertent lights and notifications), and use Autosleep app to measure and react to all sleeping issue. Change behaviors to get better and better sleep readings...well rested individuals trend toward better mental health. Challenge yourself daily to accomplish any wellness goals, use the breath app while forces you to stop and meditate at regular times. I load my favorite music playlists to my watch and sync my Airpods Pro to it. I typically only wear one Airpod because I don't want to isolate myself too much from the real world. Any, and I mean any followup questions, search for "iphone tricks" on FB, it is a group with 245,000 members...I am the lead admin...I will answer any questions sent my way. Good luck.

Ooh cool may join thanks

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Stay strong and be well. 👊🙂👍

Hard to add much to the suggestions above because they’re all great.

Wish you the best.

Thank you very much.

Wishing you well also, my friend.

 

[MLL63QNA]

Mental health has been my issue too for years, around 20 years. Lost my dad in 2008 and got myself in a depression spiral that lasted 5 years. Lost my job in 2009 and havent been able to get a job since. Been uneployed for 13 years 7 months. Lost my mom in 2021. Been really close to just ending it all and leaving earth behind. To me there is no gadget that would help me. Sold my apple watch recently because it served zero purpose in my life. Just sending worthless job applications is eating me alive and destroying me mentally. After thousands of applications Im still unemployed. I have one degree but it turned out to be worthless. I have no mental health to get a new degree. Just feeling worthless 24/7, parents are gone, no job in sight. No money. Havent even been in a reliationship yet and Im almost 37yo. Just wanted to post this because I could relate to OP.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Mental health has been my issue too for years, around 20 years. Lost my dad in 2008 and got myself in a depression spiral that lasted 5 years. Lost my job in 2009 and havent been able to get a job since. Been uneployed for 13 years 7 months. Lost my mom in 2021. Been really close to just ending it all and leaving earth behind. To me there is no gadget that would help me. Sold my apple watch recently because it served zero purpose in my life. Just sending worthless job applications is eating me alive and destroying me mentally. After thousands of applications Im still unemployed. I have one degree but it turned out to be worthless. I have no mental health to get a new degree. Just feeling worthless 24/7, parents are gone, no job in sight. No money. Havent even been in a reliationship yet and Im almost 37yo. Just wanted to post this because I could relate to OP.

Sending brotherly love.

Put it this way, I was just discharged from a psychiatric ward, follow a s*****e attempt.

Almost succeeded. Was found choking, had to be brought back to life, was on life support and had to be treated for pneumonia as fluid went back down and entered my lungs.

I couldn’t see any way out of the psychological pain.

I have EUPD & OCD.

I’m sorry you lost your parents, but I’m here for you if I can help? Sometimes it’s easier when speaking to someone that you do not know.

Feel free to send me a private message. I can’t replace your parents, but I’ll be your brother if you would like one.

🤜🤛

 

[fridayxiii]

Many thanks, friend.

Are you a long time AW owner?

I’ve returned them before, and haven’t really given them a chance to grow on me.

You're welcome 😊

I've had an AW for a bit over two years. i started with the AW3 (on closeout sale from my cellular carrier) then quickly traded for an SE 1 when released. I wanted a bigger screen so just got the 8 a few weeks ago.

The Apple Watch quickly became maybe my favorite Apple device. I use it to track my workouts and make closing the rings a daily goal. It's a sneaky way to motivate yourself to move more, but effective. Working from home, it's easy to get trapped in work and not realize how long I've been sitting, so I use the Stand notification and Mindfulness to move about & de-stress or refocus. I can't say the AW has been transformative, but I know I'm healthier overall for its presence on my wrist.

I hope you'll stick with it and make interaction with your Watch part of your daily routine. Even if you shut off email & text notifications (it's ok to unplug a bit 😉) the Stand, Breathe/Mindfulness, and Activity reminders add value to life.

Peace & Strength to you ☮️💪💙

 

[Violet_Antelope]

There have been some great suggestions here I don’t think I can add much to - the watch can be a useful tool for monitoring your wellbeing, and using it for music and podcasts is a good idea when you need to be distracted from your thoughts. One thing to beware of - don’t get too caught up in the metrics - they’re useful reminders not an indication of success or failure.

I’m truly sorry you’re hitting such a rough patch. I have severe OCD and know a little of how mental health issues can drive you to breaking point. Each day is a victory whether it has been tough or good. Use the tools that help you, but reach out to people who do as well. I’m rooting for you to find calmer times soon.