First Thing: The Hospital. The User Story That Kept Me Up All Night
A friend who has lived with depression for years, and who also has ADHD, downloaded Dopamind. The next day, the first task she added was "go to the hospital." After putting it off for a long time, she finally got her psychiatry appointment. This is why I couldn't sleep that night.
It was 5:46 in the morning, and the sky was already light.
I was lying in bed and couldn't fall asleep. In the end I opened Dopamind and typed one line:
The sun's up and I still haven't slept
It replied: "Is something on your mind that's keeping you awake? Try not to put too much pressure on yourself."
Nothing was weighing on me, really. I was just too wired to sleep.
The First Task She Added
That evening, a friend told me something over WeChat.
She has lived with depression for a long time, along with some other mental health symptoms, and ADHD. She had known for ages that she should see a doctor. A long, long time. But she never went.
It wasn't that she didn't want to. She just couldn't get started.
Making the appointment, booking the slot, picking a time, leaving the house when it's time. To most people, each step is a small thing. But for someone being dragged down by depression and ADHD at once, all those small things stack up into a wall. On the other side of that wall is the help she needs most, and every day she was stuck on this side.
Then she downloaded Dopamind.
The next day, the first thing she typed into it was:
I'm going to the hospital next Friday. Please add it to my plan.
Dopamind replied, "Got it, I've created this task for you!" and a card appeared below: Go to the hospital.
(The screenshots show her original messages in Chinese.)
Just that one. No breakdown, no long plan. Just something that had been weighing on her for a long time, finally said out loud, and turned into a task she could see and that would remind her.
"That Means You've Been Thinking About This for a Long Time"
When she sent me the screenshot, this is what she said:
The first thing I did with your app
was make a doctor's appointment
😭😭😭
I replied: "That means you've really been thinking about this for a long time."
She said: "Yeah."
Then she added: "I just couldn't get started."
I know those words too well. I have ADHD myself, and I know "couldn't get started" isn't laziness, and it isn't not caring. It's the opposite. The more something matters, the heavier it gets, and the harder it is to move.
She said this was "the first request I made" in Dopamind: go to the hospital.
The Next Day, She Got the Appointment
The day after she downloaded the app, she booked an appointment with the hospital's psychiatry department. Slots there are hard to get, and she snagged one.
For a lot of people, it's just booking an appointment. For her, it was a step she had hesitated over for a long time, and finally took.
The last thing she sent me was: "Hehehe, thank you Dopamind."
I stared at that line for a long time.
Why I Couldn't Sleep
The whole time I've been building Dopamind, I've believed it could help people. Help them empty out a cluttered head, break big things into small ones, and give them a nudge when it's time.
But I never imagined the first thing it would help with would be something like this.
Not finishing a report. Not cleaning a room. A person finally reaching out for help with her own health.
Early that morning, I told Dopamind the whole story. It said: "Feedback like this carries more power and meaning than any data."
It was right. I've done a lot of data analysis and looked at a lot of retention curves. But no number has ever made me more certain this work is worth continuing than those few words: "the first thing was going to the hospital."
If You Have Something You've Been Putting Off Too
Maybe you have something like this too. It matters, you've thought about it for a long time, and you just can't take the first step.
Maybe it's seeing a doctor. Maybe it's calling someone. Maybe it's just replying to an email.
You don't have to figure out every step at once. Start by saying it out loud, and let it become a task you can see. We'll take the rest together.
Dopamind is not a medical tool, and it can't replace doctors or professional mental health support. If you're going through a really hard time, please reach out soon to someone you trust, a doctor, or your local crisis line. Taking that step to ask for help is a big deal in itself.
We'd also love to hear your story. What has Dopamind changed for you? I'd really like to know.
