There's a (recovery) app for that

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While it's true that I've recently posted about the pitfalls of virtual recovery and I still believe that human contact is a really important part—perhaps the most important part of most recovery—I still can't help testing out the technology recovery gadgets.

The most recent thing I found was a recovery app (iPhone operating system only so far) called, suitably enough, iPromise. There are a sizable handful, maybe even a basketful of recovery apps out there, but this one caught my attention because a friend had it and because the promises are such an inspiration to me. I like being able to look at my phone and instantly be reminded of them.

iPromises isn't really about the promises, but a recovery logistics management app. The first thing you are prompted for when you open up the app is your recovery date. Then using the built-in calendar function of your iPhone, iPromises calculates your clean or sober days and then displays it every time you scroll through the main screen. It's nice to see and might even be a little relapse prevention: who would want to see that big red number go down to zero?

Another cool feature is the trigger reminder. It presents possible triggers and you indicate what triggers are trouble for you. Then it prompts you to fill in a daily accountabilty screen to see if you're in any kind of danger. It reminds me of the “failing to plan is planning to fail” of early recovery, with an easy way to circumvent that tendency.