New iPhone app helping tackle eating disorders

The true potential of technology has been realised through the creation of an iPhone app that helps support those with eating disorders.

No longer just a source of entertainment, iPhones are now being looked into by medical professionals as sources of apps that aren’t just for games and social networking.

Jenna Tregartha, a Phd Researcher at the University of Wollongong, created the “Recovery Road” app to provide those suffering from anorexia nervosa and bulimia with the right support tools from the privacy of their own phone.

The 25-year-old had witnessed her close friend repeatedly fail to record what she was eating and feeling on paper when advised by her therapist, and so felt an app would be an appropriate means to provide round-the-clock assistance to other girls in the same situation.

"These girls have these critical moments where they have a really extreme urge to binge or purge," she said.

"And we are catching them in that very moment and doing therapy on the spot, when they’re alone to get them through that moment, whereas if you’re seeing a therapist once a week you just don’t get that sort of support."

The app has received so much endorsement, including from The Butterfly Foundation, that Tregartha has suspended her PhD to continue her work in California.

After previously being accepted into the Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship at Stanford University for her idea, she has accepted another opportunity at Stanford to become a Design for Health Service Innovation Fellow.

Butterfly Foundation CEO Christine Morgan said that technology was playing an increasingly supportive counselling role for eating disorders.

“A smartphone application to support sufferers while they are in treatment could be a valuable aid to their recovery and provide an accessible and non-judgmental tool for many sufferers,” Morgan said.

Although the app does not replace face-to-face therapy, it does offer private support for the days in-between therapy sessions.

Features include an easy and accessible food, mood and thought diary and schedule reminders for users, as well as a way to personalise their recovery program, construct a daily meal plan and track their progress.

Recovery Road also gives users the opportunity to connect with others for support, and rewards them with iTunes songs for logging entries.

One in 12 Australian women are expected to have a serious eating disorder at some point in their lives but they rarely tell their families or friends.

Tregarthen said she hopes Recovery Record will be “in the tool kit of every eating disorder therapist in America, and in the hands of the countless women who are toughing it out alone.” She also said she has already been recently told by more than 20 girls that they had signed up for therapy after the app helped them realise they had an eating disorder.

A 19-year old Melbournian user, who wished to remain anonymous, affirmed the success of the app and told news.com.au: “I finally found a place where I’m accepted, where everyone wants the same thing. We encourage one another, and we support when someone is having a bad day.”

The app is available for download on the iPhone, iPod Touch, the iTunes app store and Android.