CW: This post talks about addiction, specifically alcoholism, in general and vague terms.
This app suggestion comes courtesy of my friend and excellent pharmacist, Ashley. Ashley runs a non-profit that works to fight stigma and empower people with mental health diagnoses to share their stories without fear of judgment called We Matter Too. Ashley has also been sober from alcohol for more than 1,000 days, which is amazing!
DayCount is an app that helps you keep track of how long you have gone since you reset the tracker. So, for Ashley, she started the timer when she decided not to drink alcohol anymore. It then tells you, down to the second, how long it has been.
When you set up your goals, you decide what you want your timer to look like and how you want to label it. You can choose from different themes depending on your aesthetic preferences. If you purchase the upgraded version of the app, you can choose from your own photographs as a theme, which I think is particularly cool because you can choose an image that motivates you with this particular goal.
When I downloaded this app to try it out, I was a little apprehensive. Not everyone benefits from full abstinence – some might want to cut back on a habit without quitting all together. This is a valid goal, and each person considering using this app gets to decide what their needs are.
It seems like the app developers thought of this also! When you set up the timer, you can choose to exclude certain days. For example, you could say that you want to stop drinking alcohol on weekdays, and you would not have to re-set your timer if you had a cocktail on a Friday night.
Of course, you can always specify your goal; instead of “Days since my last drink,” you could label your goal, “Days since I had more than one drink,” or whatever fits your needs.
You can also have multiple goals, so if you are trying to stop or cut down on using more than one substance, you can track each one separately. This could help you notice specific triggers, withdrawal, et cetera, for each one.
If you are trying to increase a habit, DayCount can help with that, too! Maybe you live alone, and you want to make sure you interact with another human at least once per day. Maybe you want to leave your house daily, or do stretches, or eat breakfast every day. Instead of re-setting the timer when you do something, you re-set it on days you have not done that thing.
This is a great resource for building or breaking habits. The free version seems to be great on its own, with some helpful upgrade options based on your needs.