as someone with a panic disorder/anxiety this would only feed in to the condition and cause people to become obsessed with the readings. I actually had to stop wearing my Apple Watch because I found myself consistently checking my heart rate when I started to feel panic which then created a vicious cycle of feeling panic, seeing heart rate go up which would bring more panic and I would check again to see if it went down as I tried to calm down...wash, rinse, repeat.
Every tool isn't for every person.
what's your tool for managing panic and anxiety?
When I had a problem with that my tool was basically data/information; because that allowed me to separate facts from what I felt, and sort of force myself through it. Take control of the situation by knowing when I was "acting stupidly". So either fake myself through a situation with other people around, or knowing when to excuse myself and avoid people.
To me an Apple Watch with this feature would have been a very great tool; or even just the Apple Watch as it is today would have been a help.
The panic attack warning going off all the time would probably give me another panic attack.
I honestly get a lil bit upset every time I see someone say that, because it perpetuates the idea that panic attacks are nothing more than what we talk about when we say that socially.
If you instead view if from the perspective of a serious debilitating problem, and not a sort of manageable inconvenience, then saying what you said is basically the same as saying that getting a notification about having a heart attack would be bad, because it'd give you a heart attack getting it. Which obviously would be a joke.
But when talking about "panic attacks", then the relatable thing would be the "panic attacks" that we talk about colloquially; which is as far from a real debilitating problem as a colloquially talked about "heart attack" (as in a minor scare).
There's also a matter of scale here… On the lesser side of "panic attack" your watch could simply ask you to do breathing exercises; and on the more serious side of things we have that if the watch can recognise a proper panic attack, then it can use that data to better differentiate between that and what actually is a potentially deadly physical problem (like a heart attack).
So, hey, this is absolutely a bit of a pet peeve for me, but there's also a serious side to it; and I think that it'd be a good thing if more people realised the good that a "panic attack-detector" could do in their watches. It might just be the thing that makes it possible for the watch to one day call an ambulance because it with close to 100% certainty detects you dying.
Does it help to know I am being treated for depression and social anxiety, and actual panic attacks are something I deal with, especially in crowded places?
I'm not doubting the utility of something that can warn about oncoming panic attacks, I was just making a somewhat self-deprecating joke.
Supposedly the hardware to perform measurements of oxygen in the blood is already in the Apple Watch 4 onwards. It’s just an issue of Apple getting its software certified by the medical authorities in various jurisdictions - which rightly is a demanding process.
Pulse oximeters use red and infrared light to make their measurements. The Apple Watch uses green. I don't know if it also uses infrared, as I can't see it. In any case, it's not likely that the current watch could reliably determine SpO2.
A medical device used to diagnose and/or treat a very contagious and potentially deadly virus that was not 100% accurate would be okay with you?
I understand and share your goal, but ,what you suggest is not okay regardless of who the company is.
If you are waiting for a medical treatment or diagnosis that is 100% accurate you’ll be waiting forever.
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To me an Apple Watch with this feature would have been a very great tool; or even just the Apple Watch as it is today would have been a help.
I'm not doubting the utility of something that can warn about oncoming panic attacks, I was just making a somewhat self-deprecating joke.