My Fitbit Sense Thought I Was Exercising, but It Was Actually an Anxiety Attack
Wearables won’t replace your therapist, but they could help with mental health
From pseudoscience mood-altering wearables to a wearable that lets your boss know when you’re unhappy, the tech industry is desperate to bring fitness trackers into the world of mental health. But are gadgets capable of translating physical health data into mental health improvements? To find out, I spent a few weeks with a Fitbit, tracking not just my body’s health, but monitoring my mental health as well.
I opted to use the Fitbit Sense, which packs both a heart rate monitor and an electrodermal activity (EDA) monitor to detect minor variations in skin temperature. The Sense uses this data to create a daily report on how well you’re managing your stress. My goal was to see how these tools would respond to someone with an anxiety disorder like mine and whether they could help me manage my condition more effectively.
None of the Fitbits, including my Fitbit Sense, have any kind of real-time stress meter. This seems to be by design, and my experience quickly showed why. At first, I tried keeping an eye on my heart rate, which was validating during a couple incidents when my anxiety noticeably spiked. In one instance, I received a…
