Category Archives: News

New Pandemic Edition of SuperBetter Promotes Mental Health During Coronavirus Crisis

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The Coronavirus pandemic is a crisis and source of stress & personal challenge. Nearly everyone on the planet is impacted. Most have felt a loss of normal, many will lose jobs, some will lose friends & loved ones. The mental, social, emotional and physical burden will be heavy. The surge in anxiety during the initial phase of the pandemic is just the beginning.

To help people around the world navigate the crisis, we just added a new power pack to the SuperBetter game.

The Stay Strong in a Pandemic power pack is for anyone who wants to overcome challenges and stay strong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities help players increase mental, social, emotional and physical resilience while following World Health Organization and CDC guidance to slow the spread of the virus.

The Stay Strong in a Pandemic power pack features Quests to complete each day, troublesome Bad Guys to battle, and resilience-building Power-ups to activate. It includes two of Jane McGonigal’s special Power-ups: The Power Breath and The Plus One Technique. 

Because the crisis is so new, we initiated the pandemic edition of SuperBetter by crowdsourcing ideas from the our amazing community. We learned about the biggest challenges faced so far and anticipated during the pandemic. The ideas and insights informed the new evidence-based activities. 

SuperBetter is a game played in real life to improve resilience, mental health and social-emotional learning. Everything in the SuperBetter game is backed by the science of resilience and challenge response growth. Playing SuperBetter can help players navigate the crisis, build whole-person resilience and achieve personal growth in the process. 

Published meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials show SuperBetter is among the most effective mobile apps validated for reducing anxiety and depression. 

“So many people are already struggling. We feel the urgency to help,” says Keith Wakeman, SuperBetter CEO. “Adding power packs and making the app available for free is our way of doing our part to help right away as we put plans in place to have greater impact in the future.”

We previously introduced the Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt power pack to help players and their friends strengthen social connections while physical distancing. 

Find Stay Strong in a Pandemic in the ‘Get Power Packs’ area of the SuperBetter apps (iOS, Android) or website.

Stay safe and healthy. We will get through this together.

Your allies at SuperBetter

Stay Strong in a Pandemic

The New Physical Distancing Game from SuperBetter

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Physical distancing game

We added a new physical distancing game to our popular app.

The new Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt creates social connection and emotional wellbeing as players stay-at-home and practice physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

The new game supports the recent change by the World Health Organization to the promote the practice of ‘physical distancing’ (vs. ‘social distancing’) to emphasize the need to physically – but not socially – separate from others.

SuperBetter is a resilience-building game that helps players go for epic wins in real life.

The Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt physical distancing game is the first of two new SuperBetter Power Packs to help players boost their resilience, mental wellbeing and social-emotional skills during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The second, now in development, is a Coronavirus Game to promote emotional, mental, social and physical resilience while following World Health Organization guidance. We recently crowdsourced ideas from the SuperBetter Community to inform the activities.

A week ago SuperBetter reported that new app downloads more than doubled and global app sessions surged 40% over the prior week.

“People around the world are feeling tremendous losses of normalcy, safety, connection and economic stability,” says Keith Wakeman, SuperBetter CEO. “Adding Power Packs and keeping the SuperBetter app this year are ways we can help right away while we work on plans for even greater impact.”

The Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt is a physical distancing game that increases social connection. It sparks positive emotions like curiosity, surprise and gratitude. The 2-week game challenges players to find one new thing every day without ever leaving their home. Players share their daily finds with friends, family, the SuperBetter Community, or on social media using hashtag #SuperBetterScavengerHunt.

Find The Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt in the ‘Get Power Packs’ area of the SuperBetter apps (iOS, Android) or website. Game on!

#StayAtHomeAndStaySafe

The SuperBetter Team

Physical Distancing Game Activity

Help Turn SuperBetter into a Coronavirus Game

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Coronavirus Game

The SuperBetter team is developing two new Power Packs in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The first – to be introduced next week – is a Physical Distancing Game to increase social connection while practicing physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. The second is the Coronavirus Game discussed in this post.

Navigating the realities of life during a pandemic is new to all of us. We need your help to adapt the SuperBetter game to help people thrive during the Coronavirus pandemic.

At SuperBetter we are grateful to be part of an amazing community willing to collaborate on big epic wins. This one is really big.

We want to turn SuperBetter into a Coronavirus game that helps people and communities around the world successfully managing the stress, disruption and uncertainty associated with COVID-19 while supporting public health strategies to inhibit its spread.

To support this epic win, we are creating a new Coronavirus Power Pack for the SuperBetter game. The Power Pack will have Power-ups to activate, Bad Guys to battle and Quests to complete.

The Power Pack activities will help players build mental, emotional, social and physical resilience as they follow World Health Organization and CDC Coronavirus guidelines. The Power Pack will be available for free in the SuperBetter apps and website.

You can help by reflecting on the challenges you anticipate due to Coronavirus and what is working for you right now. Think like a gamer and turn your ideas into Power-ups, Bad Guys and Quests. Have fun with it and don’t worry about making your ideas perfect.

Share your ideas here.

Back at SuperBetter HQ we will use the ideas to inform the creation of an evidence-based Power Pack for the SuperBetter game.

The SuperBetter game is backed by science. Published studies show that playing SuperBetter increases the seven mental, emotional and social measures scientifically linked to higher resilience. Meta-analyses show SuperBetter to be among the most effective mobile apps on the market for reducing anxiety. Nearly a million people have played SuperBetter so far. Its popularity, strong science and gameful approach makes SuperBetter a promising solution to help people around the world thrive during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you in advance for being an ally in this epic win of global magnitude!

Game on!

Please go here to share your ideas by Sunday, March 22, 2020.

The #TechForGood Design Principles Behind SuperBetter

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Built In just released an excellent story about the science, mission and #TechForGood design principles that make SuperBetter a usual suspect on media lists of best apps for mental health & wellbeing.

Built In is a respected tech industry publisher and community builder. Their vision is to connect the world through a shared passion for tech and the human need for purpose. Built In was excited to share the SuperBetter case study as a source of ‘Tech for Good’ insights for their community of product designers.

The title is “How to Gamify Wellbeing Without Missing the Point.”

You can read the story here.

SuperBetter gets highest score among physical activity game apps for including proven health behavior theory practices

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From left: Zombies, Run! 5K, SuperBetter, and Yoga Retreat were three of the apps/serious games assessed for health behavior theory (HBT) practices.

SuperBetter builds resilience to overcome tough situations and achieve goals that matter most. While best known for benefits related to mental health and recovery, one of the top 5 reasons for playing SuperBetter is to achieve epic wins related to working out or getting fit. 

In this study that analyzed and rated 52 exercise and physical activity games and apps for the inclusion of health behavior theory (HBT) principles, SuperBetter received the highest score by far, 76 out of a maximum score of 100. The average score across all apps included in the study was 14.98 out of 100. The study was published in the journal JMIR Serious Games.  

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SuperBetter receives highest marks in evaluation of apps for chronic pain

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Chronic pain is one of the top 10 reasons people play SuperBetter. 

Now, a recent study evaluating 19 smartphone apps found SuperBetter to be one of three apps that fulfilled the highest number of best-practice criteria for supporting the self-management of chronic pain. These best practices include strategies such as self-efficacy building, self-tailoring of activities, goal setting & planning, problem solving and social support. Researchers screened a total of 939 apps to find the 19 that met the criteria as a chronic pain app to be included in the study.

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Concussion sufferers can access the daily activities from the SuperBetter Clinical Trial for free

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via The Ohio State University (osu.edu)

Those struggling with post-concussion symptoms now have an app-based resource for support during their concussion recovery. SuperBetter is making available, at no cost, the Power Packs (i.e. daily activities) developed for the clinical trial that evaluated the impact of using SuperBetter among concussion patients with persistent symptoms. People with a concussion or mild to moderate traumatic brain injury can access these Power Packs in the SuperBetter app or website using the special code found near the end of this post. 

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SuperBetter partners with Psych Hub to provide videos about mental health

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People around the world play SuperBetter to be stronger and more successful at achieving goals and overcoming challenges across many areas of their lives, including their mental health.  

Today, we have great news to share — especially for those playing SuperBetter to tackle depression, anxiety and other challenges related to mental health. Psych Hub has partnered with SuperBetter to provide access to a library of high quality educational videos featuring mental health topics. These videos are available at no cost to the SuperBetter Community.

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SuperBetter shown to have #1 greatest effect for reducing depression & anxiety symptoms in meta-analyses of mental health app studies

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We are proud that SuperBetter is backed by science.

One of the studies evaluating the effectiveness of SuperBetter is a randomized controlled trial conducted at the University of Pennsylvania.  In that study, participants who played SuperBetter for 30 days had significantly reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, and increased optimism, self-efficacy, perceived social support and life satisfaction.

Today, only a tiny fraction of mental health & wellbeing apps have been evaluated in peer-reviewed scientific studies; however, the number of apps with studies has now grown large enough that researchers are able to conduct meta-analysis, which are studies that look across the all of the randomized controlled trials in a given area to draw conclusions. The SuperBetter UPENN study is included in two of these meta-analysis. 

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