copal: a wearable for tics and BFRBs
in progress
Will be documenting the whole process here.
context
I’ve had a chronic tic disorder and body focused repetitive behaviors, or BFRBs, since third grade. Most of my friends haven’t caught on to my frequent combination of blinking and exhaling unless I’ve told them. Many of my friends have definitely caught on to my lip picking BFRB.
In high school, they made me feel less confident. In college, they mostly just flare up around busy seasons of the semester and make me waste minutes ticcing before an exam. While I’m glad my tics are subtle enough for others not to notice, my tics and BFRBs have impeded on my life enough for me to want to do something about them.
ideas
Tic-related ideas:
- Research from Nottingham, UK shows that you can reduce your urge to tic with electrical stimulation of the median nerve of the wrist. Unfortunately, since I first read this research in 2021 until now, Neupulse has spun out of the University of Nottingham and is now going through trials. Fortunately, that’s a sign investors are interested (and the tech is still bulky) and that the tech is promising enough.
BFRB-related ideas:
- A wearable that tracks your BFRBs and lets you know when you’re doing it with a vibration (we often don’t realize).
I don’t want to build something that won’t actually be useful, so I’ll first be doing some research and calls.