Self-monitoring is a technique used in treatment of eating disorders. It involves logging meals, thoughts, feelings, and the use of coping skills. I don’t require that my patients self-monitor. I say: “Self-monitoring takes a commitment of time and effort. The most effective evidence-based treatment approaches for adults incorporate self-monitoring. The information you record will be very helpful to me as your provider. You won’t have to do it forever. It is not something that normal eaters do.”
Let me introduce you to two new self-monitoring apps designed specifically for patients with eating disorders, Recovery Record and Rise Up. These apps have been developed by wonderfully inspiring young women who were both kind enough to spend time with me on the phone talking about their endeavors and both were eager to pick my brain about how to improve their apps. I encourage my patients to check out both Recovery Record and Rise Up to decide which app is right for them. Recovery Record has an amazing array of features, but could be overwhelming. Rise Up is more basic. Both are free to users. If users allow it, clinicians can view self-monitoring data.
Jenna Tregarthen, CEO of Recovery Record, is a clinical psychology doctoral student who with a team of psychologists, engineers and entrepreneurs developed Recovery Record. Recovery Record is now HIPAA compliant. Patients can enter a code so their clinician can monitor self-monitoring data entered between visits. Patients can enter their specific food plan. Recovery Record can summarize self-monitoring data in graphs and charts. Clinicians can print PDF reports, customize self-monitoring forms, chart weight, and BMI, and see results of the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE-Q).
Jessica Raymond, founder of Rise Up: Overcome Your Eating Disorder, is an oceanographer by profession with a passion to help others recover as she herself has. Jessica found that daily self-monitoring help her be accountable to herself and her providers. She created Rise Up, a free app available on iTunes. Like Recovery Record, Rise Up also allows patients to log behaviors, set reminders, and access coping skills. But it is up to the patient to decide when to share information with a clinician. Records are shared by emailing PDFs of self-monitoring records to a clinician. Jessica deliberately made Rise Up simple and intuitive for users and clinicians.
Recovery Record charges a fee of $7 to $50/month depending on the number of patients the clinician links with. Rise Up is free to clinicians.
Nutritionist Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto, co-authors of The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders, Gūrze, 2007, Marcia is also author of the recently published Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders, Routledge, 2013.
Copyrighted by Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto.
