I discovered an interesting piece of software that might be very useful for anyone currently suffering or recovering from alcoholism and other addictions, or who have been sober and clean for a long time. It is developed for people with mental health concerns, or who are just interested in tracking their overall mental well-being. But I poked around the various functions, and feel that people in recovery can make good use of this, too.

It is called “Optimism”, and it is free for Macs, PCs, the iPhone (I guess no Android, yet) and can also be used just on the web.

(Via Optimism Apps.)

The following screenshots show some of the software’s usefulness (more screenshots and even a user manual can be found on the project’s website).

This first one depicts the Main page (what you should see when opening the app):

Along the left hand side you can see a panel entitled “Core Data.” This can be customized, like so:

Back to the Main page: there is a “Notes” button you can click on, and open up a window to write notes for the day, perhaps something like journal entries or random thoughts. The option to do this is just next to the “Main Entries” button along the right hand side of the app, this is what the “Notes” function looks like after clicking on that tab:

It is free. If you download the software, there are references to a trial version if you use the syncing functions. However, the website makes note that as of April 2012, it is free, for all versions. The developers intend to earn money through marketing it to clinicians and other medical personnel. For “ordinary” people, it is free. I guess not all of the software’s documentation has been updated.

I like this! I wish I was able to make use of this, or something like it, when I sobered up in 2002. According to the site, they’ve been making software since 2007. I wish I knew about it then!!

So, go ahead and download it and see how you can make use of it on your recovery path. Perhaps comment on this post what you think.

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