[aaronbasssett]

I can't find anything on your website or the app's website listing your qualifications. How are you qualified to advise people on how to fix their depression?

What medical studies and approval has your app been through?

If this article persuades even a single person to ditch their prescribed medication in favour of your app—after all who would want to end up in a straight-jacket—and that person then harms themselves, how are you going to deal with that?

[audiometry]

You sound foolish and pompous. And you speak from an arrogance that medicine is a definitive solution to depression and depression-like problems.

But that's not necessarily true. Maybe it helped you. It certainly doesn't help all others. It partially helped me. But eventually a bunch of other cognitive practices (none of which are 'approved by medical studies') became a much better cocktail of long-term solutions.

This app appears to be just another tool that adults can use to find the custom solution that works for them. I don't see anywhere that he's recommending stop taking SSRIs and use his app exclusively. He's explaining his own journey.

[zoozla]

Your comment deserves an honest reply. If someone hurts themselves because of something that I've said or done, and there is a chance it might, I will hurt, I will mourn and I will do time if it comes to that. But the risk of this won't stop me from looking for better answers to these problems because the answers we have right now aren't good enough. And if a thousand people avoid harming themselves because of this approach and one still does, is that a failure?

[acituan]

> And if a thousand people avoid harming themselves because of this approach and one still does, is that a failure?

That’s why we have trials and regulations to assess this risk. Is 1000:1 a good ratio? I don’t know. But I know it is not up to us to make that call.

> But the risk of this won't stop me from looking for better answers to these problems because the answers we have right now aren't good enough.

Current answers we have for covid is not good enough either but it doesn’t mean we get to experiment willy-nilly in the public space.

I admire your self-experimentation and I actually like your tool but you can’t make money out of it while advertising in association with the claim that it fixed your depression.

You’re a small enough operation right now that neither FDA or FTC would care much about it, but the very least if you are sincere with your intentions you should put out a bold banner saying “I am not a professional, this is not intended to diagnose cure any problem, if you need help see a professional” everywhere on the site.

Also you should be careful with collecting psychometric data, not that it would put you in HIPAA land because you’re not a licensed medical professional, but it is still highly sensitive data so you should be explicit about your data collection.

[orange8]

Qualifications schwamifications...

Where in the website did the app claim to "fix depression"? From what I can see, it helps you identify and release negative emotions.

[aaronbasssett]

It's literally the title of this post.

[op03]

Think about why organized religion has survived for thousands of years all over the world. You will reach this inequality sooner or later -

Number of ppl with qualifications to help the suffering < Number of people suffering

So keep asking the questions, but also be aware of the values of those 2 variables in your neck of the woods. And when there is a gap expect all kinds of gap filling.