Hello, dear reader. In an effort to reduce the stigma around it, I’m going to tell you something. I have anxiety. My life is, of course, “normal,” to me, but most people would agree, it’s a pretty normal life. But sometimes, under the seemingly calm surface, my heart rate is 150bpm and my blood feels like it’s on fire.
Fortunately, my doctors picked up on it when I was young, and I’m now much better at detecting panic attacks. While they sometimes spiral out of my control, sending my heart rate skyrocketing and my thoughts spinning, I usually can hold conversations and continue whatever I’m doing right through one, even when I feel like I’m burning from the inside out. I haven’t had someone notice I was having a panic attack since adulthood. Not everyone can manage them so easily, it’s different for everyone. That flood of adrenaline hits and your body doesn’t know what to do with it. Every system in you is screaming “run,” “fight,” but that’s rarely appropriate in modern society. It takes a lot of practice and mindfulness to recognize what’s happening, and not everyone even gets the chance to do that before their body has gone into full meltdown mode.
Sometimes, you just need a reminder. “Hey, it’s just a panic attack. Take a deep breath and walk it off.” Something to snap you out of the loop of negative thoughts.
According to a rumor from a previously accurate leaker, the new Apple Watch will be able to tell you when you just need to take a deep breath.
Take a Breath, Take a Break
Often, panic attacks are a spiral. They start off on one end, with your thoughts barely seeming to be out of your control. However, eventually, they warp. Each circle is tighter, and each on constricts your thoughts a little more. Soon, you’re thinking about nothing but what you’re worried about, not even able to recognize the panic attack and break out of the loop. Your body is acting like your life is in danger, and it’s hard to convince it otherwise.
But when you learn to recognize that cycle, you can break it. That could be where the Apple Watch comes in with a simple tap on your wrist and a notification asking, “Hey, it looks like you’re having a panic attack, would you like to open the Breathe app?” It could also suggest a run, jumping jacks, or specific breathing exercises. Having your Apple Watch detect panic attacks is like having a digital emotional support dog, ready before you even realize that what you’re experiencing are the beginning stages of a panic attack.
How Does it Work?
So, despite my skills in handling panic attacks, I’ve still had them. And I’ve been nervous about things as well. My Apple Watch has, on multiple occasions, thought I was being more active just because I had a particularly nerve-racking day. Once before giving a presentation on a controversial subject, my Apple Watch asked me if I wanted to start logging exercise.
This is because the Apple Watch is already good at checking your heart rate. But heart rate alone can’t tell you if you’re having a panic attack. It can only tell that you’re doing something to raise your heart rate. Exercise is the primary factor in that. However, if the Apple Watch also has an oxygen sensor, then it could tell you a bit more.
Apple will supposedly activate the oxygen sensor in an upcoming Apple Watch update, or add a new sensor to improve its accuracy to the next Apple Watch. It’s been rumored for some time. The sensor would be able to detect the increased oxygenation that comes with hyperventilating. That, combined with a heart rate sensor and machine learning, and your watch could figure out when you’re having a panic attack. Training the models on testers with anxiety, basing it off of assumptions we have about anxiety, heart rates, and oxygen level changes, and it wouldn’t even be very difficult to manage. The technical aspect is, to a company like Apple, trivial, but the effect it could have on customers is substantial.
“… The feature is for people like my 35 year old roommate who thought he was having a heart attack, but his Watch 4 only showed a high heart rate, nothing else. If the watch instead could have told him he was having a panic attack, and then help him with deep breathing, it could have saved him the cost of an emergency room visit.”
– MacRumors user im_to_hyper
With oxygen level monitoring, your watch can more easily detect the differences between heart attacks, exercise, and panic attacks. This is going to be extremely helpful to many people.
The Rumor
This rumor comes to us from Jon Prosser. He recently leaked the iPhone SE launch date ahead of schedule, and has had a lot to say about the upcoming iPhone 12. It falls in line with previous reporting that the next Apple Watch would include sleep tracking as well as some form of mental health tracking, though the details on the last part were unclear.
The rumor carries validity not only from Prosser’s comments though. Apple has positioned the Apple Watch as a health device. While many other companies, like Fitbit. have made health and exercise trackers that detect oxygen levels in the blood, none have thought of ways to use that data outside of exercise. But that’s exactly the kind of innovation Apple is known for, looking at what’s possible, rather than what’s just probable.
Apple’s heart rate sensor is technically able to capture O2 readings currently. It could just require new software, rather than updated hardware, to work. However, Apple hasn’t tried to use the data yet. It could be because it’s not accurate enough, or that they needed to train their models with more data to improve that accuracy. It’s also likely that Apple just hadn’t seen the use of it yet. Typically, O2 sensors are only really necessary for athletes pushing their bodies to their absolute limits. It’s a small user group. But, with added features that more people could use, Apple could finally make the decision to activate the feature.
A More Caring Wearable?
https://twitter.com/NikiasMolina/status/1255860696761458690?s=20
An Apple Watch that can recognize panic attacks can help people recognize panic attacks. Your body isn’t made to differentiate between manufactured panic and external panic. Anxiety was likely an evolutionary response in humans, a way to improve reactions, strength, and alertness during dangerous hunts. But in today’s world, it can be disruptive, repressive, and even dangerous. Hyperventilating while driving could lead to you passing out and getting in a serious crash. But recognizing that it’s merely your adrenal glands getting a little too excited, and you can control it. Ignore the heightened sense of dread and alertness, and go back to what you’re doing. It can tell you to pull over and breathe, or just take a break from stressful work.
This is exactly the kind of thing Apple applies its machine learning towards. They try to make products that can compliment and augment everyday life, not interfere with it. With the next Apple Watch, anxiety suffers can have a new touchstone to help pull them out of that downward spiral into a full-blown panic attack.
Either the next Apple Watch or watchOS 6 could bring much needed comfort to those suffering from anxiety. Apple could release the updated watchOS to developers and beta testers this summer, during WWDC, or may decide to keep it as an Apple Watch Series 6 update, and release it this fall. Either way, I’m excited about it.
Not too excited though, fortunately.
Sources:
- AppleInsider
- Juli Clover, MacRumors
- William Gallagher, AppleInsider