Rob talks about his experience with Evie's online self-help

"When the corona crisis presented itself at the beginning of this year (2020), I became quite disrupted. So much so that I ended up not being able to sleep (properly) for quite some time, and gradually threatened to enter a vicious circle. Within Centrum Fameus I talked about this with a number of colleagues, and finally a colleague of mine gave me the tip to look into the self-help app Evie.

Much of what I encountered in Evie I somehow already knew. But what made the difference for me in Evie was that in and with the various trainings, a piece of theoretical explanation was given in a step-by-step plan, which gave the material offered a deeper meaning for me.

By actively working with the self-help trainings "Sleep Better," "Mindfulness" and Gratitude," and keeping track of my mood each day in the "Emotion" journal, I was able to step by step shift my focus again. The focus changed from 'continuing to worry about the corona crisis, which I can have minimal influence over' to 'seeing and arranging my life more in the here and now'.

Especially the trainings "Mindfulness" and "Better Sleep," and the journal "Emotion" brought me further and further "back on track. So well, in fact, that as an experiment one night I decided to stop taking Valdispert (a tranquilizer based on the calming herb valerian) before bedtime. I wanted to experience one night whether I could fall asleep without this drug and thus go back to sleep on my own. To my amazement, I succeeded the very first night and have not used Valdispert since. Yes, I sometimes have a bad night, but I have those too, without a disruptive situation. Because I know and feel that there is no more downward spiral in this, I allow those lesser nights to be there as they are.

What I like about Evie is that you can install Evie on your desktop and laptop as well as on your smartphone. This way I always have Evie at hand, should I need it!"