During the pandemic, TikTok and YouTube were in charge of popularizing topics related to mental health. Among them, ADHD, an acronym for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which millions of people in the world suffer from and which, to this day, does not have a definitive solution. With this panorama and the growing popularity of the topic, emerging companies have made it their mission to create accommodations aimed at all those people who suffer from the symptoms.
These accommodations do not seek to give priority to people with ADHD, as many think. In fact, it is about using the tools available to raise your quality of life to a point closer to that of a neurotypical person. Not only do they allow avoiding the phenomenon known as burnout -exhaustion or wear and tear in Spanish-, but also to improve productivity and concentration at a high level.
Companies like HelloSelf and Inflow have already begun using technology to improve the lives of patients. The first is a kind of Tinder that allows you to find the best therapist according to your needs. Meanwhile, the second uses a voice generated through artificial intelligence in its app, helping you to stay focused during day-to-day tasks. Also, it has Buddy Sessionsa feature that allows you to work alongside more people and coaches with ADHD experience.
Others like Numo focus on gamifying daily activities, stimulating the reward system in people with ADHD. All of this, although it does not replace psychological therapy and psychiatric treatments at any level, does improve the quality of life of those who cannot afford access to mental health.
Sidekick, the productivity browser people with ADHD can take advantage of
For its part, Sidekick is a startup whose intention is to become the productivity browser. Although it is aimed at all those who wish to improve this aspect of their life, have recently launched improvements to include people with ADHD among their target audience. In this way, they want to help reduce distractions and improve the quality of work life.
According to the company, users with ADHD have shown “significant improvements” after using the browser. But what is the reason behind these supposed changes?
To reduce the number of potential distractions, Sidekick has integrated Adblock 2.0 into the core features of the browser. Besides, they also include a Focus Mode that allows you to disable all sounds and notifications for a user-defined time. With the Task Manager you can organize the activities of the day, and with the Pomodoro -a kind of timer-, you will be able to manage your work and break times.
On the other hand, despite being based on Chromium, Sidekick ensures that your browser is up to three times faster than Google Chrome.
Modern browsers are not designed to work, but to consume web pages. This lack really harms hundreds of millions of users. We are convinced that reducing web distraction reduces anxiety and increases the quality of people’s work and the quality of their lives.
Dmitry Pushkarev, CEO and founder of Sidekick
In the past, other start-ups have promised to launch products aimed at improving the quality of life for people with attention deficit disorder. One of them was the creator of bionic reading, a method that allows you to quickly read content on the web. Unfortunately, the studies found that the changes were not big enough to be considered a solution. However, on the opposite side we find brown noise, which is becoming more and more popular on TikTok. The latter seems to improve the ability to concentrate to a large extent, and there is a scientific reason behind it.