Neuro Dog – The app idea I never built
Years ago I had an idea for an app I called Neuro Dog. The inspiration came from Winston Churchill’s “Black Dog” of depression, but I wanted to turn the image around. Instead of a dark shadow, I imagined a loyal and alert dog that walks beside you, keeping an eye on your wellbeing and warning you when you start to drift.
The idea came from living with Bipolar Disorder myself. I noticed that the highs and lows never appear out of nowhere. They build up slowly, through changes in sleep, energy, speech, appetite, or social contact. What I wanted was a digital companion that could catch these signs earlier than I could on my own.
The app would gather data from daily life: sleep patterns, routines, physical activity, mood logs, even voice recordings instead of written notes if that felt easier. Over time it would learn what my normal looks like, not anyone else’s. The system would not compare me to a standard model of health, but instead map my personal rhythms, showing me when I was starting to shift away from balance.
The app would then respond in subtle ways. If sleep started to slip, it could send me a gentle reminder. If my energy spiked, it might suggest that I slow down, reflect, or check in with someone. If I became too withdrawn, it could encourage small steps back into the world. The point was never to dictate rules, but to offer timely whispers of guidance: “Pay attention now.”
Another part of the concept was integration with therapy. Bringing my collected data into a CBT session or a psychoeducation program would make it easier to discuss patterns rather than relying on memory alone. With permission, the app could also share limited signals with trusted people — a therapist, a close friend, family — so that support could arrive before things became too overwhelming.
What made the idea different from the mental health apps that already exist was the vision of it being alive and adaptive, not just a mood tracker or a reminder service. Neuro Dog was meant to be proactive, not only reactive, helping to prevent breakdowns rather than only documenting them.
I never built the app, but the idea has stayed with me. In my mind Neuro Dog remains a kind of guide dog for the mind, not there to control or judge, but to walk faithfully by your side, noticing what you might miss, and helping you back when you wander too far.