ACT Coach vs Stand Down

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help you live with unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and impulses without avoiding them or being controlled by them. In ACT, you are encouraged to commit to actions so that you can live your life by your values, even in the face of these unpleasant experiences. This app was developed for Veterans, Service members, and other people who are in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in consultation with a therapist. It offers exercises, tools, information, and tracking logs so you can practice what you’re learning in your daily life. ACT Coach was created by VA’s National Center for PTSD.

If you are a U.S. Veteran and would like help in either cutting back or quitting alcohol altogether, Stand Down is here to help. Stand Down was created with extensive input from Veterans and VA psychologists. It brings the tools to make a positive change in your drinking easily and privately to your smartphone. Stand Down will be your personal assistant as you go through the process of changing your drinking. It provides the structure you need to help you stop altogether or to reduce your drinking to safe levels. It will provide you with the tools and the accountability to make a positive change and stay with it. With Stand Down, there is no need to wait until your next meeting with a counselor to receive helpful strategies and feedback on your progress while on your journey to a new relationship with alcohol. Immediate help will be right there on your smartphone. Stand Down has been in development since 2018. Research has shown that it has helped people reduce their drinking by as much as 60% and that users indicated that it was very helpful in giving them helpful tools and keeping them on track. Stand Down is an empirically supported system that can help you take control of your drinking. Stand Down will help you to privately and effectively: • Become more aware of your drinking patterns and triggers. • Set an overall drinking objective (to either stop drinking OR moderate your drinking) as well as smaller intermediate goals to help you succeed in stages. • Keep yourself accountable through continual feedback on your progress. • Stay in control when you are feeling tempted to drink by providing immediately available tools. • Learn new and helpful strategies for dealing with cravings, bad moods and boredom. • Keep you on track during your personally defined “high risk times” for drinking. • Remind yourself about your reasons for making a change when you are feeling like drinking or are in a tempting situation. • Share your progress with others (family, friends or health care provider). • Help you prepare for “high risk events” in the coming week - and strategically avoid alcohol triggers. • Identify alternate (non-drinking) activities and schedule them directly into your calendar. If you choose to utilize Stand Down, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you allow the app to send you alerts and notifications. These are designed to keep you on track, particularly during times when you need help the most.