Learn about behavioral activation
Short reads on how behavioral activation works, a few minutes each.
Start here
- How the app works
What’s on the app’s Home screen, where each part lives, and how reminders and the evening check-in work.
- What behavioral activation is
Behavioral activation in plain words: how low mood and pulling back feed each other, and how planning small activities works on that loop.
- How low mood and doing less feed each other
Why pulling back makes sense in the moment and how, over weeks, it adds up to a smaller life and lower mood.
- Acting before you feel like it
Why behavioral activation plans first and waits for motivation second, and why low mood makes things look harder ahead of time.
Choosing and planning
- What matters to you, and life areas
The five areas of life from brief behavioral activation, and how values help choose activities without becoming goals to finish.
- Choosing activities: enjoyment, accomplishment, and routine
Why a useful week has a mix, and why enjoyment and accomplishment are rated separately after an activity.
- Starting small and breaking things down
Why smaller plans get started, the smallest version of an activity, and working from easier to harder.
- Making a plan you’re likely to keep
Specific plans, tying an activity to something you already do, planning around what might get in the way, and exact times or parts of the day.
When it’s hard
- When plans don’t happen
Why a missed plan is information, not failure, and the next steps that fit what got in the way.
- Avoidance, and what to try instead
Quick relief now and a cost later, the less obvious forms avoidance takes, and four questions for choosing something else.
- Getting out of your head
Going over the same thoughts, why it rarely reaches an answer, and turning attention back to what you’re doing.
- Busy isn’t the same as active
When filling every hour is its own way of avoiding, and how to look at what your activities are for.
- Coming back after a hard week
Why weeks without plans are part of how this goes, and how to start again small.
Staying well
- Routines: sleep, meals, and a regular day
Why regular routines count as activities, and how sleep fits into behavioral activation.
- Using this with a therapist
What a therapist does in behavioral activation, the report for a therapist, and bringing questions to a session.
- When to get more help
When low mood calls for a doctor or a mental health professional, and what to do right away in a crisis.
These are the same articles that come with the app, in English and Spanish.