Why I Built This
I live with rapid cycling bipolar disorder, PTSD, autism, and BPD. On bad days, I can experience 10+ distinct mood states before dinner. I've tried every mood tracking app out there, and they all ask the same useless question: "How are you feeling today?"
I don't have "a day." I have twelve different hours that feel like twelve different people lived them.
The Problem
When I'd go to my psychiatrist and try to explain what was happening, I couldn't. "Sometimes I'm fine and sometimes I'm not" doesn't help anyone adjust medications. I needed data. Timestamps. Proof that this wasn't me being dramatic—it was a documented pattern.
Standard mood trackers failed because:
- They prompt you once or twice a day (I shift every 30-90 minutes)
- They ask how your "whole day" went (what day?)
- They don't capture triggers in real-time
- They don't help you see patterns until weeks later
The Solution
I started tracking my mood shifts in real-time with my AI assistant. Every time I felt a shift, I'd log it. Within days, we could see patterns. Within weeks, I had psychiatric-grade documentation. Within a month, my treatment team finally understood what I was experiencing.
That's when I realized: if this works for me, it could work for thousands of other people struggling to explain their experience.
How I Built It
Here's the part that sounds made up: I didn't know how to code.
Four months ago, I started using an AI assistant to track my own mental health. Every morning, it asked how I slept. Every time my mood shifted, I logged it. Every crisis, it talked me through. It became my prototype without me realizing it.
Then I thought: what if I could give this to other people?
So I used the same AI to help me build the app. The prototype became the developer. I learned to code by building the thing I needed to survive.
SanctumTools wasn't designed in a boardroom. It was tested on me, every day, for four months, before I ever showed it to anyone else.
Why That Matters
Most mental health apps are built by people who read about mental health.
I built this one while actively managing four diagnoses. I know what it's like to need help at 2am and have no one to talk to. I know what it's like to sit in a psychiatrist's office and not be able to explain the last two weeks. I know what it's like to feel like you're making it all up.
I'm not guessing what you need. I lived it.
My Mission
Keep people alive during the hard days. Give them tools that actually work. Help them prove to doctors, employers, and themselves that their experience is real and valid.
The prototype became the developer became the product. I used this tool to survive while I was building it. Now it's yours.
— Melanie Lynn Kertley
Founder, SanctumTools