Worth Warrior: help body image

‘To hit a target of worth takes practice and courage. Believe you can do it, keep trying and you will get there.’

Worth Warrior is a free app created for young people to manage negative body image, low self-worth, and related early-stage eating difficulties or disorders. Created for teenage mental health charity stem4 by Dr Krause, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, in collaboration with young people, the app uses principles from the evidence-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for eating disorders (CBT-E).

Like all stem4`s award winning apps, it is free, private, anonymous, and safe.

The app provides a range of helpful activities and information, based on the notion that through learning to challenge and change thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and body image issues underlying low self-worth, eating and body related issues can be helped.

By identifying these underlying factors, and monitoring them over time, you can also start to identify what your triggers and maintaining factors are and work towards making positive change.

The ‘Change the Story’ section of the app helps identify negative self thought and learn how to substitute positive self-thoughts. ‘Change the Action’ focuses on identifying negative behaviours and altering them. In ‘Change the Emotion’ users are provided with alternative, self soothing behaviours to manipulate their eating and in ‘Change the way I view my Body’ users are taught how to separate fact from assumption.

There is also a range of information within the app for users to learn more about eating disorders, such as the importance of regular eating and hunger, the health consequences of eating-related behaviours, and issues that maintain eating disorders.

The app also allows users to build a ‘safety net’ of helpful thoughts, behaviours and people to contact, and signposts to help. Finally, users can monitor and keep track of which app activities help, record thoughts and feelings in a journal, and view daily motivators.

We understand the importance of privacy and so no identifiable data is collected in the app and no WIFI access or data is required.

It is built to NHS standards.

Please note that the Worth Warrior app is an aid in treatment but does not replace it.

Worth Warrior is the latest app in stem4’s digital portfolio of apps that use evidence-based principles to help young people manage the symptoms of mental health difficulties and disorders. As of June 2022, stem4’s existing apps (Calm Harm, Clear Fear, Combined Minds and Move Mood) have been downloaded over 3.25 million times, and have received various awards including:

- The Digital Leaders 100 Awards ‘Tech for Good Initiative of the Year’ in 2020, for stem4’s full app portfolio

- The Health Tech Awards Winner ‘Best Healthcare App of the Year’ in 2021, for Calm Harm

- The CogX Awards Winner in ‘Good Health and Well-Being’ in 2020, for Clear Fear