Reinventing stress management

Managing stress is complicated

Managing stress levels was once a complicated affair. First, you had to research what types of solutions were available and which ones actually worked. There’s therapy, psychiatry, prescription medications, meditation, supplements, and drugs to name a few. Then, you had to understand if any of these options would work for you and compare the various side effects, financial commitments, and effectiveness of each solution. It’s no wonder that most people feeling stress or anxiety often end up with no solution at all.

Choice paralysis sets in easily when faced with so many options that all have their own complex trade offs. You have to test out various things according to your own preferred schedule and time commitment as well as financial situation. Next, you have to select a particular vendor: is this therapist or that therapist better? Will this drug or that doctor be right for me? Comparisons get tricky when we cannot put hard data points on our own minds. It’s unlike shopping for anything else where we buy based on needs and features. When it comes to our brains, needs are often hard to pinpoint and even harder to articulate. All this makes various features being offered challenging to assess and make a decision on.

Finally, even after making a decision, it is still just the beginning. Next up are often long regimes with strict rules and trade offs that require you to sacrifice time and sometimes even your health. Side effects of many long term medications and drugs mount quickly and can have lasting and sometimes permanent effects. Requirements to obtain a prescription also come with a huge amount of stigma in both your professional and personal life. None of this is ideal and all of it helps explain why navigating solutions to mental health is so challenging that many ordinary people end up with no solutions whatsoever. Our mission is to change all this.

Seeking help for managing stress and anxiety can often feel like adding gasoline to a fire. Having to interact with a stranger in the context of addressing one’s deepest and most private challenges fans the flames of social anxiety. Even after intense research and finding the right solution, reaching out can often be an insurmountable hump for many people.

A cycle of high stress and anxiety worsens when faced with the anticipation of having to deal with even more stress and anxiety related to finding a solution. The hoops to jump through in terms of research, knowledge, and having to call and interact with strangers all feed into a growing spiral of stress. Eventually, procrastination ends up as the result of all this and can last for years.

Unfortunately, the brain’s flexible nature means that being stressed and anxious can become new norms and as things get worse, time is no longer on our side. As lives get busier and more complex, procrastinating often makes things worse. Eventually the hole we dig is so deep that we can no longer get out without help. Various social and cultural stigmas related to handling stress and anxiety sometimes means we cannot even call out for help or these calls may fall on deaf ears.

How it should be

Today, managing stress is a VERY different experience. While all of the prior solutions can be very effective and are still available, Nerv has reinvented what it means to manage stress and anxiety.

A bottle of Nerv can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. A single bottle’s effects lasts up to 10 hours meaning one in the morning will last all day. We reinvented the stress management process from the top down. We asked ourselves and the people around us what sort of barriers existed and crafted a solution that smashes all of them. From the look, to the flavor, to the format, the ordering method, and usability, every aspect of Nerv’s experience for the user was considered. We picked a color for the label that isn’t normally found on drinks. We made the bottle small so it could easily fit in a bag or pocket and even be carried through security for a flight. We made the product available online with just the click of a mouse. We formulated the product to suit all sorts of use cases.

Gone are the days of struggling to pick up the phone and having to interact with strangers to overcome a fear of strangers. Forget the stigma attached to pills and powders that can only be used in private. Now with just a few clicks of a mouse or a quick trip down to the corner store, you can get a two oz bottle of Nerv from anywhere. Order online from your home and have it delivered straight to your door.