The 20-year-old we'll call "Isaac" was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year ago.
"It terrified me. I didn't know if I could talk to any of my friends about it," he said.
"Isaac" suffered hallucinations and heard voices in his head.
"When I heard the first voice that started talking to me was my scariest moment when I realized, 'Oh, this is something that I can't just cope with and white knuckle. This is something that I need to really get help with,'" "Isaac" recalled.
He did get help with medication and therapy, and "Isaac" was also recently introduced to a new app. Ginger IO is designed to monitor patients with psychosis.
"To see if we can intervene earlier before they have a relapse or before things get worse," said Tara Niendam, clinical psychologist of UC Davis School of Medicine.
Nearly 80 percent of psychosis patients will relapse within the first five years of diagnosis.
Niendam said the new app collects data about the number of texts and phone calls they make and receive and where they travel in a day.
"Whether a person is getting up and getting out of the house and going places," explained Niendam.
Doctors can track patient's patterns on a "dashboard" and see how they are doing daily and can contact patients at the first sign of trouble.
"Isaac" says it's helped him stay on track.
"They really helped give me a sense of positivity," "Isaac" explained.
He's using his music as therapy and facing his illness one day at a time.
The researchers at UC Davis are conducting a pilot study to see if the app can prevent relapses. They will also test the effectiveness of the app over 12 months in as many as 120 patients.
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