Phoenixville’s Alexandra Dodge, a graphic and interactive design student at Temple University, has designed a mental health app that guides users through panic attacks, writes Bethany Ao for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dodge is one of the millions of Americans who are dealing with an anxiety disorder. She knows from personal experience how debilitating the symptoms of a panic attack are.

To help those experiencing anxiety, she created a prototype of an app named rü anxiety forecast. Her app tracks panic attack signs — such as a pounding heart — through an Apple Watch. It then guides users through exercises that manage these feelings.

“I wanted something that would check in when it felt my heart rate increasing,” she said. “Because when you’re in an anxious situation, it’s really easy to sit there and deal with it until it gets bad. But when the app kicks in, the idea is that it reminds you, ‘Why don’t you take a minute?’”

Her aim is to team with a developer and turn the prototype into a fully functioning app.

Read more about Alexandra Dodge in The Philadelphia Inquirer.