The SOS button
An urge to gamble usually peaks and passes within about 20 to 30 minutes. The SOS flow is built to get you through that window. It is never behind the paywall, and a Talk to someone link to free crisis lines is on every step.
The four steps
- Rate it. How strong is the urge right now? on a 1 to 10 dial, then Help me through it.
- Breathe. Three rounds of slow breathing: in for 4, hold for 4, out for 6. Skip to the wave jumps ahead.
- Ride the wave. A 10-minute urge-surfing timer. It also runs as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you can put the phone down. Tap The urge has passed whenever it has, or I made it when the timer ends.
- Anchor. Your own reasons for quitting, the money you've kept (unless you hide money amounts), and up to three of your own answers from the program. Then How's the urge now? and I rode it out.
Each urge you ride out is logged in your journal. Your first earns the First Stand orb, and your tenth earns Ten Stands.
Logging an urge without the full flow
On the Today tab, Riding an urge? offers Log it, a quick sheet to record the urge and save it, or Ride the wave, which opens the full flow.
Opening SOS fast
- In the app: the SOS button floats over every tab.
- Control Center: add the Silex SOS control to open the flow in one press. Control Center controls need iOS 18 or later.
- Siri and Shortcuts: Open SOS. Silex also offers Log an urge, Make today's pledge and Days free as shortcuts.
If you gambled
That's a different flow. Tap I gambled — reset with me on the Today tab; see what happens after a lapse.