Mental Health Apps
Smart phone apps are available to track mental health symptoms and complete therapy inspired exercises. They can be excellent supplements to conventional forms of treatment. Mental health apps can teach you new skills, boost your mood and allow you to connect with other individuals who have the same condition. Most are available on Google Play for Android and the App Store for iOS. Some to consider are:
CBT Thought Record Diary helps users change their emotions by identifying negative and/or distorted thinking patterns. The free app allows individuals to gradually alter their approach to anxiety-inducing situations.
Happify is a free, psychologist-approved mood-training program. The app contains activity suggestions, games and gratitude prompts to help users’ brains overcome negative thoughts.
MindShift was designed specifically for teenagers and young adults with anxiety. The app is free and contains relaxation exercises and strategies for managing conflict, panic and worry, along with three specialized categories of anxiety, perfectionism, social anxiety and test anxiety.
Moodpath is a free “mental health companion” for those struggling with anxiety or depression. It has a mood tracker, asks daily questions about the user’s emotional and physical well-being, and provides bi-weekly mental health assessments.
MoodTools is a free app for individuals with clinical depression. It contains videos, Behavioral Activation Therapy based activities, a thought diary that employs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) principles, a depression questionnaire that tracks symptom severity over time, and the ability to develop a suicide safety plan.
Sanvello, formerly known as Pacifica, is a free app for anxiety and depression that uses CBT and mindfulness. It includes activities, audio exercises, mood and health habit tracking, and videos.
Solace is a free “anonymous group chat therapy” app. You are placed with users of a similar age who have the same mental health condition and severity of symptoms. The app allows you to create a Solace (aka emergency action) Plan, has a tracker that asks you to check in at regular intervals about your mental state, and sends you positive messages throughout the day.
SuperBetter is a free app that employs the Live Gamefully® method, which uses game play to build psychological strengths, including resilience, for individuals with anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions.
Virtual Hope Box is a free multimedia app. It is designed for individuals with depression, particularly members of the military, and has four main sections, coping skills, distraction, positive thinking and relaxation.
What’s Up? is a free app that uses CBT and Acceptance Commitment Therapy methods to help individuals cope with anxiety and depression. It has a positive and negative habit tracker. The “Get Grounded” page contains over 100 different questions to help identify what a user is feeling; and the “Thinking Patterns” page provides instruction on how to eliminate negative internal monologues.
Buddhify: Meditation on the Go, which costs $2.99, contains mindfulness exercises and over 200 meditations. It has categories for beginners and children.
Mood Kit costs $4.99. Developed by two clinical psychologists, it uses CBT to provide users with over 200 different mood improvement activities. Its journal feature allows users to reflect on their day.