Looking for mental health care that can fit in your pocket? Here are some of the best mental health apps on the market.
Calm
Calm was branded as Apple's "App of the Year" in 2017. The app is designed to reduce anxiety, improve sleep and help you to feel happier.
Calm focuses on the four key areas of meditation, breathing, sleep and relaxation, with the aim of bringing joy, clarity and peace to your daily life.
The app delivers meditations that can help you to destress, as well as breathing programs, music and sounds from nature to relax your mind and body and promote better sleep.
Calm is the perfect app if you are new to meditation, but it also offers programs for more advanced users. Meditation sessions are available in lengths of 3–25 minutes to fit in with your schedule.
Headspace
Headspace uses mindfulness and meditation to help you perform at your best each day. The app's mission is to provide you with the essential tools to achieve a happier, healthier life.
Whether you need to build healthier relationships, find a place of calm, keep your mind fit or reduce stress, Headspace has hundreds of themed mindfulness and meditation sessions to support you.
The app reports that meditation reduces daily stress and improves focus and attention. What is more, using Headspace is suggested to enhance compassionate behavior toward others in just 3 weeks.
Moodnotes
Moodnotes is a thought journal and mood diary. The app can be used to capture your feelings and improve your thinking habits through the implementation of CBT and positive psychology.
Track your mood and increase self-awareness of what influences it. Learn to recognize "traps" in your thinking and ways to rethink the situation.
If you happen to enter a "thinking trap," Moodnotes will provide suggestions and useful perspectives to reduce stress and enhance wellbeing. Progress is viewable in the helpful "Insights" dashboard.
Sanvello
Sanvello is an app with anxiety and stress in mind. It provides a toolbox to cope with daily anxiety and stress, along with a highly supportive community of like-minded individuals.
Sanvello helps you to break cycles of unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviors through methods such as CBT, mindfulness meditation, mood tracking and relaxation.
The app houses audio lessons and activities that help you cope with stress and depression, and it sets daily challenges to help you tackle anxiety one day at a time and reach your long-term goals.
7 cups
If you are feeling lonely, sad, stressed or worried, 7 Cups could be the perfect app for you. It provides online therapy and emotional support for anxiety and depression.
More than 160,000 trained listeners and licensed therapists are available to speak with anonymously 24/7. Speak your mind and confide in listeners without the fear of being judged.
These listeners can be searched for based on their experience or their specialties, such as bullying, panic attacks, eating disorders, relationship breakups and many more. Affordable therapy with an online therapist can commence one-to-one in a confidential setting.
Happify
Happify is a space to overcome negative thoughts and stress and build resilience. Whether you are feeling stressed, anxious or sad, Happify helps you to regain control of your thoughts and feelings.
In fact, 86 percent of the app's users report feeling better about their lives after 2 months of using it.
Happify employs techniques and evidence-based interventions in the areas of CBT, positive psychology and mindfulness to help you break old and unhealthful patterns and form new, healthful habits.
The app offers activities and games to improve your life satisfaction and ability to fight negativity. Your emotional wellbeing is calculated as a happiness score you can improve upon weekly.
Breathe to relax
Sometimes, all we need to de-stress is take a few deep breaths. Created by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, this app teaches users how to do diaphragmatic breathing. Features include educational videos on the stress response, logs to record stress levels and customizable guided breathing sessions.
Guided breathing is an excellent way to help cope with anxiety, increase overall mindfulness and aid in relaxation. This free app will make deep breathing modules accessible no matter how on-the-go you are.