7 Great Mental Health Apps

For those with a rapid-fire lifestyle, the digital world has slowly been making its way into the mental health field. Now, rather than stop your constant momentum you can simply refer to your mobile device for everything from therapeutic fixes to positive affirmations.

Maybe it’s a good thing, maybe it’s not, but the fact is that today’s electronic generation is here to stay so why not peruse the many tools available to find out.

Personal Zen

Yes, you have probably heard a thousand times how meditation and deep breathing can ail many woes but when you have stimuli hitting you from all sides this may not be a daily possibility.

Instead, reach for Personal Zen, an app that promises tranquility through gaming.

Developed by researchers from Hunter College and the City University of New York it is based on something called, attention-bias modification training. This is basically a diversion technique and in Personal Zen it does just that by allowing users to de-stress by moving a character through calming scenic grass.

Talkspace

Getting to your therapist means making an appointment and then carrying around your anxiety until your scheduled meeting. With the app Talkspace you can release some pressure cooker steam by using one or more of their available app options.

Depending on the payment level you choose (between $25-$30 weekly or per session), under complete anonymity you can text or video chat your demons while eating a chimichanga and riding on a crosstown bus.

Mobilyze

This app is used as a preventative measure. By plugging in mood history and social standing it tracks your phone using 40 sensors including GPS, accelerometer, and WiFi to determine your location and activity level. If it perceives a situation that may trigger depression it lets you know so you can fix it before it arises.

For instance, if you plugged in that being alone makes you sad it can recognize this on say, a lazy Sunday afternoon, telling you to call a friend or go for a walk. If it gets it wrong it learns from its mistakes and adjusts accordingly.

PTSD Coach

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a clinically diagnosed condition affecting persons who have experienced any number of highly stressful, out-of-the-ordinary circumstances. This includes first responders, police personnel, frontline military soldiers, and those involved in horrific accidents or abuse.

This condition often takes years to evolve so the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs has developed PTSD coach to recognize and/or deal with symptoms. It offers information and exercises on how to manage traumatic related stress and depression.

“The app’s features include a monitoring tool to track stress symptoms and links to hotlines and other resources for friends and family.” (HuffingtonPost 2/15)

Lantern

Another subscription based app, this service features a team of researchers, technologists and clinicians at the ready to offer cognitive behavioral therapy techniques devised as simple exercises. This app deals with all kinds of mental health issues that recently includes eating disorders.

MoodTune

Using a game platform as well, MoodTune is a training tool using task based ‘tricks’ to alleviate anxiety, depression and other common mental health ailments. Based on ten years of research this app tracks and manages your conditions as well as answer inputs giving icon affirmations depending on each outcome.

Let Panic Go

Sometimes all it takes is simple breathing to get oneself off the ledge of losing it. Let Panic Go is an app that uses an on-screen box in which the user taps in sync with their breathing pace. For some, this action enables the ability to take control of their breath and bring it to a more manageable stride.

Developed by a University of California San Francisco resident psychiatrist, the app also focuses the user on physical sensations during an ‘episode’ enabling them to master skills on how to reduce and eventually quell them altogether.

If  you are experiencing symptoms of what you may feel are mental health issues, these 7 mental health apps could be an excellent way to begin a path toward healing. Talk to your doctor to see if your assumed symptoms may be a match for these potential digital fixes.