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Anxious or depressed? Here’s 10 apps that can help you

Jul 01, 2015

If you have been struggling with depression or anxiety, you can have your good days and your bad. It can feel like the world is closing in on you and you can often be left feel upset or helpless.

Even if you have a great support network, it’s common to feel alone in your thinking. But you need to know that you’re not, and there are places you can turn.

In this digital world, there is a great ability to access information and guidance without needing to leave your home or safe place, and one of those advancements is in apps.

Smartphones and tablets are excellent communication devices, and just like you would open an app to go into Facebook or emails, you too can download apps to assist with your mental health.

Here’s 10 fantastic apps that can help you in your time of need.

1. 7 Cups of Tea

Get free anonymous emotional support and counselling on-demand from trained active listeners and therapists. Feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed? Having relationship problems and need support or counselling?

Whether you’re stressed at work, having problems at home, or just in the middle of a bad day, sometimes you need to vent. But scheduling a therapist is time-consuming and expensive, and sometimes you can’t completely open up to friends, family, or coworkers.

Now you can get confidential emotional support anytime, anywhere with 7 Cups of Tea. Free. This app gives you the support you need in a way that fits your lifestyle.

Available on iPhone and Android

2. Depression CBT Self-Help Guide

With the help of the Depression CBT Self-Help Guide, you can manage your stress. Understand your depression symptoms and work towards a goal. Read articles about cognitive behavioural therapy and listen to audio tracks that help you meditate and relax. You can also use the Cognitive Thought Diary to identify stressful thinking and respond with positive feedback. The app even includes a feature that helps measure the severity of your depression.

Available on Android

3. Pacifica

A beautifully designed app, Pacifica lets you rate and track mood over time, and provides guided deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercises, daily anti-anxiety experiments, and health goals. You can record your own thoughts to help analyse and understand thinking patterns, and track possible triggers.

Available on iPhone and Android

4. Optimism

This app tracks moods, keeps a daily records of symptoms, triggers, and “stay well strategies”, and then visualises that data with graphs in an easy-to-understand way.

Available on iPhone

5. Worrybox

Does worry cause you to lose sleep? Does worry cause you anxiety and tension? Does worry give you headaches? Do you avoid things due to fear of outcome? Does your worry cause conflict with others?

Put your worries away in the Worrybox. Use the worry cognitive diary to help you determine how to cope with the worry. If it’s controllable, you can list the steps you can take to manage the worry. If it’s not controllable, select from the list of coping statements to help you think about it differently.

Available on Android

6. Positive Thinking

Sometimes just a simple quote or hopeful message can improve your outlook. If you’re looking for encouraging thoughts on love or happiness, the Positive Thinking app will find just the quote to cheer you up.

The best part is that if you have your own positive messages, you can upload them or share them with others through the app.

Available on Android

7. depressioncheck

If you haven’t yet been diagnosed with depression, but want to know, the depressioncheck app can quickly and effectively evaluate your symptoms in a questionnaire.

Available on iPhone

8. Depression Inventory

If your thoughts and feelings are everywhere, it can be helpful to write them down. Depression Inventory allows you to organised these and monitor your progress and symptoms.

Available on Android

9. Relax Melodies

Sleeplessness can be linked to high stress and anxiety, so it’s important to have a calm environment to get in the sleep zone. Relax Melodies has over 50 sounds that will make you feel at ease and calm down your heart rate.

Set a timer for the music and have sweet dreams!

Available on iPhone and Android

10. Breathe2Relax

Breathing has a wonderful calming effect but we often forget to come back to our breath when we’re feeling anxious. The Breathe2Relax app uses guided breathing exercises to help reduce symptoms of an anxiety attack. If you feel an attack is coming, open your app, and let the worry and stress slip away with each breath.

Available on iPhone and Android

Tell us, do you know of any other helpful apps that calm you down?

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