Hey guys!
So I have downloaded and tried a few apps to see how they would help with my high-functioning anxiety. Although they promise to boost your mental health, none of them are going to 'fix' (lol) you. They are just a support and for some people it may help. But the only way your gonna know is if you give them a go! Quick discloser - I have an IPhone, so I have not tested the andriod versions of these apps.
Here is my top 5 fighter apps.
No. 5 - 7 Cups
Free, anonymous, and confidential online text chat with trained listeners, online therapists and counselors.
https://www.7cups.com/
Choose your own listener, get online therapy in your anonymous private room, connect and talk to strangers in community chat groups, and make emotional wellness a daily habit by following your growth plan.
No. 4 - Project Toe
Project Toe is the best way for you to make a difference in someone else's life. Whether you want to chat with someone who needs someone to talk to or you want to share your own life struggles, we make it easy to connect with someone. Did we mention it's free?
http://www.projecttoe.com/
This app has the same risks as 7 Cups, but what I loved about it is how you can join a support group, or start your own. All the people in your support group are struggling through the same mess, and understand where your coming from. The ones I joined were full of amazing people, and the leader posted daily reminders and encouragments, they all shared how they were feeling each day and commented on each others day to offer support.
The all round support from each person was incredible. You could make lifelong friends on this app.
Although it has the same risks as 7 Cups, there are multiple people in every support group, so if someone bullied or put you down, there would be someone else to stick up for you and have your back. So, I do see this as less threatening because there is the accountability to the group.
I give this app 4/5 stars.
No. 3 - What's Up?
What's Up? is a fantastic free app utilising some of the best CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more! With a beautiful, modern design, simple heading and easy-to-follow methods, you can get to what helps you the most in seconds!
No. 2 - Vent
Express how you REALLY feel. Vent helps you connect to a supportive, positive, and understanding community, making it easy to share your true feelings with people around the world.
http://www.vent.co/
Ever get those intense emotions, but you feel like there not big enough to worry your friends and family with? Venting helps get out those emotions, gain a little support, and just feel heard when you just need to go on about that break up, that workplace bitch, highschool and uni stress, or anxiety. Vent has a whole colour coded sections of emotions, where you can easily find how your feeling, then write a couple of sentences as you vent that emotion. As soon as you have vented, someone might favourite your vent, or hug your vent. When your sad and you get three others hug you, gosh sometimes that kind of support can mean just as much as a real hug.
I used this app when I needed to get emotions off of my chest about the people closest to me. I knew they couldnt know how I felt, but I still needed to be able to say it to someone.
Using this app every day is awesome, but it can keep you in low moods. Most people are on there to vent negative emotions, and that can pull you down into your own low moods. So, I have learnt to be careful how much venting I do.
I absolutely love this app, and its my first go to suggestion for anyone with a mental illness. Being able to honestly, anonymously state how you are really feeling -priceless.
I do wish it was password protected though.
I rate this app, 5/5.
No. 1 - Pacifica
Guided Self-Help Paths - Explore psychologist-designed paths made up of audio lessons and helpful activities on topics like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness.
This is my all-time, absolutely favourite and great all rounder app for most things mental health. Its very much like whats up?, but with added meditation exercises, breathing exercises, and the ability to track your feelings with ease, and it comes with password protection. Thats right, you can add a 4 numeric passcode to enter this app, which means it keeps all your info private.
My favourite part of this app is the hope board. The hope board is where you can add quotes, happy moments and memories, until you have filled it with all these great things and go back a reflect on good times when your needing a pick up.
There is also a community on this app, different forums for different topics where you can anonymously post about how you cope, or a quote that people can add to your hope board, and specific help for bad days.
My second favourite part of this app is how you can explore your toxic thoughts and reinvent them. You write in how you are feeling, as much as you can about how you feel at that particular moment. Then a list of toxic thinking labels come up, and you go through what you have written and label each sentence. Then it will show you how you could rewrite those thoughts. Then those thoughts save, and you can go back to them at any time.
When you tell this app how you are feeling, it will immediatly give you a suggestion of what you can do to improve your mood. Whether its a certain meditation excercise or breathing excercise, it picks the perfect one for what you are needing. I have found this very helpful. The meditations are not too long at all, and quite easy to do inbetween classes or on the way to work.
This app sends you notifications asking you, 'How are you feeling?' also making you feel like you have somewhere to go that wont judge you but support you.
Obviously, for me this is a 5/5.
Thanks for reading this post! Let me know what your favourite mental health apps are in the comments! <3
So I have downloaded and tried a few apps to see how they would help with my high-functioning anxiety. Although they promise to boost your mental health, none of them are going to 'fix' (lol) you. They are just a support and for some people it may help. But the only way your gonna know is if you give them a go! Quick discloser - I have an IPhone, so I have not tested the andriod versions of these apps.
Here is my top 5 fighter apps.
No. 5 - 7 Cups
https://www.7cups.com/
Choose your own listener, get online therapy in your anonymous private room, connect and talk to strangers in community chat groups, and make emotional wellness a daily habit by following your growth plan.
So, this app seemed like a great idea at first. People who have gone through the same things as you might have get a quick training and become listeners who can help you out for free. (You can pay for trained counselors to talk to on the app as well).
But as I read the reviews and explored the app for myself, I soon realised that though this worked for most people, and they ended up becoming friends with their listeners, there is the threat of someone who doesnt know what they are talking about to inflict more damage to someone that may already be hurting.
You can block and report a listener, and they do not know who you are so they only know what you decide to tell them. However, if your listener told you to 'just get over it' and said hurtful things when you opened up and shared very sensitive and personal information, this could negatively impact anyone into never opening up again.
So, although it is a great tool, I would be very careful about who you choose as a listener and what you decide to tell them. Because blocking someone, it cant undo the damage that words can do to the soul.
But you could easily use this app for the community chats and the growth plan. And like I said, for most people the listeners have supported and helped them more than some counselors have. I guess, decide for yourself with the risks in mind and just be careful who you open up to.
I give it 3/5 stars.
No. 4 - Project Toe
Project Toe is the best way for you to make a difference in someone else's life. Whether you want to chat with someone who needs someone to talk to or you want to share your own life struggles, we make it easy to connect with someone. Did we mention it's free?http://www.projecttoe.com/
The all round support from each person was incredible. You could make lifelong friends on this app.
Although it has the same risks as 7 Cups, there are multiple people in every support group, so if someone bullied or put you down, there would be someone else to stick up for you and have your back. So, I do see this as less threatening because there is the accountability to the group.
I give this app 4/5 stars.
No. 3 - What's Up?
What's Up? is a fantastic free app utilising some of the best CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more! With a beautiful, modern design, simple heading and easy-to-follow methods, you can get to what helps you the most in seconds!
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/whats-up-a-mental-health-app/id968251160?mt=8
Absolutely love this app! It goes from a personal diary, too grounding games for when your having a panic attack. It uses tried and tested counselling methods that you can use for yourself. You can go through your thought patterns and highlight unrealistic thought processes, use metaphors to better explain feelings, and information fact sheets about how you may be thinking. However, this app does not contain any forums for discussion with others.
I thought this was the best app for mental health until I found Pacifica.
I give it 4/5.
No. 2 - Vent
Express how you REALLY feel. Vent helps you connect to a supportive, positive, and understanding community, making it easy to share your true feelings with people around the world.
http://www.vent.co/
Ever get those intense emotions, but you feel like there not big enough to worry your friends and family with? Venting helps get out those emotions, gain a little support, and just feel heard when you just need to go on about that break up, that workplace bitch, highschool and uni stress, or anxiety. Vent has a whole colour coded sections of emotions, where you can easily find how your feeling, then write a couple of sentences as you vent that emotion. As soon as you have vented, someone might favourite your vent, or hug your vent. When your sad and you get three others hug you, gosh sometimes that kind of support can mean just as much as a real hug.
I used this app when I needed to get emotions off of my chest about the people closest to me. I knew they couldnt know how I felt, but I still needed to be able to say it to someone.
Using this app every day is awesome, but it can keep you in low moods. Most people are on there to vent negative emotions, and that can pull you down into your own low moods. So, I have learnt to be careful how much venting I do.
I absolutely love this app, and its my first go to suggestion for anyone with a mental illness. Being able to honestly, anonymously state how you are really feeling -priceless.
I do wish it was password protected though.
I rate this app, 5/5.
No. 1 - Pacifica
Guided Self-Help Paths - Explore psychologist-designed paths made up of audio lessons and helpful activities on topics like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness.
Health Tracking - Record your mood throughout the day. Track health activities (sleep, exercise, etc.) to identify patterns in your moods.
Goals/Thoughts - Set daily challenges to help reach your long-term goals. Question negative thoughts and change your thinking patterns.
Stress Management & Anxiety Management - Relaxation Techniques. Calm your mind with mindfulness meditations, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and more.
Peer Support Community - You aren’t alone in this. Share stories, advice and more with Pacifica’s peer-support community.
Progress - Seeing your progress over time can help you make connections and recognize patterns. No judgment, just insight.
http://www.thinkpacifica.com/
My favourite part of this app is the hope board. The hope board is where you can add quotes, happy moments and memories, until you have filled it with all these great things and go back a reflect on good times when your needing a pick up.
There is also a community on this app, different forums for different topics where you can anonymously post about how you cope, or a quote that people can add to your hope board, and specific help for bad days.
My second favourite part of this app is how you can explore your toxic thoughts and reinvent them. You write in how you are feeling, as much as you can about how you feel at that particular moment. Then a list of toxic thinking labels come up, and you go through what you have written and label each sentence. Then it will show you how you could rewrite those thoughts. Then those thoughts save, and you can go back to them at any time.
When you tell this app how you are feeling, it will immediatly give you a suggestion of what you can do to improve your mood. Whether its a certain meditation excercise or breathing excercise, it picks the perfect one for what you are needing. I have found this very helpful. The meditations are not too long at all, and quite easy to do inbetween classes or on the way to work.
This app sends you notifications asking you, 'How are you feeling?' also making you feel like you have somewhere to go that wont judge you but support you.
Obviously, for me this is a 5/5.
Thanks for reading this post! Let me know what your favourite mental health apps are in the comments! <3
- 04:13
- 0 Comments
