Top 5 free mental health apps
Depression, anxiety and other mental health illnesses affect one in five Australians every year and are the third leading cause of disability burden in the country – so it’s time we started paying our minds as much attention as we do our bodies.
Thankfully, it’s 2017, and that means there’s an app for everything – even monitoring and improving your mental health. Here are five of our favourites.
1. ReachOut Worry Time
We all know how annoying it is to be told, “don’t worry!” Worrying is natural – we all do it and we probably won’t stop any time soon. What we can do, however, is limit our worry time to a small window each day. That’s where this app comes in. You get to choose a time, place and duration to get all your worrying out of the way and move on with your day. You can look back at your previous days’ worries and delete the ones that no longer matter. It’s incredibly cathartic.
2. Smiling Mind
Developed by psychologists, Smiling Mind offers “modern meditation” that makes learning mindfulness easy for everyone. You can undertake programs tailored to your age, lifestyle and needs, check in with yourself and how you’re feeling and track your progress.
3. The Check-in
Let’s face it, discussing your mental health isn’t the easiest thing in the world. The Check-in, made by beyondblue, makes it a little easier. Designed with young people in mind but perfect for all ages, this app is a great way to check in on family members’ mental health or simply provide updates on your own to those who love and care about you the most.
4. SuperBetter
Monitoring your mental health doesn’t have to be a drag – in fact, it can be a game! SuperBetter is an app that turns all your obstacles into “levels” that you can conquer, earing points, but most importantly, boosting your resilience, motivation and optimism. Whether it’s making a new habit, dealing with depression, anxiety, pain or illness, overcoming a life challenge or helping others, this app will change the way you tackle the tough stuff.
5. HeadGear
Generally speaking, men suck when it comes to opening up about their feelings. You know it’s true! But this doesn’t need to be the case. This app, developed by the Black Dog Institute, UNSW and the University of Sydney with the help of beyondblue and the Movember Foundation, encourages men (and women!) to log their mood and how they’re feeling each day, as well as using helpful tools to boost their mental fitness.
Have you tried any of these apps? Tell us what you thought of them in the comments below.