8 Anxiety Busting Apps That Will Help Improve Your Mental Health Right Now
23 January 2017, 13:49 | Updated: 19 November 2018, 16:11
Anxiety? There's an app for that...
If spending time on the internet has taught me anything, it's that we're all having a pretty rough go of it. Whether it's anxiety, stress, or other mental health issues brought on by school and work, no one's life is 100% smooth sailing. Since there's "an app for everything", we thought we'd do some digging around for some apps specifically designed to tackle anxiety and stress.
1) Pacifica
Pacifica app is an app for people who have an interest in understanding their anxiety and stress. It's an app that gives you goals to help improve your daily mental health, allows you to track your progress and emotions, and try different calming techniques. It also gives you ways to challenge yourself and keep an eye on your mood.
via Pacifica blog
2) Calm app
If you're someone who values the act of winding down after a particularly stressful day, the Calm app may be the app for you. The sign-up process is relatively quick and easy and you are given a choice of 5, 10, or 15 minute guided meditations. The point of these meditations is to focus the mind, control your breathing, and quash the type of anxiety rooted in fast paced and negative thinking.
3) What's Up - Mental Health App
What's Up is super interactive and focused on helping users understand anxiety and depression as conditions that affect millions around the world. The app offers up facts and stats but also activities to help ground you and stop an anxiety attack in its tracks. It's great to have on hand because it lets you keep a diary, describe your mood, put things into perspective, and get inspired.
4) Noizio
I'm assuming everyone has their favourite "noise" app. I don't know why I assume that because it's probably not as common as I think it is. If you don't already have the Noizio app, I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend it. It's like one of those old school sound machines that will play you the sound of whales, deep space, the rain, or any other weirdly specific sounds you'd like to hear. I use it to focus when my mind is working overdrive or when I need to overcome sensory distractions.
5) Happify
Happify gives users activities and exercises that improve their mental health through positive psychology. There are resources to read, games to play, and tasks to complete that foster positivity and help change negative thought processes. It's one of those apps that you can look at on the way to work or school that can set your day up properly.
6) Dynamic Running Therapy
DRT is billed as a method that uses movement, positive habits, and confidence building to tackle anxiety and depression. The different elements include mindfulness, movement, talk therapy, and self-reflection. DRT is a good one if, like many people, your brain/moods responds positively to exercise and movement.
7) Mindshift
Mindshift is another one of those apps that gives you a load of really great resources. One great feature is that users can choose what scenarios they most need help tackling. For instance, the app offers help overcoming "social anxiety", "test anxiety", "letting go of perfectionism" etc. There are also guided meditations that take you out of stressful and anxiety-inducing scenarios and put you into much calmer ones.
8) Peak
One common complaint that people with anxiety disorders express is having a hard time grounding themselves and focusing when their anxiety is flaring up. Peak is "brain training" (remember that trend?) app designed specifically designed by neuroscientists to keep your brain "sharp". There are also games designed specifically for calming and distracting purposes. The challenges are relaxing, low-key, and focusing.
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