Best Free Mental Wellness Apps
Whatever your age may be, mental and emotional health is of crucial importance in order to have the skills, strength and ability to cope with both the mundane and the unusual. Life is full of everyday and unexpected stressors, along with traumas, painful moments, changes, problems, choices and challenges.
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This is where mental wellness apps can be very handy and helpful. While seeking help from a certified mental health (MH) professional is highly advised, many of these vetted apps are free to download and mostly free to use, and can be accessed instantly wherever you may be and at any time, without having to wait days or weeks for an in-person appointment. You can choose to use these apps either by themselves or in conjunction with seeing your therapist.
Additionally, each app is specially designed to help ease symptoms and provide supplemental motivation and skills to combat a wide array of common MH problem areas, such as PTSD, stress, anxiety and more. Better yet, most of these apps are compatible with both Apple IOS and Android phones, so nobody is excluded. Listed below are some of the best free mental wellness apps that have been officially approved by top medical standards.
MindShift
MindShift is a free mental wellness app that mainly focuses on reducing the various symptoms of anxiety, both occasional and chronic. Although it’s primarily geared towards teens and young adults, individuals of all age groups can greatly benefit from it as well.
Developed by Anxiety Canada, an anxiety awareness nonprofit organization, MindShift uses an effective technique called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT teaches users various relaxation skills, helps develop new and better ways of thinking, and suggests healthier habits, practices and other activities when they need it most during an anxiety attack. Other helpful features include: a journal, a “chill out” zone with guided meditations, a “quick relief” tool if you’re feeling overwhelmed in the moment, and the ability to share mental health data and progress with people in your support network if you so wish.
Take A Break!
For stress, try using Take A Break. Developed by Meditation Oasis, Take a Break is very user – friendly, and can help you quickly recharge, relax and reconnect with your center when you feel your stress levels getting out of control. You’ll have free access to a brief 7-minute Work Break and a 13-minute Stress Relief recording, in which you can choose to listen to soothing music or nature sounds.
BellyBio
When you experience a combination of stress and anxiety, BellyBio should be your go to. This free app (exclusively for Apple IOS) is very effective in helping users to better regulate their belly breathing while they relax and sleep, thereby reducing stress and anxiety and improving overall wellness. It achieves this by providing real-time feedback on your deep breathing patterns, with synchronized music, sounds reminiscent of ocean waves and light to your belly movements.
Additionally, you also get multiple interactive music themes to choose from. One 2019 study found that using apps like BellyBio showed great promise to be added to clinical abdominal breathing training and therapies.
What’s Up?
What’s Up? uses tried and true CBT techniques, along with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and other evidence-based therapies to help redirect you from an array of MH conditions, such as stress, negative thoughts and feelings, anxiety, depression, and anger.
This app gives you essential tools to help put your everyday problems and aggravations into proper perspective when you start feeling overwhelmed. It also lets you track your positive and negative habits, and more. Plus, you can connect with others who use the app through their Forum, and allows you to sync data between multiple Apple and Android operating systems if you choose to.
Relax With Andrew Johnson Lite
This app offers a number of great mindfulness resources, but one of the best features of Relax with Andrew Johnson Lite is the “Deep Sleep” meditation.
This tool helps you build off the app’s other mindfulness features aimed at improving your sleep cycle to help you wind down and get the best quality night’s sleep possible. Not ready for bed quite yet or simply need a positive energy boost in the middle of the day? Simply tap the “Power Nap” meditation instead. Other features this app offers include: meditations for panic attacks and healthier eating.
eMoods Classic
Few other free apps offer what eMoods Classic does. You can efficiently track your symptoms and medications to give you and your healthcare team a better understanding of what is and isn’t working in your personal treatment plan. This app also prides itself on its privacy. All data is stored locally, meaning nothing leaves your phone unless you choose otherwise.
The eMoods app is specially designed to help users cope better with bipolar disorder, anxiety, or depression, and track their mood symptoms and medication changes. You can also use the optional PDF printout feature that can be sent straight to your healthcare team to help adjust treatment as needed. Plus, it also provides colorblind-friendly screen settings.
Final Thoughts
While these apps have shown to be very helpful for many people, please be aware that they are by no means a replacement for therapists, psychologists and other MH professionals.
