Stop Breathe and Think

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Anxiety, mindfulness, and wellbeing.

About: This app will ask you questions about how you are feeling emotionally and physically and then make guided meditations/imagery recommendations. It currently has a special component for dealing with COVID 19.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: This app is free; however, you will not be able to “unlock” certain levels until you complete the initial levels.

Comments/our experience using it: Mindfulness will not necessarily make you happy; it is about identifying your emotions and acceptance. Once you give yourself permission to experience your emotions, you might find that it reduces your level of stress and you gain insight on the next steps.

Clear Fear

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Anxiety

About: A Cognitive Behavioral framework to help change anxious thoughts/emotions, alter anxious behaviors and calm fear responses.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features:

• Information about the different kinds of anxiety
• Inspirational quotes
• A coping "safety net": what I can do, who I can call
• Guided activity to pull out of a panic attack
• Breathing exercises
• Self-monitoring for anxiety, activities, and goals
• Suggested activities to deal with emotions (expressing feelings, breathing, mindfulness, things to make you smile/laugh), manage worries (combating negative thoughts, putting worries in a "box," prioritize worries), react to worries (goals to stop overdoing and stop avoiding), and managing physical responses to anxiety (set goals for exercise, nutrition, sleep, and relaxation).

Comments/our experience using it: I really enjoy the layout of Clear Fear. It's easy to use and engaging. From what I understand, adolescents helped design it, and you can see how the graphics help to make the content less scary and less clinical. I like that you have the option to input your own inspirational quotes and positive affirmations. The main limitation appears to be that this app was created in the U.K and so under the safety net feature, the emergency numbers are for the U.K. It is not as convenient but 911 and other emergency numbers can still be programmed into the "who I can call" section of the safety net.

What’s Up?

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Anger, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and stress

About: Utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance Commitment Therapy methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features:

• Information and resources for immediate help (grounding exercises, breathing exercises, catastrophe scaling to put crises in perspective, forums, uplifting quotes, and positive affirmations)
• Coping skills (identifying cognitive distortions, metaphors to help explore thoughts, strategies to manage worries, and strategies to improve mood)
• Information about emotional wellness (commonly related thoughts, physical sensations, common behaviors, help identifying triggers, help changing behaviors, help coping with physical sensations)
• Personal tracking (daily events and moods as well as positive and negative habits).

Comments/our experience using it: What I really enjoy about What’s Up is that it isn’t overwhelming. If you utilize their grounding exercises, it immediately provides you with one task to do, not a list of several. You can refresh to get a different one if you need another or more, but I feel like this provides direction and limits overwhelming options in a moment that is already very overwhelming. You can also add your own quotes and positive affirmations to customize what most speaks to you.

Calm Harm

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Self Harm

About: Categories of tasks that target the main reasons for why people self-harm. Categories of Distract, Comfort, Express Yourself, and Release provide safe alternatives to self-injury.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Calm Harm educates using strategies from evidence-based DBT. The focus is on helping the user learn to identify and manage their ‘emotional mind’. The app teaches children and young people impulse control, emotional regulation and tracks underlying triggers to harmful urges. It also helps self-monitor and signposts to help.

Comments/our experience using it: Calm Harm is a relative of Clear Fear, so it has many similar benefits as listed above. I enjoyed that this app gives the user a variety of options that work for them to “ride the wave”. The app gives ideas on how to combat the urge by learning self-control, identify comfort strategies to care rather than harm, express the feelings in a different way, and/or release urges in a safe alternative to self-injury.

Insight Timer

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Meditation, mindfulness, wellness

About: A Cognitive Behavioral framework to help change anxious thoughts/emotions, alter anxious behaviors and calm fear responses.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Large library of more than 30k guided meditations; includes meditations to assist with sleep, stress, anxiety, and relaxation, etc (over 200 categories); includes meditations for children as well; the meditations can be anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.

Comments/our experience using it: I enjoy the variety on this app! It is a wonderful app for those who are just starting to get into meditation/mindfulness. It has a great amount of variety in the types of meditations and length of time. If you don’t particularly love one meditation or voice, there are plenty of other options! Highly suggest.

Cleveland Clinic Wellness

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Relaxation and mindfulness techniques

About: Helps to feel more in control of stressful emotions, allows you to enjoy the present tand worry less about the future, enables you to feel better about yourself and your life, reduces your risk of developing stress -related diseases.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Features 7 different relaxation techniques, offering different amounts of time

Comments/our experience using it: Easy to use; ranked highly for effectiveness. I have personally used this app and I love it. I can do a mindful meditation for 1 minute or a body scan for 20 minutes.

Breathe2Relax

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Stress management, PTSD

About: Teaches users diaphragmatic breathing. Works by decreasing the body's 'fight-or-flight' stress response.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features:

Comments/our experience using it: This app allows you to learn about the biology of stress, diaphragmatic breathing, and the effects of stress on the body.

PTSD Coach

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: PTSD

About: Provides education about PTSD, information about professional care, self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stress of daily life with PTSD.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, positive self-talk, and anger management.

Comments/our experience using it: You can customize tools based on your own individual needs and preferences, and integrate your own contacts, photos, and music.

GG-OC

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Aims to improve OCD symptoms , negative thinking, self esteem.

About: Increase individuals’ awareness of negative self-talk, better identify and challenge negative self-talk, increase individuals’ access to neutral and positive self-talk.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: This app takes the users through various levels, each consisting of short games around a specific theme, from how to automatically replace negative self-talk with positive thoughts, believe in change and build self-esteem.

Comments/our experience using it: The app presents you with different levels of thought. If the thought is negative you can drag it off of the screen; if it is positive you can drag it towards you.

Moodpath: Depression and Anxiety

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Depression and anxiety

About: Mood journal, questions 3 times daily, regular mental health reports, in-depth statistics, resources to help.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features:

Comments/our experience using it: I enjoyed this app, but the key is consistency. You have to access the app at least three times a day to get the effect. The app can send you notifications to get on the app and log your mood.

Happify

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Anxiety, depression, mindfulness

About: Science-based activities and games can help you overcome negative thoughts, stress, and challenges.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Interactive skills, articles, games, information, personalized activities

Comments/our experience using it: I enjoyed this app. It offers a personalized track with different exercises/activities, weekly check-ins, and you can make and see positive posts from other app users.

Youper

Download: Apple Store | Google Play

Focus: Emotional health

About: Quick conversations that checks on your emotional wellbeing, mimics a real-life conversation over text, adapts to your personal needs and wants.

Fees: Free

Other Info/Features: Quick conversations with a “bot” that checks on your emotional wellbeing; mimics a real-life conversation over text; adapts to your personal needs and wants.

Comments/our experience using it: I liked this app because it felt very realistic when typing back and forth with the bot. It assessed my feelings and helped me plan out goals. You can choose a mood you are feeling and it will help you "talk it out."