35 Best Mobile Apps for Mental Health
With the recent suicides of famous celebs like Avicii (superstar DJ-producer), Dolores O’Riordan (musician, The Cranberries), Kate Spade (fashion designer), to Anthony Bourdain (food author, curator), I thought it’d be a good time to consolidate as many mental health apps as I could find to share.
The good news is there’s been a proliferation of mental health apps available on a smartphone today; making my search a cinch. These mental health apps offer a wealth of resources that make therapeutic techniques more accessible, portable, and cost-effective.
Within minutes, you can start using the app and incorporate techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment in your daily routine.
Best Mobile Apps for Mental Health
Here’s a list of the top 35 apps that can help to enhance your well-being and look after your mental health.
Best General Apps
- What’s Up? is a fantastic free app utilizing 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!
- MoodKit is a one-of-a-kind app designed to help you apply effective strategies of professional psychology to your everyday life! Developed by two clinical psychologists (co-creators of Moodnotes), MoodKit draws upon the principles and techniques of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), one of the most effective and scientifically supported methods of psychotherapy. MoodKit’s innovative design enables it to be used on its own or to enhance professional treatment.
Best Addiction Apps
- Twenty-Four Hours a Day – Find inspiration anywhere, at any time, with Hazelden Publishing’s Twenty-Four Hours a Day app featuring all 366 daily meditations from the classic best-selling meditation book for people in recovery from addiction. At the touch of a fingertip, Twenty-Four Hours a Day becomes your companion, making it easy to focus on your sobriety wherever you are. Practicing the Twelve Steps has never been more accessible.
- Quit That! is a simple app to track all of the stuff you are trying to quit. Want to quit smoking? Quit That! Looking to stop drinking soda? Quit That! too. There’s no limit on how many things you can quit.
Best Anxiety Apps
- Anxiety Relief Hypnosis can help you reduce anxious thoughts and improve your relaxation response, resetting your behavior for a healthier response to stress.
- MindShift is an app designed to help teens and young adults cope with anxiety. It can help you change how you think about anxiety. Rather than trying to avoid anxiety, you can make an important shift and face it. MindShift will help you learn how to relax, develop more helpful ways of thinking, and identify action steps that will help you take charge of your anxiety.
- Self-help for Anxiety Management (SAM) is a friendly app that offers a range of self-help methods for people who are serious about learning to manage their anxiety. SAM has been developed by a university team of psychologists, computer scientists, and student users. Established methods of self-help have been combined with high standards of usability to provide an engaging, flexible, and practical resource.
- Thought Diary will help you evaluate, understand, and change your thoughts and feelings. By using this application, you can work to identify your emotions, analyze how and why you’re feeling this way, challenge those negative beliefs, and change your thinking patterns for future situations.
Best Bipolar Disorder Apps
- iMoodJournal – This beautiful app is the ultimate journal, personal diary, and mood charting tool. It can track not only mood but anything you like: sleep, medication, symptoms, stress and anxiety, energy level, cycles, etc. It will help you discover the causes of your ups and downs, and get surprising insights into yourself!
- Stigma: Mood Tracker & Journal provides you with a safe way to build your support network, journal what’s on your mind, and keep track of your mood.
Best Depression Apps
- Lantern – A mobile app with programs that provide effective, affordable support for emotional well-being. Each time you use Lantern, you’ll learn new techniques proven to reduce stress, or practice and strengthen your skills. Your coach is a real person assigned to you to help encourage, support, and orient you as you progress through the program.
- Talkspace Online Therapy is a platform that connects users with a licensed therapist. Whether you’re experiencing symptoms of stress, feeling depressed, or having anxiety attacks, Talkspace is the place for you. It’s also great for couples that need a new spark of motivation, to relieve tension and to increase positive feelings in their relationship. We will connect you with a dedicated, licensed therapist for on-demand, private text, audio, and video chat therapy, anywhere and anytime. All in the palm of your hand, on your phone or web browser!
- Happify – Get ready to reduce stress, overcome negative thoughts, and build greater resilience. 86% of people who use Happify regularly report feeling better about their lives in 2 months!
- MoodTools is designed to help you combat depression and alleviate your negative moods, aiding you on your road to recovery.
Best Eating Disorder Apps
- Recovery Record is the smart companion for managing your journey to recovery from eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. This app is also intended for people with general eating, weight, and shape concerns.
- WhatsMyM3 is based on a research-validated screen that in 3 minutes assesses your risk of depression, bipolar and anxiety, and PTSD. After completing the short checklist you receive a personalized confidential report sharing how much burden these symptoms may be causing you. Please reach out to a professional or go directly to the emergency room should you feel a need for help.
- iCBT helps you manage stress and anxiety whenever and wherever you need to. Manage stress and anxieties with iCBT, a personal-use tool for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that is always with you when you need it. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been proven to be the most effective psychological therapy for a range of problems including PTSD, panic attacks, generalized anxiety, OCD, and some eating disorders, and is among the most effective for depression and some personality disorders.
Best OCD Apps
- nOCD helps people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) manage the condition: think “no OCD.” It was designed with the help of OCD specialists and patients to incorporate clinically effective treatment methods like Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) and mindfulness.
- Worry Watch app is designed to capture and reflect on those momentary self-realizations. By logging ‘what might happen’ perception from day one and tracking it to ‘what did happen’ reality, we may get a deeper understanding of our worry/anxiety patterns. Such an understanding may help us challenge our negative perceptions and change our future thought patterns in a positive way.
- Live OCD Free is an interactive application designed to guide users through the only evidence-based treatment, Exposure, and Response Prevention (ERP), for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Best PTSD Apps
- PTSD Coach was designed for those who have or may have, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This app provides you with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD.
- Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool that provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and instructions and practices exercises to help users learn the stress management skill called diaphragmatic breathing. Breathing exercises have been documented to decrease the body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ (stress) response, and help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management.
Best Schizophrenia Apps
- Schizophrenia Health Storylines – Developed in partnership with the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America (SARDAA), this app makes it easier to record details and specifics about symptoms, medication, moods, and more. Choose what you want to track, and see all the information you need to help you or your loved one who is living with schizophrenia and related disorders.
- UCSF Prime: The ultimate goal of PRIME is to inspire young people with schizophrenia to improve quality of life. PRIME includes social networking with relatable peers, goal setting focused on promoting well being, and access to mental health motivational coaches to support users in improving their lives. PRIME has developed at the UCSF, DRIVE lab in collaboration with IDEO, the global design firm, Wolox software boutique, and with individuals with schizophrenia and their family members. Clinical trials for the use of PRIME and its effects on improving quality of life are underway.
Best Stress Apps
- Shine makes it easier for you to take care of yourself. Every morning, we’ll send you a conversational experience around your wellbeing, with research-backed content around confidence, daily happiness, mental health, and productivity.
- Headspace is the simple way to reframe stress. Sleep trouble? Meditation creates the ideal conditions for a good night’s rest. Relax with guided meditations and mindfulness techniques that bring calm, wellness and balance to your life in just a few minutes a day.
- Calm is the #1 app for mindfulness and meditation to bring more clarity, joy, and peace to your daily life. Join the millions experiencing less anxiety and better sleep with our guided meditations, Sleep Stories, breathing programs, and relaxing music. Recommended by top psychologists and mental health experts to help you de-stress. Calm is the perfect meditation app for beginners, but also includes hundreds of programs for intermediate and advanced users.
- Aloe Bud is an all-in-one, self-care pocket companion. It gently brings awareness to self-care activities, using encouraging push notifications, rather than guilt or shame.
- Moodnotes empower you to track your mood over time, avoid common thinking traps, and develop perspectives associated with increased happiness and well-being.
- Moodpath is an interactive mental health screening and improvement program that detects symptoms of depression. After answering questions concerning your emotional and physical well-being you receive a professional assessment of your mental health that you can share and discuss with your physician or therapist. Moodpath is a CE-certified medical product and does not collect any personal data.
- Pacifica gives you psychologist-designed tools to address them based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness meditation, relaxation, and mood/health tracking. Stress, anxiety, and depression are caused by an ongoing cycle of negative thoughts. Thoughts cause physical feelings and emotions which cause actions. Pacifica helps break this cycle using tools that target each of its components. Day by day, you’ll learn to manage stress, anxiety, and depression at your own pace. We’re not about quick fixes or false promises. We are about real progress, a day at a time.
- SuperBetter is a tool created by game designers and backed by science. Playing SuperBetter helps build personal resilience: the ability to stay strong, motivated, and optimistic even in the face of difficult challenges. Resilience has a powerful effect on health—by boosting physical and emotional well-being. Resilience also helps you achieve your life goals—by strengthening your social support and increasing your stamina, willpower, and focus.
- 7 Cups of Tea is an online emotional support service. Through a secure, anonymous bridging technology, we connect those in need of emotional support with our network of Active Listeners, individuals from all walks of life who want to provide compassionate care. Connections to Listeners are private, one-on-one conversations initiated on demand.
- RealifeChange is your own portable life coach, designed to take all of the social interactions, moods, decisions, discoveries, and emotions that you experience each day and provide you with meaningful, actionable feedback to help coach you in your journey towards a better life.
- StressScan – Just place a finger over the camera for two minutes, and StressScan will analyze changes in your heart rate and scientifically measure the level of your mental and physical stress on a scale of 1 to 100.
If you or someone is suffering from any of these conditions, please seek some kind of help; whether it be an app or therapy.
Stay well!
Founder, Editor-In-Chief // A native Angeleno. John studied engineering at UCLA; founded Schmoozd, an offline social tech networking event in LA with 30,000 subs; ran a startup accelerator (StartEngine). Worked for several major brands like Toyota, DIRECTV, Hitachi, ICANN, and Raytheon. A mentor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Entrepreneur School, Dr. David Choi. And advises a dozen local LA startups building amazing tech in various industries; and invested in some. // Let's Connect: john@lastartups.com
