Five Apps for Positive Mental Health
February 2, 2015Following on from a blog post last year reviewing apps that can help you to improve your life skills, I thought I would share 5 apps that I have come across that aim to help with the management of mental health and wellbeing.
This
is a mental health monitoring app and is excellent for anyone looking
to develop a greater insight into their own mental health. It allows you
to keep track of symptoms, staying well strategies, triggers and
symptoms with the option of also adding diary style entries in the notes
section. The app is customisable so you can tweak the prompts to fit
your own circumstances. With the pre-sets the app is excellent for someone looking to monitor conditions such as depression and anxiety but it is also easy to customise it and add in psychotic symptoms. This makes it a very versatile app for monitoring and managing a wide range of mental health issues.
The app also allows you to view the data you've entered in a reports format and this can come in especially handy if you are having regular mental health appointments as it can provide some concrete data to back up your sense of how you have been over a given period.
The app also allows you to view the data you've entered in a reports format and this can come in especially handy if you are having regular mental health appointments as it can provide some concrete data to back up your sense of how you have been over a given period.
The
app is available for both Mac and Windows devices or via a web
browser. When I tested this app originally a year ago there was a small
charge (around £1) but judging by the information on the website the
app can now be accessed for free. This maybe a 'lite' version with
slightly less features but, even with a small charge, the app is worth
every penny.
This app is designed to assist in the development of a healthy relationship with food. It was originally designed to assist people recovering from an eating disorder but can equally be used by anyone who is looking to establish healthier eating patterns and combat emotional eating. The app doesn't focus on your weight, calories or exercise and it's message is extremely positive. Its role is to assist you to eat regular meals and enhance mindfulness when eating so as to identify emotional triggers that may to problematic eating patterns.
It offers a meal log, which allows you to log your meals and your moods, a selection of coping strategies such as journal activities and mindfulness exercises and a check-in facility where you can log how you are feeling using a sliding scale and a customisable list of emotions. The app also provides a playlist of music that promotes positive body image and self confidence and podcasts relating to developing a healthier relationship with food. The app also has the security feature of allowing you to add a PIN code.
This app is currently only available for Mac devices and is being developed for Androids too. You can sign up to receive an email when the app is available to Android devices.
This is a more specific mental health app designed to help you to monitor your mood and anxiety levels. You can log your mood and anxiety levels as often as you like and you rate them on a sliding scale going from one to ten. There is also space for notes so you can record any specific events, triggers and feelings.
The app is very straight forward and easy to use and is helpful for anyone looking to understand their mood and anxiety levels. The app also allows the user to measure high, elated moods associated with Bipolar Affective Disorder and Schizoaffective Disorder. The app has the optional security feature of a PIN code and has the ability to produce reports over a chosen period and these can be viewed on the screen or sent via email. The app is free to download but is currently only available to Mac devices.
As the name suggests, this app is for females who are interested in tracking their periods and any associated changes in mood, behaviour and fertility throughout the month. I have included the app here as it is incredibly versatile and the moods and behaviours being tracked can be customised to suit the individuals needs.
Each daily entry gives the option of adding diary notes, information on period, fertility and sexual activity (which is entirely optional), a comprehensive and customisable list of symptoms which can be rated in severity (mild, moderate and severe), a list of moods and optional information on medication, weight and temperature. The app could be useful to any women wishing to track changes to their mental health over the course of their monthly cycle and has the option of viewing data in the form of reports. The app could also be used to assist in family planning.
This app is designed to assist anyone experiencing high levels of anxiety and provides a choice of four short, guided relaxation exercises, including a grounding exercise which maybe helpful someone experiencing flashbacks or who feels uncomfortable with visualisation exercises. There is also a choice of 24 relaxing sounds including the sound of a cat purring, monks chanting and birdsong. You can play one of these sounds or a combination of them and there is is option of playing these using a timer so that they automatically stop after a given time period.
The app also includes a selection of positive affirmations, an Emotional Freedom Technique exercise involving tapping and transcripts of the audio relaxation exercises. The app is presently only available for Mac devices and comes with a small charge, but hopefully the developers will also look at making it available to other devices.
Posted by K Clark. Posted In : Managing Stress
I am experienced mental health worker with 15 years experience working with young people and adults with enduring mental health needs. I have set up this blog to share some of the tips and skills I have learnt along the way. If you have any suggestions or particular questions you would like me to answer feel free to email me at 
