Apps for your Mental Wellbeing – over the past couple of weeks I have been trying out different apps that you can download to your phone that may be useful in supporting your mental and emotional wellbeing. Most of the apps below are free, but may contain in app purchases.
Woebot is an anxiety, depression and mindfulness tool, aimed at reducing stress and helping you to feel better. Woebot is an automated Cognitive Behavioural Therapy coach that can help you think through situations or problems with step-by-step CBT guidance. When you log on to woebot you can:
- reflect on how you are doing
- work on a problem
- work on a goal
- do some journaling
- fill in a gratitude diary
I found Woebot useful. It helped me at times when I was feeling anxious to ground myself, and clam myself down, and it did help me to think through problems that I had and see things in a different way or in alternative ways. I also liked the fact that Woebot would check in on me once a day. (There is an option in the settings where you can choose when Woebot will check in on you).
Woebot is free and on the whole I found using Woebot a positive experience and found it helpful and useful. However, there was a point where it wasn’t a substitute for speaking to a real person.
Worry Tree is a self-help app to help you manage your worry and find relief from anxiety. The app uses CBT techniques thought diaries and gratitude journals .
When I tried Worry Tree it took me through the following steps:
- It asked me to give my worry and name and describe it in detail.
- It then asked me to assign it a category, e.g. money, family, work.
- It then asked me if I could do anything about the worry.
- If I said yes it asked me what I was going to do, how I was going to do it and when I was going to do.
- If I said no, I couldn’t resolve the worry, it asked me if I wanted to schedule time at a later day to come back to the worry and then suggested ways in which I could move on from the worry or distract myself by mindfully changing my focus.
The app keeps track of the worries for you, so that you don’t have to, and you can come back to them later and mark them as resolved.
I tried the basic version of this app. There is a premium version for £17.99 a year or £1.99 a month, with the premium version more CBT tools are unlocked. I found this app ok to use but it didn’t offer as much support as Woebot.
The Worry Dolls app is similar to Worry Tree. When you log on you see a row of dolls you tell the doll your worry, and it tells you “Now this worry is with me.” You can go back and add more to the worry and the doll will hold it for you. When you feel the worry is over you can tell the doll.
Worry Dolls might be more suited to children or young people. I found the app interesting and I felt there were times when I would find it useful to put my worry somewhere in this way so that I didn’t have to carry it or remember it. However, I felt that for me there were limitations to this app.
Magic Fluid
There are many similar apps to the Magic Fluid app. This app is aimed at helping you to calm down and relax. As you touch the screen you see swirls of light and colour moving across the screen. You have the option to choose what kind of light and colour you see, whether it is like a fire work of the sea, or fire or liquid. You can also have it play relaxing music at the same time.
I tried the basic version of this app, there is an in app purchase for the full version. I found using this app that it was a useful distraction tool, when I was feeling anxious and stressed or needed to calm my mind I found this an effective way of doing this.
The Antistress app is full of relaxation toys. When you want to unwind your mind or relax, or need to distract yourself this app probably has something to take your mind off things. There are traditional type games on the app, such as darts, bowling and solitaire, along side lots of fidget type games, buttons you can press, stress balls, a newton’s cradle, toothpaste you can squeeze, a fidget spinner and slime.
I tried the basic version of this app that came with ads. There is an in app purchase for the app without ads. I really enjoyed this app and found that it had loads of things to occupy me, even with the ads I would still use it. It is definitely something I could reach out for if I needed to distract my mind.
Using technology to support our emotional and mental wellbeing is useful in providing us with that instant support. However, there is no substitute for professional help. If you are struggling with any issue and would like formal help and would like to make an appointment with Paul, please call Paul on 07843 813 537 or fill in the form on the Contact Page, if he doesn’t answer he is probably in a session, please leave him a message and he will call you back as soon as he can.
A previous blog on our website that you might find useful
