Top 5 Apps For Mental Health You Can Use This 2020

Mindful PH highlights some of the best apps for mental health this year.

But first, are mobile 📱 apps for mental health good enough to replace therapy or medications?

Our answer? Why not give it a try? 🙏

Remember that response to any kind of mental health treatment varies from one person to another. There is no single formula for success. Some of us respond very well to a combination of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and anti-depressants, while some of us can go with medications alone. Perhaps the best thing to do is before trying to choose any treatment plan of choice, you may consider relying on the benefits of subscribing to these mental health apps. After all, most of the apps available are well-capable of helping you meditate, relax and sleep. Should you find no immediate or long-term relief, it is recommended to consider other types of treatments best suited to your condition

These digital tools are also designed to provide CBT methods to cope with anxiety and depression. Downloading them is free, but a lot of apps require in-app purchases to experience the full suite of services. Some of them are reasonably priced while some apps can also charge quite a hefty fee. But the bottom line is, you can choose among a wide range of apps that can help you provide relief and at the same time aligned with your budget.

So let's find out  🔎which apps out there are popular and very useful in improving your mental health this year.

1. What's Up

(Free, iOS, Android)

What’s up uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Stress, etc. Features are quite easy to navigate and we particularly like the 'Help Right Now' quick tool which provides you instant coping methods for immediate relief such as grounding and breathing control. 

There is a 'My Diary' 🖊as well for journaling activities as well as 'Notes' Page and 'Habits Tracking'

It's absolutely free and quite simple. The only downside is, if you look for features such as sleep problem reliefs and meditation, you have to find it somewhere else.

2. Mind Shift

(Free, iOS, Android)

I really love Mind Shift. First off, they have a daily mood/feeling tracker to keep track of your moods. For anxiety relief features, it contains information, signs, and tips for each type of anxiety - General Worry, Social Anxiety, Perfectionism, Panic and Phobias. The good thing about Mind Shift is it is also very educational, it gives you definitions of each type of anxiety feelings and you may validate your symptoms by checking out the 'signs' ⚠ tools.

What's more? Goal setting! Yes, you can define your goals and keep track of your daily progress.

And most especially, it is absolutely free. No in-app purchases required :)

3. Headspace

(Free to download, Premium Monthly Plan - Php 149, iOS and Android)

I am loving Headspace lately. The free version is a little bit restrictive as it only gives you very few tools to meditate and sleep well. I decided to subscribe to the monthly premium subscription (which will give you full access to all premium tools and content) and it was one of the best decisions so far. It is comparably cheaper than most paid apps which charge up to 5X the price of Headspace premium plans. So for me, the price is right 👌

So what do you get in a premium plan? Headspace may not be your go-to app for quick relief or immediate coping companion (such as What's Up and Mind Shift), but is your perfect buddy for meditation (body scan, breathing, guided/unguided and semi-guided), focusing, visualization and mindfulness.

If you are having sleep problems, Headspace has a huge content of sleeping 😴💤 tools such as Sleepcasts (story-telling); SOS (guided meditation for waking-up abruptly at night); and Sleep Music (Calming Music)

Headspace for me has one of the widest variety of content that you can use to make yourself mindful and productive.

4. Woebot

(Free, iOS, Android)

Do you need someone to talk to? Woebot may not be a human (yes, he is a robot 🤖), but don't underestimate the power of this AI-Genius.

Woebot may not be a full replacement for person to person therapy, Woebot can be the perfect choice for virtual talk therapy. and can help you challenge most of your NAT (Negative Automatic Thoughts). It helps you identify your distorted thoughts/feelings which aggravates your anxiety and gives you real-life examples on how to reverse these unwanted thoughts and leave the app with a more positive outlook.

Woebot may be an AI (responses and conversations may appear canned and templated sometimes) but quite often, it actually feels like an honest and casual interaction with someone (especially if you engage with Woebot regularly, daily at most).

Woebot also makes sure that your progress is tracked regularly and you'll feel like you have a dedicated buddy even if you are busy outside of the app.

Give this 🤖a chance 🙆

5. Omvana

(Free to Download, Optional Addtl Content - Php 99 - Php 249, iOS and Android)

Arguably maybe the best meditation app, but Headspace is not a distant option. Similar to Headspace, Omvana is an amazing app for mindfulness, meditation and sleep improvement.

Omvana's popular content is the '6 Phase Meditation' and it is quite useful and the guiding voice is soothing is relaxing.

It also has a huge library of content to help you be mindful and productive. There is a sleep improvement and deep sleep companion as well which can be useful with someone who has sleeping problems.

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So there you go, remember that there are hundreds of apps available out there, and feel free to explore and try each app in the marketplace and find out which of those apps can help you manage your symptoms and provide relief with or without other treatment plans (medications or therapy).

Disclaimer: Apps are chosen based on user's feedback and not based on any scientific methods)