Anxiety and depression disorders are the most common mental illness, affecting millions of adults today. The rising health care costs and struggle to pay them, when needed, make the situation more worrisome. Fortunately, there are scores of apps that offer Drug-Free Ways to battle anxiety and depression. We have listed 5 best apps to help you fight anxiety and depression. The best part is, these apps have no interest in judging you but provide all the help needed to improve your mental health—on your terms.
How to fight anxiety and depression in 2020
Feeling or experiencing a lack of control over a situation can lead to stress which, when left unchecked, leads to anxiety, and even depression. In such cases, antianxiety drugs can help ease your anxiety, but this serenity mostly comes with a price tag in the form of side effects. Some mental-health and mindfulness apps can help you overcome it and arrest its further spread.
- Headspace
- Happify
- Sanvello
- TalkLife
- Calm
While there’s no substitute for seeking help from a mental health professional, making meaningful changes to your daily routine through these apps can go a long way towards helping you manage your stress and anxiety.
1] Headspace
If you are desirous of a joyful or well-rested life, try spending a few minutes of your daily time with the Headspace app. It makes meditation accessible to everyone. The app features rich meditation lessons and mindfulness skills from world-class experts. The content in the app also is very well organized and the methodology/philosophy is explained thoroughly via fun-to-watch animations. The foundational aspects of meditation cover your first 10 sessions for free, Thereafter, additional exercises can be accessed through a monthly subscription plan starting at $12.99, and a lifetime subscription costing $399.99. So, it’s a bit pricey and likely to cost you more than your monthly Netflix subscription. Headspace App Store link.
2] Happify
It’s often remarkable resilience that helps you recover quickly from adverse conditions. Happify aims to build this quality of greater resilience by providing effective tools and programs to improve emotional well-being. The app’s science-based activities and games can help any person suffering from mental health issues overcome negative thoughts, stress, and life’s challenges. All the activities are easy, morally uplifting, and don’t take too long to complete.
A yearly subscription fee of $ 60 ($4.99 a month) for the Happify app would prove $20 cheaper than two weekly visits to an old therapist under insurance!
3] Sanvello
The Sanvello mobile app intends to provide relief from symptoms of anxiety and depression using mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills. Its range of tools and techniques helps users to handle stress, manage emotions and reach out for help, in case of emergency situations. For example, the app notifications give users daily reminders to check in with their feelings and record their mood on their app. If they’re struggling with something, options are available for self-help or to seek support from the community, readily.
You can get premium monthly access of Sanvello app for a price of $3.99.
4] Talkspace
Meditation can help people stress less, focus more and even sleep better but for an app that’s built to provide face-to-face therapy, things work in a different way. Talkspace serves as a medium via which you can speak to a licensed therapist from your phone, tablet or computer and seek treatment to improve your mental health. Many find it effective or even better than in-person therapy.
A simple sign-up process gives you virtual access to thousands of licensed therapists across the 50 U.S. states, vetted and accredited according to NCQA standards. These mental health experts have experience of treating the most common mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, substance use, stress, relationships, PTSD, and more.
Unlike in-person therapy, which costs somewhere between $150 – $200 for each weekly session, Talkspace’s therapy and counseling service offer a subscription service, starting at only $65/week (billed monthly). All plans support unlimited messaging, and you can even choose to add live video sessions. Moreover, if you are not happy with the service provided, you can change therapists or stop subscription renewal at any time.
Try Talkspace app.
5] Calm
The Calm app has been specifically designed to promote relaxation through meditation, sleep stories, nature images, and sounds. Its latest version includes a new mood check-in feature that allows a user to reflect his mood during the day. Meditations, the major feature of the app is organized into several distinct categories, including,
- Stress
- Anxiety,
- Emotions
- Focus
- Relationships, and others.
It helps you begin your session by resting or settling your mind first, then, eventually guiding you to focus on something specific. The app has programs for both, intermediate as well as advanced users. A yearly subscription of the app is billed around $60.00.
Hope that makes sense!