Great digital tools for mental health

The Covid 19 pandemic has exacerbated mental ill health issues across the globe. Initial outbreaks and lockdowns led to a spike in symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression worldwide.

The prolonged pandemic, has drastically altered working conditions, personal relationships, and peoples perception of the world and our fellow humans in it. To say that aspects of it have been divisive and traumatic is a huge understatement. Moving forward he resulting and economic recession will also increase the prevalence of mental health problems and disorders.

Mental illness is a complex and difficult issue that impacts the individual, their family, and society. For a multitude of reasons treatment is often delayed until it becomes severe or life-threatening. Mental illness can have serious impacts on individuals’ work, family relationships, education, and social life.

With greatly increased demand for mental health services, practitioners are under increasing pressure and so many people are turning to on-line resources to access support. There are a number of great digital tools that have been created to help people with mental health. They can be very useful for individuals who have a mental health condition and want to learn more about it, or for those who want to support a loved one and of course for those wanting to find tools to support their journey to well being.

No one is immune to mental health challenges. We all go through tough times from time-to-time, and it is important to have someone who understands what you are going through by your side. If you don't have a therapist on standby, these digital tools can help.

In this day and age of technology, we have a lot of on-line options that can help us to feel better. In this post, I will share some of the tools that are proving helpful for mental health.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 450 million people globally suffer from depression each year. To address this issue in an innovative way the UN has announced the launch of an initiative called #Unstigmaselfie which will help educate people about mental illnesses by sharing stories in

Headspace:

Headspace is an app that helps people to cope with stress and anxiety by teaching them breathing patterns and meditation techniques. It has been one of the most popular apps in the market because it's based on cognitive behavioral therapy and offers a starting point for beginners to learn more about mindfulness and meditation.

MoodKit:

This app encourages self-compassion and self-care by building an understanding of how our thoughts affect our moods and vice versa. The app has been developed in consultation with leading psychologists, occupational therapists and clinical psychiatrists to provide evidence

Another similar app that a lot of people rely on is Moodpath. This app offers a free personalized plan which will to teach you how to reduce stress, deal with anxiety, and manage emotions more effectively. This app provides real-time feedback about users' moods and how they are affecting their thought processes. It also offers suggestions for activities when users need to improve their moods

Anxiety self test:

This brief questionnaire will ask you about symptoms of anxiety and some other related issues: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/resources-support/digital-tools-apps/anxiety-self-test/

HeadGear:

A free, easy-to-use smartphone app that guides you through a 30–day mental fitness challenge designed to build resilience and wellbeing and prevent things like depression and anxiety. Based on techniques scientifically proven to build good mental health, it features a range of simple engaging daily activities to help reduce and manage stress, improve sleep, connect better with friends and deal with difficult situations.

Calm:

A very popular meditation app that has a great range of options from an excellent step by step beginner course to help you easily into the skills and process, more advanced levels, specific intention focused meditations and mini courses, consistency trackers and a library of sleep stories read by some iconic voices. Some elements are free but if you like it you will probably want to upgrade to access the full content.

Quit:

Increasing levels of unhealthy habits and addictions has been a hallmark of pandemic life. Quit is an app which helps individuals quit smoking by tracking their progress and providing tips and advice on how to avoid cravings.

Simplify:

Simplify, which is a personal assistant app, helps individuals organize their lives by making tasks accessible on mobile devices 24/7. This can be very helpful for those feeling lost, overwhelmed, scattered or stuck as it can provide direction, structure and a sense of accomplishment.