As mental health services shift from the traditional setting of face-to-face office visits and into the online world, countless mental health apps are emerging. Discerning the best mental health apps from the rest is daunting, so Choosing Therapy is doing the work by showcasing the best mental health apps to meet your needs in 2021.
Best General Mental Health Apps
Think of the best general mental health apps as Swiss Army Knives. They may not specialize in any one purpose, but when you are in need, they can offer a wide range of services to assist. The best general mental health apps offer various treatments at several price points, making treatment available to nearly everyone.
Talkspace
Talkspace offers an online therapy service for those looking to replace or supplement their traditional mental health therapy. It is a great general mental health app option because in one service, people can receive individual counseling, marriage counseling, and therapy plans focused on improving sleep. Talkspace plans can include medication management with appointments and prescriptions delivered by certified psychiatrists.
The bulk of Talkspace therapy services are completed through the app as short email-like messages between the user and their therapist. This means that at any time and place someone feels the need to reach out, they can send a quick message to their therapist. Therapists will generally respond once or twice each day with a message of encouragement or a new intervention to try.
Talkspace requires a regular payment ranging from about $200 to $400 each month.
Youper
For those seeking a more affordable and 21st century approach to mental health, Youper is a deserving contender. The Youper mental health app connects users to a virtual mental health assistant named Youper, who guides people through tips, tools, and information to help understand and change mental health.
Based on sound theoretical evidence and clinical research, Youper utilizes concepts from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to move your mental health forward. Youper can teach people about mental health, track their symptoms, and offer helpful techniques to adjust thinking and behaviors. Offering services for under $4 per month, Youper could be worth a try for people needing a mental health boost.
7 Cups of Tea
For people who really desire the care and compassion only a live person can offer, 7 Cups (of Tea) could be the mental health app for them. At any time, a user can log onto the app to chat with a trained listener who offers kindness, patience, and understanding. Although these “active listeners” are not necessarily mental health experts, they are devoted individuals who take classes and pass an exam to be included in the app.
The active listeners are the center of the app, but it also provides community forums and ways to progress to goals called “growth paths.” Additional features, including group chats with other users become unlocked after using the app consistently. 7 Cups promotes a paid version for about $150 per month, but the active listeners are available in the free version, which makes 7 Cups a tremendous value and worth a try for most people.
Best Apps for Anxiety
If someone can identify anxiety as their primary issue, an app specifically designed for managing anxiety symptoms will be ideal. Fortunately, many apps for anxiety exist to help add comfort or avoid your worry and tension. Some of the best include Calm, AntiStress Anxiety Relief Game, and Dare.
Calm
For anyone seeking out a way to diminish their anxiety quickly and effectively, the Calm app could be a great option. By targeting anxiety through improving sleep, relaxation, and meditation skills, Calm may be helpful for people struggling with many forms of anxiety,
One of the best features of Calm is its focus on sleeping, which tends to become lower in quality and quantity when anxiety is high. Calm provides nature sounds, relaxations, and sleep stories to help people get more rest, so they can wake feeling rested and ready for the day. Calm premium version is about $70 yearly.
AntiStress Anxiety Relief Game
Only available on the Apple App Store, AntiStress Anxiety Relief Game provides more than a dozen games built to distract from anxiety. Dealing with anxiety around-the-clock is draining, so this game provides moments of respite and relief.
Games allow users to play with digital fidget spinners, watch the sand move through hourglasses, break light bulbs, smash wood and bricks, pop bubble wrap, and connect pipes to direct water. The tasks in AntiStress Anxiety Relief Game may not cure anxiety, but it can provide a much-needed separation between you and your anxiety. The app offers a free version and in-app purchase to remove ads and unlock more games for $20.
Dare
Dare helps people acknowledge and address their fears and worries in a direct way. Though it may seem comfortable to avoid and escape anxiety for long periods of time, Dare recognizes the idea that anxiety does not go away without active efforts.
Mental health professionals use desensitization techniques to have their clients confront their worries so stress dissipates with time. Dare uses audio recordings to help people identify their worries and face their fears, instead of retreating from them. If your level of anxiety is severe, you may want to consult a professional before trying this app. The app is free, with premium options costing just $10 yearly.
Best Apps for Depression
Like with anxiety, the best apps for depression may help people identify and confront their symptoms or simply avoid them for moments of time. With such a variety of available options, even people with chronic or intense depression can find some benefit to using apps for depression like Daylio Journal, Happify, and Betterhelp.
Daylio Journal
So many people realize that they don’t like the way they feel, but they may not know why. The Daylio Journal app can help people discover exactly what they are feeling and bring any patterns or triggers to light.
After a short time using the app, it begins outputting useful graphs and statistics to provide more information about how and when certain feelings present. Whether you are working with a therapist or trying to improve your self-monitoring abilities, Daylio Journal could prove invaluable. The app is free, with the top premium option costing $24.
Happify
Rather than dwelling on low mood and other depressive symptoms in an attempt to shrink their influence, people may benefit from adding a level of fun to their lives. Happify aims to accomplish this by offering science-based games to overcome negative thoughts.
Using a combination of skills from mindfulness, CBT, and positive psychology, Happify conceals sound therapeutic techniques as fun and engaging games. According to the app, Happify helps 86% of users feel better about their lives in just two months of regular use. Happify unlocks all content for $140 per year.
Betterhelp
People with a few depressive symptoms or very mild depressive disorders may be well-maintained with an app to manage their condition, but those with more significant disorders will need increased services and support from a therapist. Apps like Betterhelp can provide therapy alternatives with licensed professionals to assess and guide treatment.
With an available combination of text and live therapy options, Betterhelp can more closely replicate the benefits of traditional therapy all from the palm of your hand. The cost will be substantially more than other apps in this category, but no one should be frugal when it comes to their mental health and wellness. Betterhelp is available for $35 per week when paying for a one year plan.
Best Apps for Mindfulness & Meditation
The topic of mindfulness lends itself well to an app. Using a phone to guide a person through a meditative exercise is an effective and convenient way to build their skills, which can reduce stress and increase well-being. Some of the best mindfulness apps include 10% Happier, Headspace, and Mindfulness Daily.
Ten Percent Happier
Ten Percent Happier is a wonderful introduction to mindfulness and meditative practices because it offers users a clear explanation and introduction to the practice. Rather than jumping into challenging and complex exercises, Ten Percent Happier provides a step-by-step process complete with short videos that accompany audio-guided meditations.
As people progress through the exercises, they can unlock various mindful exercises, depending on the intensity and style they seek, led by experts in the field. The Ten Percent Happier app costs about $100 per year, but it offers depth that will keep people engaged.
Headspace
Headspace offers many of the benefits of Ten Percent Happier at a 30% discount. This app comes loaded with mindfulness techniques, help for sleep, and Move Mode, which encourages people to perform physical and mental exercises simultaneously. With this depth of interventions, Headspace can be the go-to app anytime from early morning to late at night.
Mindfulness Daily
Those interested in a free option for mindfulness apps should try Mindfulness Daily. The app starts modestly by asking users to engage in mindfulness exercises just a few minutes each day in order to build new, healthy habits.
Like Ten Percent Happier, Mindfulness Daily offers a guided track to follow. For anyone intimated or unsure about trying mindfulness for the first time or reestablishing a routine, Mindfulness Daily is a great choice because of its price and gradual introduction.
Best Apps for Stress Relief
Maybe your mental health has not progressed to the point of feeling anxious or depression, but high stress is beginning to wear you down. Using a stress relief app can help to reduce symptoms and stem the flow before concerns can grow. Some of the best stress relief apps include Colorfy, Breathwrk, and Reflectly.
Colorfy
In recent years, adult coloring books have become a mainstream way to address periods of high stress, and the Colorfy apps brings the benefits of coloring to the smartphone. By choosing a freehand coloring or click-and-fill option, people of all skill levels can lose themselves in the world of intricate mandalas and other images. With Colorfy, you can leave the books, coloring pages, and pencils at home. All content can be unlocked for $20.
Breathwrk
One of the most helpful tools for reducing stress is deep, diaphragmatic breathing, but since people may have had poor success with the practice, they are quick to ignore the potential benefits. Breathwrk helps by teaching these valuable skills in a clear and controlled way to maximize success. Whether you want to fall asleep, relax, de-stress after a long day, or boost your energy, Breathwrk has a breathing exercise that could help meet your needs. Breathwrk premium costs $20.
Reflectly
Like deep breathing, journaling is a wonderful tool that many people dismiss because it seems too challenging to maintain or too confusing to do “right.” Reflectly hopes to diminish these journaling barriers by prompting people to write and reflect on their days, their thoughts, their feelings, and their stresses.
After adding your feelings, Reflectly intelligently gathers information about your stress and trends. The app also offers some tools to shift your mindset towards being more positive and hopeful, while shrinking stress and tension. For $60 per year, Reflectly offers advanced statistics, new questions, and unlimited stories.
Best Apps for Kids & Teens
Since kids and teens enjoy spending time on their phones and tablets, sneaking in some apps that encourage mental health, improve coping skills, and boost relaxation is a win-win. The best apps for this age group will focus on prevention, communication skills, and tools like meditation and relaxation, which they can use throughout their life. Some of the best mental health apps for kids and teens include Mindshift, Cosmic Kids, and Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame.
Mindshift
Specially designed for teens and adolescents who need some assistance building self-monitoring and understanding their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, Mindshift is a tremendous and free app. It can assist people hoping to learn more about their mental health resolve issues ranging from panic attacks to test anxiety.
Mindshift provides CBT interventions to help kids shift their thinking, breathe and relax, and change their behaviors. With medals and accomplishments, the app encourages use to keep the kids coming back.
Cosmic Kids
Getting kids to think about their mental health from an early age can help later in life, and Cosmic Kids targets kids from the 3-9 range. With yoga and mindfulness exercises disguised as fun and interactive videos, kids can learn about feelings and emotions before they learn the alphabet.
Cosmic kids is a paid service with an app and videos on the web, so the whole family can join in the activities. A yearly membership costs about $65.
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
Usually engaging kids means distracting them from another interest, but Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame leverages the appeal of familiar muppets to improve mental health. Even the youngest kids will respond to the breathe, think, do strategy.
The free app is intended for kids ages two to five with the goals of improving problem solving, self-control, planning, and persistence. New daily challenges help to maintain interest in the learning and practicing skills.
Best Apps for Sleep
Apps that help reduce stress or beat back anxiety can sometimes help improve sleep, but at times, people need a dedicated application. Not only can the best sleep apps increase quality and quantity of sleep, but they can also help build healthy routines and help you understand barriers to your sleep. Some of the best sleeping apps include Sleep Cycle, Noisily, and Pzizz.
Sleep Cycle
Too often, people are so focused on falling asleep that they do not consider their quality of sleep. Sleep Cycle emerges as a great option for sleeping apps because it tracks and analyzes the user’s sleep with help from the phone’s microphone and vibration detection. With this technology, the app can wake you at the most ideal time based on your sleep cycle.
Sleep Cycle can also note if the user is snoring, which could be a sign of poor sleep. Like any other physical or mental health concern, a person must understand their baseline functioning, and this app helps collect a lot of needed data. The premium version is $40 per year and unlocks more information and customization for better sleep.
Noisli
Basic sleep hygiene emphasizes the need for a calm, dark, and cool environment for sleep to be most beneficial. Noisli can help with the sound of the room by offering an extensive library of sounds and soundscapes for inducing calm and relaxation.
If the sounds of a gentle rain, a thunderstorm, crashing waves, or a coffee shop seem soothing, Noisli could be your app. With dedicated playlists and sounds to help with sleep, Noisli can block out background sounds while transporting you to dreamland for a one-time fee of only $1.99.
Pzizz
Marketing itself as the world’s most advanced sleep system, Pzizz hopes to help people fall asleep quickly, stay asleep throughout the night, and wake up refreshed, even if they have insomnia. When other sleeping apps fall short, it may be time to try Pzizz.
Pzizz offers a hybrid music system with a mix of music, soothing sounds, and voiceover relaxations to accomplish its goal. With over 100 billion possible sequences, it seems likely each person can find something that works for them, their situation, and their needs. The “pro” version of the app is available for $70 per year.
Best Apps for Managing Addiction
Anyone battling an addiction should probably not rely on an app to replace professional treatment, but when used in collaboration with addiction services, apps can help people avoid triggers, reduce cravings, and lower the risk of relapse. Apps like Recovery Box, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and Sober Grid are some of the best options, but always discuss options with your provider to find solutions tailored to your situation.
Recovery Box
The early days of recovery can be overwhelming and confusing without the guidance of experts, so Recovery Box helps to break down the 12-step process into smaller, yet meaningful acts. Based on the 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery Box encourages movement while preparing users for the unknown aspects of recovery.
A great facet of the app is the ability to call on connections for a quick chat with an online sponsor. This personal touch and the inclusion of other tools like sobriety calculators, Recovery Box is top choice for recovery apps. For $40 per year, the app offers unlimited access and ad removal.
Twenty Four Hours a Day
Produced by Hazelden, one of the leaders in addiction recovery, Twenty Four Hours a Day aims to be a constant tool in the user’s sobriety. Packed full of daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers, this free app offers an effective way to stay engaged in recovery each day. For people interested in a simple and streamlined way to focus on their addiction, Twenty Four Hours a Day helps them take it one day at a time.
Sober Grid
Sober Grid packs numerous recovery tools into one app. Listed as the number one sober social network for people in recovery, Sober Grid offers around-the-clock peer support and access to sober people in close proximity to leverage the power of social support during all phases of recovery.
With additional tools that let users track their recovery, count their sobriety, and earn achievements for passing a recovery milestone, Sober Grid can aid in abstinence. Unlocking all features costs $40 per year.
Best Apps for Eating Disorders
Eating disorders, including bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorder (BED), are serious mental health conditions that can result in lasting physical health complications. Available apps may help, but these should be employed in combination with traditional therapy services in most situations. Users should consult with their treatment team before trying apps like Eating Disorder Recovery App, RR: Eating Disorder Management, and Rise Up + Recover.
Eating Disorder Recovery App
The Eating Disorder Recovery app positions itself as an educational tool for people unsure about what eating disorders are or if they have one. Through a series of 12 videos, users learn the vital information about eating disorders and the negative impact they can have on someone’s life.
The short videos cover topics like what eating disorders are, common feelings endured by people with disorders, typical eating disorder treatments, and some coping skills to aid the experience. For only $2.99, users unlock all content, so the app is low risk for those who connect to the message and presentation.
RR: Eating Disorder Management
The Eating Disorder Management app by Recovery Record is a useful, free tool for anyone with concerns linked to eating, weight, and shape, but it is intended for those with an eating disorder. This app offers recordkeeping of thoughts, feelings, and eating behaviors, coping skills to help shift actions, and charts that display trends and progress through the journey.
One of the best features is the ability to link the app content to the user’s treatment team of therapists and doctors. With a foundation in CBT, RR: Eating Disorder Management is a leading eating disorder app.
Rise Up + Recover
As an app designed for anyone struggling with food, diets, activity, and body, Rise Up + Recover uses self-monitoring skills to help. The app reports being a “perfect addition” to professional eating disorder treatments.
Rise Up + Recover provides an extensive resource catalog, inspirational quotes, reminders to maintain recovery, and even access to available eating disorder professionals in the area. These tools paired with the ability to log meals and check-in with emotions and behaviors, Rise Up + Recover offers a great service in a free app.
