The top 10 mental health apps

The top 10 mental health apps

By Hannah Nichols, MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Apps are available for everything these days — from shopping to entertainment and travel. Apps that claim to help look after your mental health and well-being are also available. So, we have selected the best apps for mental health.

Approximately 48.3 million adults in the United States are faced with a mental health condition each year, and 9.8 million of those are serious conditions that limit the activities of everyday life.

Among U.S. adults aged 18–44, mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder are now the third most common reason for hospitalizations.

Furthermore, those who live with severe mental illness are more likely to face chronic medical conditions and die around 25 years earlier.

Exercising regularly and eating a healthful diet can boost mental health and well-being significantly, help to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, and increase endorphins responsible for happiness.

Mental health apps may help with conditions such as anxiety and depression, as well as enhance psychological well-being.

Apps focus on protecting or improving mental health using methods including meditation, hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and providing a valuable support network.

Medical News Today have put together a list of the top 10 apps that can help to enhance your well-being and look after your mental health.

Calm

Android: Free

iPhone: Free

Calm was branded as Apple’s “App of the Year” in 2017. The app is designed to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and help you to feel happier.

Calm focuses on the four key areas of meditation, breathing, sleep, and relaxation, with the aim of bringing joy, clarity, and peace to your daily life.

The app delivers meditations that can help you to destress, as well as breathing programs, music, and sounds from nature to relax your mind and body and promote better sleep.

Calm is the perfect app if you are new to meditation, but it also offers programs for more advanced users. Meditation sessions are available in lengths of 3–25 minutes, to fit in with your schedule.

Headspace

Android: Free

iPhone: Free

Headspace uses mindfulness and meditation to help you perform at your best each day. The app’s mission is to provide you with the essential tools to achieve a happier, healthier life.

Whether you need to build healthier relationships, find a place of calm, keep your mind fit, or reduce stress, Headspace has hundreds of themed mindfulness and meditation sessions to support you.

The app reports that meditation reduces daily stress and improves focus and attention. What is more, using Headspace is suggested to enhance compassionate behavior toward others in just 3 weeks.

Pacifica

Android: Free

iPhone: Free

Pacifica is an app with anxiety and stress in mind. It provides a toolbox to deal with daily anxiety and stress, along with a highly supportive community of like-minded individuals.

Pacifica helps you to break cycles of unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through methods such as CBT, mindfulness meditation, mood tracking, and relaxation.

The app houses audio lessons and activities that help you to cope with stress and depression, and it sets daily challenges to help you tackle anxiety one day at a time and reach your long-term goals.

find more apps with  MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

By Hannah Nichols

Source:  MEDICAL NEWS TODAY