Mental Health? Yes, There’s an App for That

It seems there are apps for everything these days. There are apps to manage your money, to make lists, to talk to friends, and to track calories. There are even apps that could help with your mental health. This is an area of software development that has been on the rise for years and there are now several apps that could be a great adjunct to therapy and may even be beneficial in and of themselves.

Apps for mental health

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There are several types of apps that could be classified as “mental health apps.” First there are apps that can be used to promote relaxation or mindfulness meditation. Some apps can help one become more mindful of their breath or encourage regular practice of meditation and relaxation. These can range in price but could be useful if you are assigned by a therapist to begin relaxation practices, or just want to see how beneficial the addition of relaxation or meditation could be to your life. There are many studies that suggest that adding these practices to your daily routine could be beneficial and some focus specifically on relaxation apps (Kappert, Wuttke-Linnemann, Schlotz, & Nater, 2019). One study, in particular, reported that relaxation apps that include visualization are particularly beneficial (Chittaro, & Sioni, 2014) and others have found them helpful for managing pain and migraines (Mikolasek, Witt, & Barth, 2018). Overall relaxation and mindfulness apps appear to be helpful to people suffering from stress and could be used in combination with therapy or while waiting for a therapy appointment to become available (Tunney, Cooney, Coyle, & O'Reilly, 2017).

Other apps are more focused on specific types of therapies, particularly Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. These apps can help you record your thoughts and feelings and even determine what kind of dysfunctional thoughts you are having. The Veterans Administration pioneered some of this approach by developing apps to reach more veterans who were waiting for care or in-between visits. Some newer research confirms that these CBT apps can be beneficial when used in addition to face-to-face CBT for insomnia (Koffel et al., 2018), while other research found that using CBT apps may be beneficial for overall well-being (Bakker, Kazantzis, Rickwood, & Rickard, 2018).

Finally, there are even apps to help you connect with a therapist to provide you with direct one-on-one psychotherapy. Some of these apps connect you with a therapist to chat via phone, text or email, while others connect you through videoconferencing. It really depends on the app and service you use and some insurance companies are beginning to partner with these services to provide more affordable care. For more information on the efficacy of telepsychology please see my prior post.

It is important to note that none of these apps should be used as a replacement for face-to-face intervention, especially when someone is in crisis. It does appear, however, that some mental health apps may be helpful for people with mild anxiety or depression or those who feel they need assistance in coping. They also appear to be beneficial when used in addition to therapy or medicine and both therapists and clients report benefit from using them (Stawarz, Preist, Tallon, Wiles, & Coyle, 2018).