12 Apps to Help Ease Anxiety Anxious? There's an app for that.
By Jana Barrett •
This story originally appeared on Bizness Apps
Yes, there's an app for that too. The 12 below help with stress management, sleep, and more, easing anxiety disorders and helping you live a healthier, happier life.
1. Pacifica: Track and rate your mood over time, learn muscle relaxation exercises and deep breathing techniques, and set health goals for yourself. You can record your thoughts to develop positive thinking patterns and identify toxic ones. The app also helps users understand personal triggers.
2. Breathe2Relax: This app does exactly what it promises. Created by the National Center for Telehealth & Technology, it aids in diaphragmatic breathing that decreases the body's natural "fight-or-flight" response -- a big aspect of anxiety, anger, and general mood instability.
3. Headspace: Stress, memory loss, focus, interpersonal relationships, creative blocks… this "personal trainer for the mind" app covers it all. 10-minute meditation lessons aim to strengthen health, performance, and relationships. This app is on the pricier side though -- subscriptions cost between $6.24 and $12.95 a month.
4. Positive Activity Jackpot: Another app from the National Center for Telehealth & Technology. This one uses a therapeutic method known as Pleasant Event Scheduling (PES), recommending activities based on the user's location and interests. You can invite friends, save favorite spots, and tag activities you participate in for future reference.
5. PTSD Coach: Created by the National Center for PTSD, this app helps veterans suffering or at risk of suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. With educational material and a self-assessment tool, it enables users to manage stress and find support.
6. Recovery Record: This highly rated app draws on cognitive behavioral therapy and self-monitoring methods to help manage eating disorders. Users can keep a food journal, make meal plans, and learn coping methods. Questionnaires help track their progress and produce visual charts documenting their journey.
7. Worry Watch: This journaling tool has a simple user interface where users can log instances of worry, fear, and anxiety. They can also add the outcome of each situation, which provides a comparison between expectation and reality that helps reduce anxiety over time.
8. I Can Be Free: This app helps with anxiety, phobias, insomnia, and low self-esteem, offering more than 50 audio hypnosis sessions by well known hypnotist Jacob Strachotta. The sessions help target a variety of common fears.
9. Relax Melodies: This sleeping aid fights insomnia and stress with more than 50 fully customizable sounds and tunes. The blog also offers lifestyle tips to improve sleep.
10. Mindshift: Aimed at teens and young adults suffering from anxiety, this app allows users to log thoughts and feelings. It also offers exercises that encourage positive thinking.
11. Stress Doctor: This app takes you on a deep breathing exercise to promote calmness and can bring your heart rate down in five minutes. The app provides instant feedback with breath and pulse monitoring and tracks long-term progress.
12. Optimism: Helping with depression and bipolar disorder, this app helps users track their moods and keep daily records of their symptoms, plus log triggers or things that help them stay positive. Graphs of this data give users a visual breakdown of their well being.
