Two weeks ago, we explored the evidence for the effectiveness of mental health apps to support people with their mental health and overall wellbeing. Last week we explored six apps designed for users struggling with anxiety. Today we’re going to explore apps for people struggling with low mood or major depression. As we have previously written about, apps when used in isolation are most effective if users are experiencing only subclinical or mild difficulties. For users with symptoms in this range apps can be useful in many ways such as for learning about mood, designing a behavioural activation plan, supporting sleep difficulties and building coping mechanisms. For people with more significant mood disturbance, apps can be helpful too; they are just most effective when used in conjunction with treatment with a mental health specialist. When used as a therapeutic support, they can help users practice the skills they’re learning in therapy, track their progress and manage symptoms such as deliberate self-harm and suicidal ideation. The apps below are a sample of some of the apps available to download and we hope you might find something new, interesting and/or helpful amongst them.
Headgear is a free app by the Black Dog Institute based on evidenced based psychological approaches to mental health including behavioural activation and mindfulness. The app includes exercises to reduce stress and increase coping, improve sleep and increase resilience. This is an app that was designed with a male user in mind, however the Black Dog Institute say that it is appropriate for anyone aged 18 and above who wants to work on their mental health. Vic Health rated it as 3 out of 5, with 3.5 for functionality and 3 for behaviour change.
Daylio is a self-care journal app designed to help users keep a diary, track their mood and develop goals. The app has been designed to make journaling a fun and easy task and to provide the user with ongoing data so they can see how their mental health is travelling over time. The app also promotes the use of daily, weekly and monthly goals to help with motivation and behaviour change and allows users to share their data with support persons.
MoodKit is an app based on the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to support users to improve their mood. The app offers activities with accompanying examples and tips, a thought checker and guidance for identifying and managing negative and unhelpful thoughts, a mood tracker to check, rate and track mood over time and a journal to develop self-awareness and helpful attitudes.
Grateful: A Gratitude Journal is an app designed to help users positively contribute to their mood by connecting with their sense of gratitude. The app offers prompts to help users get started, such as “what made you smile today?”, promotes the journaling of reflections and allows users to upload photos and look back at their reflections over time.
Calm Harm is an app developed by a Clinical Psychologist using the principles of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to support users to resist or manage the urge to engage in self harm. The app offers four categories of strategies to resist the urge; Distract to help learn self-control; Comfort to use self-care rather than harm; Express Yourself to express the hard feelings in a different way; and Release for safe alternatives to self-injury.
The Beyond Now suicide safety planning app is an app designed by Beyond Blue and Monash University for users struggling with suicidal ideation. The app supports users to generate a list of ideas and contacts to help you stay safe during periods of crisis, and helps you identify warning signs, build coping strategies, reasons for living and ways to keep the environment safe. The app is confidential and designed to be readily available on your phone for when you most need it. The app also allows users to email a copy of the plan to trusted support persons such as your friends, family or your mental health professional. The creators of the app strongly recommend that this is an app used in conjunction with a mental health specialist and that the safety plan is developed or shared in session.
Managing low mood can be a challenging and lonely experience and more and more digital support and apps are becoming available to reduce the challenge and isolation of recovery. If you’re experiencing difficulties with your mood, you might want to consider exploring one of the apps described above or do a search of your own to find something that best fits your needs. And as mentioned last week, don’t forget to consider visiting Vic Health if you would like to see the review for an app you are considering; the link is below. Should you wish to explore alternative apps for your mental health, the Federal Government has launched Head to Health, a website designed to help you navigate digital resources for your health and wellbeing. Visit headtohealth.gov.au
Finally, if you would like to link in with someone for support with your low mood, contact the administration team at The Melbourne Wellbeing Group by calling 9882 8874 or visit our website at melbournewellbeinggroup.com.au.
Vic Health and Deakin University app reviews:
https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/vichealth-apps
This blog was written and prepared by Dr Victoria Miller - Clinical Psychologist and Associate Director here at MWG.