Which apps do you use for your mental health and wellbeing, if any?
I have lost my r/finch community, and am feeling curious to see if there are any folks here who also find apps can be helpful for their mental health.
I struggle with anxiety and am processing a lot of grief, and may or may not have ADHD (I am in the process of getting tested, but it takes a while). My experiences with therapy are a bit mixed, so I am currently going down the route of trying to DIY my wellness a little. Starting simple with things like, sleep more, try to focus on drinking enough, go out in nature, switching off podcasts and phones and reading more. It's actually helped me, bit by bit.
One of my 'tools' is an app called finch, a virtual pet that encourages you to set goals, check in how you are feeling, journal, do mindful breathing and such. I tried many things and this app is the one that stuck and actually works.
Just wanted to ask, do any others here use wellness apps? And have they worked for you? Which do you recommend?
Just to be clear, I mean apps that work as a stand alone solution, rather than apps like 'better help' which ultimately just connect you to a therapist. Although Better Help has its uses too!
Don't laugh at me, but I consult the Yijing/Iching. It's an ancient Chinese text, also known as the Book of Changes.
It was used by emperors to divine matters of the court, and in modern times, by laypeople for more mundane things like questions about love, and romance, and work.
Philip K. Dick consulted it when writing The Man In The High Castle, and featured it in the story as well.
If you're of the introspective type, I find its responses lend themselves well to self-reflection practices.
Of course, it's not a replacement for a mental health professional and all that boilerplate-yada-yada.
Here's the Android app I use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.digitalillusion.droid.iching
I would never laugh at anyone who found something that works for them! It sounds interesting. Do you have be familiar with the origin / background behind it, or can anyone use it for anything?
Not particularly. Once people "build a rapport" with it, it seems like learning about its history becomes a common thing to do though. I'm not an expert on the history either, beyond the small trivia I included in my reply.
You can really ask it about anything. There are some rules of thumb: don't ask yes/no questions, it doesn't predict the future, don't ask about something from another person's perspective (e.g., does "the other" person still like me)—however, I've seen explanations that such rules are merely modern constructions. The yes/no one, for example, makes sense because the structure of the replies don't translate well to yes or no, but nothing stops you from asking the question.
The real power is in your interpretation of the answer, which is why I think it works well for introspective types and self-reflection. I'm not sure if it would work well for ADHD specifically. For me, sometimes I overthink even the most mundane things, and occasionally this devolves into mental distress for me. The handful of times I've asked the Iching for a perspective on my distress, it's worked better than, e.g., mindfulness exercises for me.
I cast runes for a very similar reason. It’s more about how I am interpreting the runes’ meaning than anything else. It’s helped me make quite a few decisions over the years by figuring out what I really wanted or where I was stuck.
It’s like something my mom always told me. If you’re stuck on a decision, flip a coin. While it’s in the air, you’ll often find yourself hoping for one side or the other. Go with that side.
I've used Daylio for a few years when I felt I needed to track my mood and activities to try and corelate both.
Imagine an extremely simplified diary, you log your mood and activities of the day, get stats about it, set goals about doing (or not doing) things, get reminders and goal streaks,...
It helps with getting objective feedback on your routine and plan what's necessary to get rid of the stress inducing behaviors or bad habits, and start activities that may help you build a more sensible daily life.
It helped me quite a lot in my most challenging times and was a great addition to therapy!
Sounds a lot like what you used, but that's the one I stuck with.
I like this one too - I've been using Daylio since 2018. It's helped me a lot with building healthy habits and improving my mental health. I started using it when I was not doing well mentally, and it's interesting to look back on my yearly statistics to see how my mood/activities have changed. I really like how the activities are totally custom, so I can track whatever I want like whether I cooked, ate healthy, got anxious, drank alcohol, or whatever else I want to track. It's a nice tool!
Sounds similar to finch! You can set daily activities like 'ring the doctor' but also long term goals. My biggest ones currently are 'finish novel' and 'overcome my fear of driving'. The latter one is a biggy, I still get filled with dread every time I have to get into my car, 5 minutes is a big deal. But, having that goal there is a guilt trip and adds the pressure I need to power through and try to drive at all, even if it's a short distance.
It does sound similar, I might have to check it out! Finch is similar in that it tracks my moods based on my responses, and checks the completion of my goals. I set them daily, or set recurring tasks based off long term goals, and build up 'energy' based off the completion. It's based around a digital bird, so you can decorate a home, send your bird on journeys, get outfits etc.
Bad habits were a big part for me to, I've had to start using it for goals like 'go to bed on time' or 'start work at 9 or earlier'. I did a lot better in the past, but after my dad died all my worst habits immediately set in again and it took a while to climb out of that.
It's not the app that helps necessary, it's my partner / getting enough sleep / walking my dog / journalling and all that, my app just helps me stick to healthy habits over bad ones.
I too am an ADHD'er. I've found that monitoring my life in any way actually leads to more detrimental behaviours than it does positive.
The only thing that has been decent? MyFitnessPal for my weight/eating habits. But beyond that? It causes stress when I monitor books/games/mood and all sorts.
What I do have for my mental health, are bookends for my day.
Morning routine, Up, Journal for four lines, meditate, stretch/quick weight lifting session, walk the dog.
Evening routine, Longer journal (reflect on day, behaviours, achievements, improvements) and then read for an hour before bed/in bed.
I find that helps my mental health immeasureably. The rest of the day can be carnage, but it WILL start and end on my terms.
I feel crazy asking this question but here we go... I have ADHD as well. I like the idea of journaling but what the heck do you write about? I have WAY too many thoughts and feelings during the day. My mind is constantly going. So I love the idea of slowing down and writing for a bit, but I'd be there forever if it's getting out all my thoughts from the day. How do you choose what to write about and narrow it down and when to stop?
It's a solid question with no actual answer.
I like to practice stoic philosophy, so I've got some prompt cards that help me on my day. I've had a few weeks off work due to my mental health... so my entry this morning was;
"Today is my first day back at work. I cannot expect or have the assumption that people will or even want to understand my mental health problems. That's okay, but it is important that I show myself the compassion that they lack, for it is a reflection on them and not on me."
The first entry in the morning is a letter to the future me, someone I would like to say "Hey man, you've got this... stay the course" rather than anything glib.
The later entry will be around what the rest of my day was. What did I excel at? Was the day as bad as I imagined? Or did I simply have expectations and catastrophised perceptions that kept me anxious yesterday? A little bit of "I told you so" to current me.
I write about whatever is bothering me, why it's bothering me and reflect on what a friend would write to me, then I try and do just that.
Thank you!
I love the ideas for your later in the day entry. I struggle with a lot of those thoughts as well. Especially the catastrophizing. Everything is negative and worse than it seems and I stress myself out and then the anxiety comes.
With Reddit gone, I won't be doom scrolling as much. A little journaling is probably a good way to fill that time.
I have to admit, since sacking off Reddit due to this fiasco? I do feel an awful lot better about myself. Hadn't ever noticed the toxic behaviour.
Journals are great. I've got today off, I've got a good future ahead of me once I transfer out of my current job/industry and into something I truly care about. I find myself worrying about current work even on my days off, but my journal keeps it sensible.
I can only speak for my app or my habit, but when I journal, it's under a specific theme or topic, that I have to do a few times a week. The task usually isn't 'just journal' it's things like 'Did you drive this week? How do you feel about that?' (I have a phobia of driving so it's usually a victory when I do, and guilt if I haven't). Or like reflecting on specific events, or reflecting on work stress. I could ramble on forever but one topic specifically at least tells me when I am getting off track with it.
Mornings I am too tired and lazy to get much done beyond walking the dog, but evening routines feel really nice. Fitting in a routine can be helpful, I just need to find a way to enforce it. I got into the office every other wednesday and travel to work, that's actually become a bit of a treasured habit because I have 1.5 hour in the train to work on my novel and read, and it's harder to fit in other times.
It's a tough one, it requires a lot of strength of will.
Get your phone in another room and an old fashioned alarm clock (or a digital one, like I use) to get you up at a decent enough time and take small steps. Getting up straight away is one bit, then adding to it as you go. Otherwise you taken on to much, to fast and it all comes crashing down a few days/weeks later.
Goal setting and encouragement works for me, meditation doesn't. The best I've ever done is guided breathing for like a minute. Maybe it's the mix of potential ADHD and anxiety but meditation feels so difficult. What's more useful is just walking my dog and letting my mind wander because there's nothing else to do!
It's funny how different minds are wired differently. Daily goals are useful for me, but nutrition tracking would be a mindfield for me. I think I'd get way too obsessed with it and constantly check. That said, my diet isn't as strict as yours so I imagine it's more necessary for you. Do you take supplements too, or get everything you need from being careful with what food when?
Can I ask what you mean by this? I also have ADHD and had trouble sticking with Cronometer despite being fine with MyFitnessPal before it went downhill, but I really only used the app. It might be worth it for me to try to the PC version.
Got it, that makes sense. I think my use case might not quite fit going PC-only. Thanks!
Maybe it changed since you first looked at it, but I started up again recently and there were a bunch of explicit data toggles for reading and/or writing. It looked like you could isolate the app if you wanted.
I'm running the iOS 17 beta, and there's now mood tracking in HealthKit. Later this year when the new Journal app is added, I might give that a shot - but other than that, I really don't use any mental health software. Just the idea of giving that to some unknown company with no track record on privacy and security seems... icky to me somehow
Mood tracking doesn’t really make sense to me.
I’m not really sure what the goal is, and I really feel like I’m reaching for a “mood” whenever I track.
I feel ok, I guess.
It's not for everyone. A while ago someone suggested that I do it, with short notes about why I was feeling that way. But this ended up being a series of "I feel really awful, and here's why:" -- and looking back on that at the end of the week just intensified despair.
For people who have less constant low mood, but who remember all the negatives but not the positives, it can be useful to look back at the week and be honest about the bad stuff - "that sucked, but actually I made it through okay and I might try some small changes next time" and also acknowledge the good stuff - "hey, lots of good things happened".
Also, as you mention, a lot of people can identify the Big Four emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared) but aren't great at the in-betweeny ones. Or we just don't feel much - "I'm not too hot, I'm not too cold, I guess I'm just right, but I don't feel just right, I don't feel anything".
This is a long way of saying "Yes, I agree, these tools are good if they work, but we shouldn't feel bad if they don't work for us".
It’s a way to start identifying your emotions. A lot of people try to suppress their feelings because they are scared to show them or weren’t allowed to when they were little. Tracking your emotions does feel like you are “reaching” but that is part of what it takes for you to realize something like you are stressed and carry the tension in your shoulders. It’s helpful for people who tend to have outbursts- the outburst happens because you don’t recognize you are feeling frustrated or disappointed or some other minor emotion and don’t take steps to address it. The feeling builds until you can’t ignore it anymore and all of a sudden you are uncontrollably furious or sad. Tracking at set intervals over time makes sure you notice those minor moods.
For me it helps me understand how my behaviours influence it.
I don't do it religiously at all. I also use an app called Bearable, which doesn't just track my mood and sleep but I can input other factors and see correlations.
For example I can see that cycling to work is correlated with better mood, energy and improved sleep, but that drinking is correlated with a decrease in all those things. Now it's likely there's some causation there too (more likely to drink on a bad day, more likely to cycle on a good day) but it gives me some encouragment to engage in healthier behaviours because I can see these statistics saying 'actually yes, you do report better moods on days you do this'.
I can see the ick factor. Personally I am really selective in which I use for what. I'm not really okay with anything but phone native apps tracking my usage, or getting too detailed information. A to do list or notepad is okay by me, medical information or full name is a no no for me.
Possibly useful apps for you, since you might have ADHD:
Structured | Daily task planner. Useful for anyone, but designed for people with executive functioning difficulties (like ADHD, ASD)
OneSec | Adds a delay when you try to open an app that eats away your time, like social media apps. It helps you to stop, think, reconsider
myNoise | Highly customizable background noise generator
Due | The Superfast Reminder App for iPhone & iPad. You can set reminders really fast, and once it's time to be reminded, it keeps pestering you over and over until you actually mark it as done.
You may benefit from a bullet journal, as it was invented by someone with ADHD to deal with those challenges:
or if you prefer invidio.us:
Hope that helps!
I got more and more disappointed as they came up iOS only. Ah well. I put myself on a waiting list i won't remember when the app gets made.
Perhaps https://alternativeto.net/ can help you with finding Android alternatives that suit you.
Thanks, I forgot about that site! I'll have to see if any of them will work. Or if it's the app equivalent of "this planner! This one is the one that will fix me!"
I Am Sober to track self-harm.
I honestly don't know if it helps, but maybe? It certainly feels bad to hit the "reset" button when I relapse. So perhaps there is a sort of subconscious effect that I try a little harder than if I didn't have the app
This is a bit of a sidestep, so apologies in advance: you asked specifically about apps, but I noticed in a couple of your other comments you'd mentioned enjoying podcasts. If you're looking for a podcast that might provide a helpful perspective, I'd recommend The Quote Of The Day Show hosted/created by Sean Croxton. Essentially the core of the podcast is a daily, 5-10 minute excerpt from various self-help or motivational speakers. The format is usually [ad - introduction - ad - quote] , so it's easy to jump straight to the quote (as I do) if that's what you're in it for, but the introduction is also nice and the ads are relatively unintrusive for it being a short daily format.
I found having a daily dose of something to think about helped me when I sent through a more transformational patch in my history. Good luck on your journey, stranger.
Oh gosh, I love that sidestep! Thank you for coming up with a tailored response. And you're spot on, podcasts would help. I currently just have on for mental health, it's called Daily Affirmations. But the lady doing it has a really soothing meditative voice which doesn't really fit while walking the dog.
I'm going to add it to the library and give it a go during dog walks or at work to see what I thought!
Not to go too off-topic here (I didn't see any discussion via a quick search), but Better Help has come under FTC scrutiny for breaking privacy promises and selling users' health information.
I use Unwind for breathing exercises https://apps.apple.com/app/id1470613384
I journal on Obsidian, daily. It's not a mood tracker or anything like that though. It's a plain, daily journal. I separate a single day in up to five different sections (morning, afternoon, evening, midnight, and all-day) and write things in it in a way that if an alien were to land on earth and read it, they'd make some sense of it. I do this for two reasons: First, it helps me preserve context of a particular event and more importantly it helps me get out of my own head.
I'm one of those people who constantly re-live moments one would have in any given day, no matter how trivial, and I sometimes think the worst of some, if not most interactions. Things like, "X was a bit more stern today, I wonder if it's because something I did?". That translates into the journal like, "I had a talk with X today. They seemed more stern than usual. They weren't distant though, so I don't think it was because of me, but rather because of the pressure they're currently under." Something like that.
I take a step back and try to be as factual as possible without getting any kind of emotion involved. It's basically like writing a script of my own life, in formal sense more so than content. I realize it sounds a bit egotistical, and it is, but it's done me good to try to go over the events of my life with as much distance as possible.
I also tried meditation, as everybody has, but it didn't help.
I've been using Balance for guided meditations. I believe you still get the first year free, which is why I decided to give it a try. You don't need an app to meditate, but it does teach you a lot of different methods that I have found helpful.
There is a free app that is similar called Medito, but I never used it because Balance does everything I need.
I also got really into chess for a while and both Chess.com and Lichess are great for learning and playing the game. I know they aren't mental health specific apps, but at the time I needed something to occupy my mind in a constructive way, and these apps really fit the bill. I don't really play much anymore, but I still love doing the puzzles now and then when I just need to relax or zone out, but not be on social media.
I went on a huge mental health kick and downloaded/tried every app I could find, and those are the only ones that really clicked for me. But ultimately, for me, seeing a therapist and starting medication was the only thing that made a noticeable difference, and I wish I had sought that out a lot sooner.
This is going to sound strange, but for me my mental health is intimately married to my physical health so Garmine Connect is essential for me because it allows me to capture data form skiing/cycling and visualize it through Strava, Slopes, and intervals.icu. I use my watch to track my activities and then analyze them through Strava, (for things like segments,) and intervals.icu for tracking polarized interval training. I love having a physical goal that I'm striving for and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with achieving my goals. This, more than anything, has lead to such a massive improvement in my mental health over the last three years.
That doesn't sound strange! Exercise can do wonders for your mental health. I tend to struggle to get into exercise, but it used to basically keep me going during uni when I was in a pretty bad relationship. I would just hit the gym and cycle the stress and hurt away. Good for you for looking after your mental health by looking after your body!
Probably Visual Studio Code; if I feel particularly stressed, I open up a Markdown file and start writing there. Used to use a mood tracker but just didn't keep up with it very well.
I use Bearable for tracking my symptoms and Smiling Mind for meditation.
I like Bearable's UI. And Smiling Mind is great because it's not spiritual. I'm just into meditation as breathing exercises and for mental health and nothing more. Smiling Mind is exactly that.
I use Insight Timer for meditation and breathwork.
I use the Finch self-care app. It had many of the small tasks that respond to anxiety or depression. It has a small mood tracking function as well as a diary. It has goal settings etc.
But mostly i get to raise a little bird and send them out on adventures and dress them up in clothes and see how they discover the world.
It hits a balance between gamification and goal management.
I've been relatively recently diagnosed after years of suffering from (unknown to me at the time) weird attention and memory issues, and while I was given both Ritalin and Adderall to see if they help (they didn't, at least not in the prescribed dosages) I also took it upon myself to try and organize myself the best I can.
Desktop:
As far as apps go, I became very dependent on Todoist for lists, quick notes and to-dos and Raindrop.io to put an end to tab/bookmark hell.
I've also recently started trying out Arc Browser to try and clear visual clutter - still not entirely sure about this one.
I also use Nota as a markdown notepad and knowledgebase.
Mobile:
On my recently previous phone - Pixel 6, I tried to uninstall everything that I wasn't using, replace the services I could replace with more privacy oriented or self hosted ones (e.g. Miniflux instead of visiting the same websites), and disable notifications where I can.
Another good "tool" for me was Niagara Launcher which I highly recommend.
I've recently decided to try out an (albeit older) iPhone to see if the privacy/wellbeing features are going to be more comfortable or better. I love deferred notifications and multiple focus modes.
Others:
My reMarkable 2 tablet is my best friend and is always within reach so I can just write anything that comes to mind, and have it on my computer and phone seamlessly.