Best apps for mental health and wellbeing

Apps can be a great way to have a bit of advice, support or a coping strategy in your pocket when you need it. All of these apps are also listed in their relevant sections (e.g.under anxiety or self-harm) but we have put them together here in one place for quick reference.

Apps for anxiety, sleep and relaxation

	Sorted App. This NHS accredited App helps you build your mental strength through positive mental training.
	Chill Panda for ages 6-12 Years. Helps children understand different emotions, and introduces skills to help regulate these including breathing techniques and calming games.
	Feartools Best for older teens or young adults, this features an anxiety test, relaxing music, guided meditation, a thought diary and ideas for activities to help when you’re feeling anxious. Free.
	ClearFear Well-designed free App with lots of ideas and interaction on coping with worries, emotions or physical symptoms of anxiety. Appealing images, GIFs to make you laugh and lots more!
	Equoo App This App helps you develop coping skills while playing adventure games. You can play quite a bit for free to see if you like it but some features are paid for. Designed by psychologists and one of the Apps recommended by the NHS.
	Molehill Mountain is an NHS recommended app for young people with autism, providing daily tips on how to understand and manage anxiety. Track worries and the situations that trigger anxiety, and feel more confident to self-manage your anxiety.
	My Possible Self: tackle anxiety, stress and unhelpful negative thinking with this App, which is best for age 17+ years
	Insight Timer: Learn to relax and manage everyday life in the present moment through one or more of the 1,000s of free meditations available from a variety of countries and renowned mindfulness teachers.
	Headspace A hugely popular mindfulness and meditation app, also has a section for children. It’s free for 2 weeks but then you have to pay. However, if you’re a student with a student email, you can sign up at a reduced rate. It’s also free for some teachers.
	Fabulous App is an award-winning App which is partly free, but some features, such as the coaching messages, are paid for. It helps you build healthy habits that stick, and create structure and routine in a step-wise and motivating way.

Apps to help with low mood, negative thinking and depression

	MoveMood A free App designed by a psychologist to help teenagers tackle low mood and depression, from the same research team that created CalmHarm and ClearFear.
	Headspace for meditation. The student plan is currently reduced by 85%
	Moodtools A free app for managing depression with a mood tracker, videos, meditations and more. A sister App to the popular FearTools for anxiety.
	Tellmi App Talk anonymously about difficult things with other people of a similar age or experience. Get help with your problems or use your experiences to help others. The app is a safe space where all posts and replies are checked before going live, so there is no harassment, bullying or grooming.
	Catch It Learn how to catch negative thoughts and look at them differently.. With a parent to help this could be used from about age 8 years
	Stay Alive is an app where you can keep a safety plan and explore ideas on how to stay grounded when you are feeling overwhelmed, try the guided breathing exercises and store photos and memories that are important to you. It links directly to national crisis numbers and you can also store your own emergency numbers.
	Calm Harm An app designed to help reduce the urge to self-harm and is generally useful for helping you cope with extreme emotions, as it suggests soothing, distracting, breathing or other activities that you can choose from. Appealing graphics and lots and lots of ideas

Apps to help control eating disorders

	Mindshift CBT Uses relaxation techniques like “mindful breathing” and positive visualisation to help with anxiety. There is also a section on “Thinking Right” with helpful thoughts which you can select to use instead of your usual negative circular thoughts.
	Eating Disorder Support App This great App has a huge amount of information, self-help, advice on supporting others, useful links and even a calm zone
	RR (Recovery Record) is an app with a log for how you feel, ideas and suggestions for positive thoughts and coping strategies. Set yourself goals and choose coping skills that you think might work for you (click on coping skills, then add to see a selection but you can also add your own). There are guided meditations which you can pair with images of your choice. You can also share logs with others such as a counsellor.

Apps to help with thoughts of self-harm or feeling overwhelmed

	Calm Harm is an award-winning App which suggests ideas for when you have the urge to self-harm or if you are struggling with strong emotions. You can add your own ideas too. Click on the name to take a look.
	Distract is good for signposting to other services, and has some self-harm educational information as well as links to Art, Books and Films. “I would often use this when people want a list of useful contacts in an emergency or when distressed and they often forget who to call, as it is all in one place” ( Therapist), “I liked the ideas for music, films and books” (Elsa, 15)