My 3 favorite (free!) mental health apps

It’s no secret that mental health has gone digital. It’s everywhere; from tele-health therapy to mental health apps to learning coping skills from YouTube personalities. Mental health has arrived in the digital realm and from the looks of it, it’s here to stay. 

This is great news for people who are busy and regularly deal with overwhelm. Busy people need access to mental health tools that are quick and easy for the user. I’m going to share 3 mental health apps that I’ve tested myself and would refer to a friend any day. 

Daylio

Daylio is a mood tracker, bullet journal, and diary all in one app. You can use it for all its functions or you can use it for just one function. The beauty of this app is that it’s so easily modified to fit your needs. Do you want to track how often you’re exercising? Do you want to track your mood? Do you want a place to write down what’s going on at any given moment? You can do all or none of these things with this app and there is still more you can do. 

It’s important to note that although it’s a mood tracker, it was not created for mental health issues specifically.* It was created for people who are curious about their mood on a day-to-day basis or for people who want to build habits over time. If that’s you, then Daylio might be worth a try.

Habitica

Habitica is an app that helps you complete your to-dos and build new habits. This is an app for people who like games, the fantasy genre, or both. Habitica is a productivity and habit-tracking app BUT it’s built like a game. You can use it to write down and create habits, daily tasks, or to-do lists. Every time you complete one of your tasks or to-dos, you earn gold to buy yourself rewards. You create an avatar that you can buy fun items for and then go on quests when you’ve earned enough rewards. 

This app is great if you struggle to be intrinsically motivated to complete tasks and need an extra boost. The app helps you get motivated by using a structured reward system that gives you extra credits, goodies, or quests as celebration of your completed tasks. It’s fun and for everyone. 

The primary drawback of this app is the amount of time it takes to get used to it and get started. For the brains that like to know exactly what to do ASAP, it can be challenging to get started in the app and start having fun with it.

Insight Timer

Insight Timer is a meditation and mindfulness app. It targets sleep, anxiety, and stress. The beauty of Insight Timer is the range of meditations, workshops, and other offerings it provides. You get everything from basic breathing strategies, to talks about mindfulness in the workplace, to spiritual healing meditations and discussions. It has something for everybody looking to step into the meditation space. 

Insight Timer is probably one of the few apps out there that don’t keep content behind a paywall. Although other apps have some free content, Insight Timer has over 100,000 free meditations, workshops, and calming music playlists for people to use without paying a dime. 

I would say the primary downside to Insight Timer is the time it takes to find what you like. Luckily, there are filters so you can start with the type of content you want (for example, you can filter out spiritual meditations if you’re primarily looking for a basic guided meditation) but there are also so many facilitators and types of meditations to wade through that it can feel difficult at first. After you find meditations you enjoy, you’re able to bookmark them and return when you want. You can also choose to follow specific facilitators if you like their style of guided meditations.

Moving forward with ease

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s important to find creative and time-sensitive ways to maintain your mental health without being overwhelmed by it. Like I said, I’ve tried out all of these apps for extended periods of time and find them all to be helpful and enjoyable to work with. I hope they work well for you, too. 

*If you’re looking for a mood tracker specifically because you have bipolar, check out this page that has several to choose from.