We are living in an era where most of our activities are in the digital world, especially since last year, there are so many pros and contra’s about this kind of new living between good or bad. However, we cannot ignore the ugly truth that it brought so many negative changes into our lives and causing mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report in early 2021, here are the key facts about depression:
Depression is a common mental health disorder. Globally, more than 260 million people of all ages suffer from depression.
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
More women are affected by depression than men.
Depression can lead to suicide.
There are effective psychological and pharmacological treatments for moderate and severe depression.
Depression also known as a major depressive disorder, is a mental health disorder that negatively affects how a person feels, how a person thinks, and how a person acts. Depression is common and, fortunately, treatable. Here are the top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of depression, according to WHO estimates:
Ukraine (6.3%)
United States (5.9%)
Estonia (5.9%)
Australia (5.9%)
Brazil (5.8%)
Greece (5.7%)
Portugal (5.7%)
Belarus (5.6%)
Finland (5.6%)
Lithuania (5.6%)
While depression rates are rising around the world, treatment is becoming more available and accessible. Rising depression rates are also attributed to more people seeking and receiving a diagnosis and treatment for mental illness, rather than going undiagnosed. For example, in the United States and several countries, the stigma surrounding mental illnesses has gradually decreased.
This allows it to become more normal to discuss mental illness openly and encourages people to seek help when they need it. Nowadays, Looking for mental health services can be intimidating, especially in a technology-driven world that offers so many options. Many of these options are accessible via intuitive apps that are designed to streamline your mental health journey and take most of the guesswork out of finding the expert attention you’ve been seeking.
Most of these apps allow you to access their features at any time, search for therapists and treatments while remaining anonymous, and offer a number of ways to stay engage like daily reminders, feelings trackers, and abundant learning material. Here are the top 3 mental health apps of 2021 according to the Verywell Mind:
Moodfit
Why We Chose It: We chose Moodfit because it’s a free app that helps you track your moods and gives you exercises to help address negative emotions. It is available on GooglePlay, Moodfit is a free mental health app whose tools and insight are meant to “shape up” your mood. Similar to the way you might decide to get into physical shape, this app is meant to help you get into mental shape.
Whether you’re looking to better understand your feelings, or you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, or high levels of stress, Moodfit is designed to help you feel better. Here's the gist of how it works: There’s a questionnaire that will help you determine the severity of the symptoms, as well as many articles and audio files that can help you better understand what you’re experiencing
Moodfit also allows you to track your moods. Over time, you’ll better understand what types of things affect your feelings—like sleep, medication, and exercise. The app offers actionable insights into what affects your mood and provides strategies for feeling better. There’s a cognitive behavioural therapy portion of the app that can teach you how to dispute overly negative thoughts. There’s a thought record that provides strategies for modifying irrational thoughts so you can learn how to think differently. You’ll also learn new skills, like gratitude and mindfulness, in just a few minutes per day.
You can even use the app to create and test your own experiments. For example, if you suspect a certain food (like gluten) may be affecting your mood, the app allows you to track that. The app also helps you understand your medications and therapy better. It assists in identifying what treatment strategies are working best so you can gain a better understanding of how to improve your symptoms.
Cost: Free
2. Todoist
Why We Chose It: We chose this app because it’s a stellar organizing tool that can help people with ADHD stay focused. People with ADHD can have a difficult time staying on task, especially when they’re juggling lots of different tasks, like so many of us do today. Todoist is an app designed to help you get all of your tasks in one place, organize them, and set reminders for yourself to help you get your tasks done when they need to be done.
You can organize tasks by type, in order of importance, or in whatever way makes the most sense for you. Todoist also lets you colour code tasks to help streamline your to-do lists. You can set up recurring tasks, repeated reminders, and even set different levels of priority for each task. It’s also easy to share tasks with family members, friends, or co-workers. This tool may help people with ADHD, or really anyone with a lot to do, refocus their mind on the task at hand rather than get overwhelmed by tasks piling up. While the Basic version is free, a Pro subscription costs about $3 per month.
Cost: Basic version is free. Pro is $3 per month.
3. Sanvello
Why We Chose It: We loved Sanvello because it provides cognitive behavioural therapy tools to help treat mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Sanvello’s mission is to “help people build the life skills they need, anytime, anywhere, in any way they choose.” It provides clinically validated techniques for dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression.
In a randomized study of 500 adults with mild to moderate anxiety and depression, the tools offered by Sanvello were shown to decrease symptoms.1 The effects lasted even after participants stopped using the app. Sanvello provides users with cognitive behavioural therapy tools. They teach mindfulness skills and provide mood and health tracking tools that can be used to improve mental and physical health.
When you download Sanvello, you’ll be asked to track your mood on a daily basis. The app provides simple questions that help you label your emotions and identify patterns in your mood. There are also guided journeys that may help you feel more in control of your life. The app will also help you build lifelong skills that can help you build confidence and feel better. There are also a variety of tools that can help you cope with specific issues, such as public speaking, test-taking, and morning dread.
The app provides progress assessments that can help you track where you are and set goals for the future. There’s also a community that allows you to connect with another anonymously. Share advice, ask questions, or talk to others who understand what you’re going through.
Sanvello is available on Google Play and in the App store. There’s a free version of the app. The premium version is $8.99 a month. The premium version grants full access to all of the in-app digital self-care content, such as Guided journeys and meditations.
Cost: Basic version: Free, Premium: $9
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