“Mental health… is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.” – Noam Shpance
Mental health for me has been something I have struggled with for a while now. I used to try and shove it to the side. Keep it out of sight, out of mind.
Sadly that is rarely ever the case. I finally decided to take control of my mental health. I did some research about which apps are the most helpful and downloaded them. I’ve experimented with a handful of different apps. My top three favorite and the most helpful ones in my opinion are
- Toobee
- Year in Pixels
- Moodpath
Each one offers its own unique and helpful support, customizable to you.
Toobee
I can say for a fact that Toobee has calmed me down before when I’ve been on the verge of a panic attack.
The idea of Toobee is pretty basic, they simply send you a notification. You can pick the message from one of their pre-made affirmations. Their categories include gratitude, confidence, loving life, and relaxation or you can make your own custom affirmation. You pick the frequency of the notification. As well as the tone and hours it is active.
Somehow this app knows when something bad is happening or if I am stressed because it’ll always send me something right when I need it.
Year in Pixels
For me, this is more of an overall app. I don’t go too in-depth about how I am doing on this app but it is really convenient to look over and see how you’ve been.
Every day you pick an overall day color that shows your main emotion. You can answer the question “What did you feel today?” which are your more in-depth emotions. There is also the option to write something about how you are feeling in the “Write something about it” section.
I typically just do the overall day color because I use Moodpath for more in-depth emotions. A nice this to mention is that you can customize the color scheme and add specific emotions to the “What did you feel today?” section.
Moodpath
I suggest that everyone download Moodpath. I have recommended it to my entire friend group.
Three times a day you get a notification telling you that new questions are available. It leads you to a few yes or no questions, it’ll also ask you how much the feeling burdens you. Then there is another general feeling area similar to Year in Pixels.
After that, it leads you to a page with three different sections. The first part is where you can add your thoughts. This is where you write anything specific that you are feeling, or if anything memorable happened that day.
Section number two is your emotions. This is similar to the “What did you feel today?” section that Year in Pixels has, you can also add custom emotions.
The third section is the experience section. You can add something that you did that day the pre-set buttons range from “Good Time with Someone” to “Emptiness or Boredom.” You can add experiences to this as well. Each week, if you answer at least most of the questions, you’ll receive your mood week. It shows how you were doing that week and then every two weeks you’ll get a more in-depth update on how your depression is.
One thing that is important to mention about Moodpath is that on top of the questions three times a day they have a discover page. Here you can find meditations, courses on understanding different mental disorders, building self-confidence, and more. There is also an anonymous hotline that you can call, it is free and they offer counseling.
Conclusion
I suggest that everyone takes action when it comes to their mental health. It may not be visible but it won’t budge without some real effort. No matter how deep the hole is that you’re in right now there is always a way out. I believe in you and so does everyone else.