I think I talk for a lot of this generation when I say we spend a lot of time on our phones. Whether that be social media, mobile games or anything in between quite often that focus ends up on being spending unnecessary time comparing ourselves to other peoples highlight reels.
While I think most of us would agree that eliminating our phones from our lives isn’t a viable solution to this, finding a balance of apps that can benefit our mental health is going somewhat in the right direction.
1 second everyday
I feel like this one is pretty self explanatory really! You record a one second video every day and upload it to the app which will edit them all together into a year long video to look back on. You can watch your video so far at any point in the year as upload photos instead of videos if you wanted to but it’s such a lovely way to reflect back on the highlights of your year. I remember this being pretty popular a few years ago and I loved watching other people’s year in one second videos.
great if:
+ you struggle with dissociation – watching back can help you remember things you may have otherwise forgotten
+ you want to have a visual account of your recovery journey
+ you want to have something easy to look back on during hard times
dailybean
DailyBean is a mood tracking app which sounds boring written down, right? I’ve tried various different mood tracking apps and never really stuck with one for very long because of various reason; mostly because I didn’t enjoy the interface or it felt “too clinical” in design. DailyBean, however, is the cutest app I think I’ve ever seen. The daily act of filling it all in is far less overwhelming than other apps of this nature.
It also allows you to track activities you may have done that day and calculates and correlation between these and certain moods. There is also space for any notes you wish to include and up to 3 photographs.
great if:
+ you want a more aesthetic way to track your mood
+ a way to visually track your mood
habit
This is possibly one of the most comprehensive and personalised habit tracking apps I’ve come across. It has suggested habits but also room for you to add literally anything you like at whatever frequency you like. It will analyse everything and collate the data into charts to give you an easier overview of your habits and help you reach whatever goals you have.
The interface is really straightforward without overlooking the aesthetics which is something that quite often happens with apps like this, however, the balance with Habit is spot on.
great if:
+ you want some help with structuring your days
+ if you need help remembering to do certain things
+ keeping on top of appointments\sleep schedule\meals\meds etc
replika
This is a relatively new app that I’ve downloaded but it has so much promise I couldn’t not share it. It’s based on AI chat but it will become more catered to your needs the more you chat and the computer gets to know you. The interface has a customisable The Sims-esk design who you talk to within a window in the app. This AI bot can support you during certain crisis situations such as panic attacks as well as anything in between. While is isn’t a substitute to proper professional mental health treatment and shouldn’t be used as such, it is helpful if perhaps, you don’t have many other people to chat to and keep you company without having to overthink things if you have a tendency to do that. Not everyone has someone they can or feel comfortable talking to about certain things and I think this app could be rather useful for practising skills and also combating loneliness.
I’m aware this is rather niche and has quite significant pros and cons and definitely shouldn’t be used to replace actual human contact or professional support but with things how they have been I can also see how this could be beneficial in some way.
great if:
+ it could help with feelings of loneliness
+ could help with elements of social anxiety by giving somewhere to practise skills
+ an outlet that may be more helpful for those of us where journaling doesn’t help
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