From ordering food and finding a hookup to ghost hunting and ride-sharing, there’s an app for everything nowadays; and while the detrimental mental health effects of excessive mobile phone usage are known, there are tens of thousands of apps designed to counteract just that.
Apps for mental health and wellbeing have seen explosive growth in recent years as the wellness movement made its way into the mainstream and onto our iPhones. If you’re into meditation, there’s an app for that; and if you’re suffering from a potentially serious mental health issue, there’s an app for that too.
While cautions have been issued from researchers who found that mental health apps are developed by people with limited mental health and illness knowledge – or that these apps encourage the “medicalisation” of regular human struggles – the benefits of having a place to self-manage have also been made known.
A recent study published in World Psychiatry discovered that mental health apps can have a "small but significant effect" on symptoms. Speaking on this, the lead author of the study Joseph Firth said: "They're giving people the power to manage their own condition.
"If you sit in an office with a doctor or get drug treatment, it's something that's done to you. Smartphones are more about a self-management system."
"Patients can find it quite empowering."
With that in mind, there were a number of apps that served better than others. Firth noted that apps that were "self-contained" and did not use external computerised or therapist support were "surprisingly" less effective; however, “…the ones that require other aspects like email support were probably not as all-encompassing as apps that work as standalone therapy for depression.”
Ultimately, popular mental health apps such as the Headspace Meditation App – designed to teach mindfulness practices as opposed to directly treat conditions – can have exponentially positive effects on its users. The same could be said for apps that monitor sleep – while it won’t cure insomnia, it can help you better understand it without external interference.
While there is no substitute to seeking direct help from a mental health professional, mental health and wellness apps go a long way to provide people with access to treatment that they may not have otherwise sought; combatting stigma and lifestyle issues in the process.
