Having suffered from depression for a long time, I would have loved to have some of these apps 20 years ago. Mental health apps for depression are a great way to support and practice the techniques and strategies you learn from your professional mental health providers. There were many times my psychiatrist would recommend a book or workbook with strategies for me to learn and once I left the office I completely forgot about them.
But know that my phone is always with me, using these apps are an easy and effective way to implement what I learn in therapy and from my doctors. It needs to be noted that these apps are not intended to replace your professional mental health treatment by licensed providers.
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✅ The Best Mental Health Apps to Help Depression
Depression CBT Self Help Guide
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one approach to manage depression and other mental health problems. This mental health app for depression helps you monitor your moods with an assessment test that tracks the severity of your depressed moods and provides several resources aimed at educating you about identifying flawed thought patterns that may be worsening your depression. There are also audio programs for relaxation and depression assistance.
Virtual Hope Box
This is a multi-media coping skill mental health app designed for people with depression. The four main features offer distraction, relaxation, inspiration, and coping techniques. This app can be used in conjunction with a mental health professional through the “coping cards” features to focus on specific problem areas.
Start
This app is designed for people who suffer from depression to manage and keep track of their depression symptoms as well as medications they are taking. Since it can take weeks before a medicine starts working, this app helps you “spot” when (or if) you start feeling better and document any side effects you may experience.
✅ Mood-Focused Depression Mental Health Apps
Moodpath
Developed by therapists, the app asks you questions daily to assess your mood. Based on your results, certain psychological exercises are recommended to learn more about your mood and be more in tuned with your mental health. The app offers 150 exercises and videos to help you do this.
Moodkit
Moodkit is filled with mood improvement tools, including activities to boost your outlook immediately, a thought checker to monitor your moods, and a journal for you to help work through your emotions. The app works with your iOS calendar and can be synced with your social media accounts. We like that there’s the option to track your moods quickly and refer back using weekly or monthly charts.
Catch It
This is a mood journal app that has you input information about a particularly low period and it asks you questions to help you reframe your perspective of that low period. It stores your entries so that you can go back later to see patterns of moods and thinking over time.
Daylio
Want to keep track of your moods and feelings simply and quickly? Daylio is a micro-diary app that lets you keep track of your moods without having to write down your feelings. Just select videos and icons that correspond with your mood to track how your feelings ebb and flow.
✅ Informational Mental Health Apps for Depression
NIH Depression Information
Maybe your depression diagnosis is new, and you (or your loved ones) want to learn more about it. The NIH Depression Info app comes from the National Institutes of Health with answers to many of the questions you might ask your doctor. Those include: symptoms, causes, treatments, and information about related conditions like Bipolar Disorder. This mental health app for depression also has features for finding the best help options for you or a loved one who is suffering from depression.
Psych Drugs & Medications
Medication is often used in the treatment of depression, and sometimes several medications have to be tried before you and your doctor settle on one that will provide the most benefits and the least side effects. That’s where this mental health app comes in. It features a catalogue of mental health drugs and all of their details. Search for your new medication and find potential interactions, side effects, dosage details, and more.
Operation Reach Out
When that feeling of hopelessness is at its greatest, people who have depression need help more than ever. The Operation Reach Out app is designed specifically for veterans, but can provide help for anyone depressed or suicidal. Download this mental health app and store emergency contact information in it. Then, when you feel at your lowest, you can easily contact help. The app also comes with preloaded numbers to suicide prevention hotlines and several helpful videos.
✅ Meditation and Mindfulness Mental Health Depression Apps
Headspace
Headspace is targeted to anyone who wants to learn meditation to reduce anxiety and stress and improve their attention and awareness. It is good for beginners to establish a regular meditative routine. The skills taught include mindfulness and cognitive diffusion, breathing exercises, and different meditation practices.
Health Through Breath
Stress contributes to many symptoms of ill health, including depression. Health Through Breath is one app that attempts to soothe your mind and body through relaxation. It features guided, slow breathing techniques to help you learn to relax and breathe deeply.
Happy Not Perfect
This depression mental health app contains more than 200 mindful exercises that help you focus on the positive, learn to meditate, lower stress, and can be used as a journal.
Want instant access to my FREE Mental Health Resources and Printables? Just click the button below to get the super secret password and download as many as you like!
✅ Depression Mental Health Apps for Developing New Positive Habits and Coping Skills
Pacifica
This mental health app teaches deep breathing, behavioral exercises, and helps identify cognitive distortions. Once a cognitive distortion is identified (like negative thinking patterns), it helps you learn to replace them with positive thinking patterns. This app does a terrific job of personalizing what the user needs using voice recordings and introducing CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). It is designed to be used in conjunction with professional therapy, not as a substitute.
Secret of Happiness
Sometimes our brains need help breaking out of a destructive cycle, especially for someone with depression. The Secret of Happiness mental health app for depression is designed to give you a regular schedule of positive thinking as a way to train your brain to think more on the bright side. No one would suggest the cure to depression is as simple as turning your frown upside down, but this mental health app can help you get in the practice of thinking positively. The app asks for a 30-day commitment and this is enough time to develop a new habit.
Positive Thinking
The things we surround ourselves with certainly have the potential to affect our moods. Positive Thinking is a great mental health app that provides a massive collection of positive quotes to help you keep your mind on good things rather than worries and stress. You can add to the collection, store your favorites, and share the quotes on social media.
What’s Up?
A free mental health app known for helping people with depression uses the CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and ACT (acceptance commitment therapy) methods. It is made to help people coping with depression, anxiety, anger, stress, and more. This mental health app has many useful features like negative thinking patterns, a
Positive Activity Jackpot
The temptation to stay indoors and crawl under the covers can be intense when you suffer from depression. Getting out into the world and enjoying social activities, however, is often precisely what the doctor would order. The Positivity Activity Jackpot depression app helps you break free of this introverted inclination and offers suggestions for nearby activities. This mental health app makes a game of something that a depressed individual might otherwise dread.
More Mental Health Apps and Depression Help . . .
- SAD Lights Reviews [Best Light Therapy Lamps for Depression on Amazon]
- 20 Super Helpful Mental Health Apps for Managing Your Mental Illness
- 15 Anxiety Mental Health Apps (That Will Give You a Healthy Boost)
- 60+ Thoughtful Gift Ideas (For Someone With Depression)
After being diagnosed most of my life with depression, it has now become apparent that I actually have Bipolar 1 Disorder. But since bipolar disorder includes bouts of mania and depression, many of these mental health apps for depression were very useful to me when recovering from my recent manic episode. If you know someone with depression or a mood disorder, you should definitely share these great mental health apps and this article with them.
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