I started looking for mental health apps out of necessity. I am a quite sensitive person, who pushes through a lot of stress. However, I realize that the will to change it is in my hands. The thing is that to do this, we all need support.
Like many people who don’t know where to start, I started with mental health apps. I tried many of them, but not every one actually did something. Can you imagine how many scams that pretend to be mental health apps are out there?
Luckily, I found the 3 best mental health apps that work for me individually. As an experienced user, I also outlined a few rules to make such apps as effective as possible.
My 3 Favorite Mental Health Apps
My best mental health app choice is justified by years of experience. I didn’t choose these apps because they promised fast results or dramatic transformations. I chose them because they were usable on hard days. Each of the three below supported my mental health in a slightly different way. Here’s a short overview:
- Mindshift: I used it for changing negative thinking patterns and leaving the comfort zone.
- Breeze Mental Health: My favourite app for self-exploration.
- Self-Help App for the Mind (SAM): The app for professional psychoeducation and community support.
My disclaimer: Mental health apps cannot replace therapy or a real human connection.
1. MindShift
MindShift was one of the first mental health apps that genuinely helped me during periods of heightened anxiety. My friend, who is a therapist, recommended me Minshift because it has its roots in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which means the tools focus on changing unhelpful thought patterns.
This app has dozens of features like meditation, community, tracker, etc. I used exclusively coping cards and taking action features:
- Coping cards: You write a negative thought and the emotions it triggered here. Then, you write rational arguments for and against these thoughts. Finally, you note adapted thoughts that should replace negative thinking.
Let me say that these coping cards were a game-changer for my anxiety. I oftentimes returned to these cards to bring me back from the clouds of overthinking to the ground.
- Taking action: This feature is based on exposure therapy and lets you fight your fears in two ways: making small steps and doing challenges to leave your comfort zone.
Not only is it perfect for anxiety and gradual exposure to triggers, but it’s also fun. Some challenges for the comfort zone are entertaining and genuinely nice. For example, that’s how I played with a stranger’s dog (they didn’t mind it) and made a compliment to the girl, who shared that she got many hateful comments on social media that day.
One con of MindShift is that it can feel effort-heavy on low-energy days. The exercises require focus and active participation, which isn’t always possible when you’re emotionally exhausted. For me, this made it best suited for moments when I had enough mental capacity to engage intentionally, rather than during burnout.
2. Breeze Mental Health
Breeze Mental Health is one of the most versatile and, hence, best mental health apps on the market. Breeze’s way to mental health is through self-awareness and not “performative wellness.” Unlike Mindshift, Breeze still felt approachable on low-energy days, which is a gold standard for this industry.
I started using this app mainly for so-called self-discovery. Here are my favorite features of the Breeze App Mental Health:
- Mood analytics: Every day, I track my mood, feelings, and activities of that day. I learned that some recurring events are actually bad for my well-being, and learned to prepare for them to reduce the amount of stress.
- Journaling: I love gratitude prompts and period. One reason why I was so anxious is that I believe the world around me is bad. Gratitude journaling in Breeze showed me that it’s not right, and there are so many things to be grateful for. Even for simply existing.
- Quizzes: Once a week or two, I completed a self-discovery test. I can highly recommend them (especially Personality type and Childhood experience) because the recommendations in the results worked like a charm for me.
- Affirmations: I was very skeptical of affirmations until my therapist friend told me that, from a neurological perspective, our brains don’t distinguish between thoughts and reality. So, I set Breeze’s affirmations as background, and it really made me feel about how I am actually deserving of living and am a much better person than I previously believed.
What I appreciated most was that Breeze works well on low-capacity days. Besides the features I named above, there are more. If I didn’t feel like journaling, I could use a calming game or a short mindfulness exercise.
For anyone who finds traditional mental health apps too rigid or demanding, Breeze offers a more sustainable way to care for your mental health.
3. SAM (Self-Help App for the Mind)
SAM is a non-profit mental health app that I use for psycheducation. Once again, shoutout to my therapist friend, who gave me this recommendation.
What initially drew me to it was its straightforwardness. There’s no pressure to journal daily, track moods obsessively, or engage with overly polished features. Instead, SAM offers practical knowledge in the form of articles, videos, and evidence-based techniques I can try and exchange daily.
What appealed to me the most were self-help exercises and community support. I found it especially helpful during periods when I wanted support, but without too much introspection.
Its simplicity is also its main limitation. Compared to Breeze, SAM offers less personalization and fewer tools for long-term emotional insight. It doesn’t guide you toward deeper self-awareness or habit-building, which may matter if you’re looking for growth beyond symptom relief.
How to Use Mental Health Apps
Mental health apps can be genuinely helpful, but only if you use them in an ecological way for mental well-being. I learned it the hard way after a number of burnouts and emotional lows. It’s important not to turn the best mental health apps into another source of pressure.
Here are a few principles that helped me to actually benefit from mental health apps:
- Start small and stay realistic: You don’t need to journal daily, track every emotion, or complete everything the app tries to sell you. Even opening an app once or twice a week is enough to build awareness. Listen to your gut, and if a walk sounds more appealing than surfing an app, consider it.
- Use apps as support: Mental health apps are tools, not replacements for real-life support. They can help you calm down or reflect, but they can’t carry your emotional load for you.
- Avoid “productivity guilt”: If an app starts feeling like homework, something’s not right. In such cases, some apps weren’t the right choice for me, or I got too serious about them. Skipping days doesn’t mean regression. Mental health isn’t linear, and apps should adapt to your energy, not the other way around.
- Talk about what you’re using: Sharing insights from an app with a friend, partner, or therapist can make them more meaningful. I did it out of fear that I would become dependent on mental health apps (which is almost impossible, hello anxiety). But if you’re not as paranoid, mental health work simply feels easier when you know that there are people you can count on.
- Combine apps with offline care: An essential rule that is also hard to follow. Sleep, movement, boundaries, and real conversations still matter. Apps work best when they complement life.
Can Mental Health Apps Make Any Difference?
Short answer: yes, they can. Long answer, mental health apps don’t “fix” people. Yes, they helped me put language to feelings I used to ignore or push through.
But mental health apps are not magic. They won’t work if they’re used as a way to avoid real emotions or deeper issues.
What they can do is this:
- help you build emotional vocabulary
- make mental health care more accessible
- lower the barrier to self-reflection
- support healthier daily habits
From personal experience, the biggest shift wasn’t “feeling better all the time,” but feeling less alone with my thoughts.
