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Atwater Village, Los Angeles

© Sinziana Velicescu

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@harshandcruel

After being asked a couple times about useful apps for the brains, I decided to round up a handful to share! Especially look at My 3!

Note: All these apps are FREE bc f*ck capitalism, although a lot of them have paid versions with more content. They’re all available on iPhones bc that’s all I have to test on so I’m not sure how many are Android-capable I’m sorry!

Mood Tracking/Diary

Daylio

I use this one every day and I have for over 500 days (it counts). It lets me track my moods twice a day and pair it with different activities or conditions that I can customize. I can look back at the charts and see patterns in my moods, which has been really helpful.

Spot On

This one is really good for people whose moods fluctuate with their hormones. I use this one to track that so I know when to expect changes. It also lets you track activities. And it’s created by Planned Parenthood!

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

What’s Up

What’s Up has a lottttt of good info in it. It has basic tracking capabilities of positive and negative habits as well as a basic text diary you can keep. None of it is behind a paywall so you can access information on anxiety and depression as well as coping techniques for both. Don’t get confused like I did- you can swipe to access more pages. This app has a lot of reading tho, so be aware of your own preferences.

CBT Thought Diary

CBT Thought Diary is a good one for fighting negative thoughts. You can record a variety of moods, gratitude journal, and use CBT skills to contradict your neg thoughts. You can’t really do much more than that, but not all apps need to have all the bells and whistles.

Woebot

My sister uses this one. It’s got a cute little robot that talks to you daily to check in and teaches you CBT tools. It shows you cute little educational videos too. Your interaction can be as little as a check in, or you can seek guidance on specific issues you’re having. It requires a lil small talk but it’s good if you want a little more TLC than just reading a webpage.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

DBT Coach

A fair amount of DBT Coach is behind a paywall BUT I love the diary card function bc it looks good and it covers all the bases. It’s got mood, skills, activities, journal, urges, emotions, sleep, and a question about medication. You can even add photos to your journal! You have to explore the lessons and exercises to find those which are free but what’s there are p decent.

DBT Travel Guide

DBT Travel Guide has basically all the DBT info for free (bless!). It’s got a diary card, a tab for your therapy or other agreements, techniques specifically tailored to certain crises, information on skills, AND audio exercises! This is definitely the most comprehensive DBT app I’ve found.

Eating Disorder Recovery

Rise Up + Recover

Rise Up + Recover is an app for those with disordered eating created by the org Recovery Warriors. It’s an entirely free app that lets you log meals, work on body image, do other crisis and self-improvement exercises AND it lets you send that info to your therapist or whomever. It can link you to RW playlists, podcasts, and even help you find local treatment.

Recovery Record

RR is an app I used during my first bout in recovery years ago that I liked bc it gave me lil rewards for logging my meals- like these puzzle pieces. It’s grown a lot since then and includes symptom tracking & questionnaires, the ability to ‘like’ the cute or inspirational images they reward you with so you can revisit, meditations, and a heart rate monitor for apple watches. Like Rise Up, you can share it all with your treatment team.

Crisis Intervention

Calm Harm

There’s a great post going around with more info on Calm Harm but it’s a really cute and helpful app to use when you want to self-harm. It provides various activities in each category to do for either 5 or 15 minutes as you urge surf.

ShinyThing

ShinyThing is much the same but offers you YouTube videos instead. You can even add your own faves to distract you next time. It tracks your urge level before and after each session.

START

START stands for Stress Traumasymptoms Arousal Regulation Treatment. It focuses on activities you can do both during a crisis and in between to shore up your defenses.

My 3

My 3 is an app that is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. As you can see, it links to the Lifeline, 911, and three contacts you can choose that you’d be comfortable calling in crisis. It also lets you create a safety plan full of the components shown in the pic.

Other

Headspace

Headspace is a mindfulness app a former therapist recommended to me. Most of the activities are for the premium version BUT there are a few that aren’t and most of the sleep casts are free which is a nice sleep aid.

Gratitude

This is a gratitude journal you can write nice things in to look back at the Good. It’s pretty widely accepted that keeping a gratitude journal can improve your mood. This one also lets you create affirmations that can be scheduled to pop up and remind you how great you are.

I hope some of these apps sound useful to y’all! I’m certainly going to be keeping a lot of the ones I downloaded to try out. The next battle is getting myself to actually use them when I need them lol.

“You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.”

— Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town