The Best Apps to Download for Anxiety

Mental health technology has come a long way since smartphones became popular. These days, people who suffer from anxiety have a whole arsenal of apps to choose from. Whether you prefer mindfulness, guided meditations, or soothing activities like adult coloring books, anti-anxiety apps are powerful weapons for battling panic attacks and anxiety. At Advanced Psychiatry DFW, we believe in utilizing all the tools as your disposal to improve your quality of life, so we’ve created this quick guide to anxiety apps.

Every app listed here is available on both iPhone and Android. They are all highly rated and free to download, but some feature in-app purchases.

Headspace

Headspace offers different meditation courses, including ones that specifically target anxiety. The meditations are guided by a former monk who leads you to become more mindful of your sleep habits, your happiness, and your level of productivity, among other things. Users report more focus, less stress, and improved ability to identify their anxiety triggers.

Rootd

Rootd is a female-led app that helps users work through feelings of anxiety and panic. It has helpful features like a guide to deep, controlled breathing and an emergency call button that allows you to call a loved one or a mental health care professional with just one tap of your finger. The app also includes a tracking feature that allows users to keep count of how many panic attacks they have overcome, which many find encouraging.

Calm

Calm is a mindfulness app that specializes in better sleep quality. Restful sleep is important for coping with moods and anxiety. Users can choose from a large number of guided meditations tailored for various levels of experience. When it’s time for bed, users can listen to soothing sounds of nature or relaxing stories to help them fall asleep.

Colorfy

For those who enjoy coloring pictures for relaxation, Colorfy is an adult coloring book app that lets you choose from mandalas and other intricate designs or upload your own drawings to color. All you have to do is tap on a section of the picture to color it in. It helps users zone out and leave their anxious thoughts behind as they enter a semi-trance state.

Spotify

Yes, the wildly popular streaming music app can also be used to fight insomnia brought on by anxiety. There are several podcasts on Spotify aimed at helping listeners relax and fall asleep at night. Some of the best include “Nothing Much Happens: Bedtimes Stories for Grown-ups”, “Sleep with Me”, and BBC’s “Slow Radio”. The podcasts range from dull stories that become progressively more boring over time to near-ASMR sounds of lo-fi technology to relax the mind.

YouTube

With more than a billion videos to choose from, it’s no surprise there are plenty that can be used to decrease anxiety. Binaural beats are an interesting genre that help soothe many anxious minds. Binaural beat therapy is best used with headphones. It works by playing sounds at slightly different frequencies for the listener’s left and right ears. The theory is that the different frequencies can put the brain into a state similar to the one experienced during deep meditation. There are binaural beat videos aimed at decreasing anxiety, falling into a deep sleep, and improved learning capacity.

Advanced Psychiatry DFW: Your Anti-Anxiety Experts in Dallas-Fort Worth

Anxiety is often downplayed because we all face stressors in our lives, but it is a serious condition for those who cannot control their flight impulse. We hope these apps help you in your battle against anxiety. If you need more help than they can provide, call our caring team of professionals. You’re not alone in your struggle; Advanced Psychiatry is here whenever you need us.