Best Apps for Anxiety | Handpicked Tools for Mental Health

Apps and phones are notorious for being the greatest sources of anxiety. But our life creed is to turn everything to our advantage despite common beliefs and prejudice! So, we scoured the internet for the best anti-anxiety apps that actually work and found six great tools. 

Enjoy the comprehensive overview of the best and really helpful apps to manage stress and daily struggles. 

HeyZen

Unlike many apps for mental health, HeyZen hasn’t concentrated only on one specific aspect of well-being but has taken a so-called holistic approach. It means that here you can heal your mental state by strengthening the physical body! If other apps offer to mute your frustration with meditations, HeyZen allows you to work through every health aspect and understand your feelings to truly heal.

This holistic technique has scientific evidence, and science is the real fuel for all HeyZen content. In the app, you’ll find yoga sessions, meditations, and podcasts—all packed up in daily bundles. 

So, every day you can address specific anxiety symptoms through a special yoga session, complimented by a targeted meditation and a podcast for self-learning.

Podcasts, by the way, offer not only expert knowledge on anxiety disorders but also techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). They explore such topics as self-care, self-love, and effective ways to calm a busy mind. You won’t find clichéd advice that everyone already knows, but rather science-backed techniques that deliver real results.

HeyZen also offers cool programs for ADHD, childhood trauma, and general balancing of the nervous system. So, if you’re struggling with multiple issues, don’t hesitate to check the app out.

Cool features

• Podcasts with CBT techniques. 
• Yoga sessions and guided meditations created by respected mindfulness experts.
• Daily bundles of mindfulness exercises tailored to your personal needs and issues.
• Daily life hacks, affirmations, and funny memes. 

Pros

• A free trial period.
• The content is reviewed by a neurophysiology MD from NY. 
• Every exercise is proven by scientific research.
• Works for all age groups, including young adults and elderly people.
• A holistic approach to anxiety, i.e., healing mental through physical. 

Cons

• No mood tracking or journaling features.

Goblin Tools

Goblin started as a set of free online tools devised for anxious, depressed, and neurodivergent people to get organized. This simple app is totally free if you use it as a website, but you can also download it as Android and iPad apps. 

So, there you can:

• Break down big and frightening tasks into logical and manageable chunks, and then download a whole plan as a PDF. 
• Drop a disorganized bunch of tasks you need to do and have it magically organized. 
• Get a time estimate for any activity.
• Clarify the tone of any text (email, message, etc.) to make sure you haven’t read it wrongly.

It’s a great tool for every anxious person out there, as it saves a lot of time, energy, and mental resources on organizing your schedules and projects. It’s especially helpful for the days when we can’t even get out of bed to do basic daily chores.

Goblin tools will make everything seem easier and think out the logic of tasks for you. Remember always to take one step at a time, and this cool app is the greatest representation of this healthy approach. 

Cool feature

• It breaks down any task into smaller ones to avoid getting overwhelmed.
• You can tell Goblin all the products you have at home, and it’ll tell you what you can cook with them.

Pros

• The website with all the tools is free.
• Simple to navigate.

Cons

• Very straightforward, without any whistles and bells to keep you engaged. 
• No app for iOS.

Finch

This app allows you to build up coping skills by taking care of a cute bird and, well, trying to win other cute pets. The idea of the tool is that your bird gets the energy to go on various adventures if you do all the exercises from your daily plan, like journaling, meditating, doing breathing exercises, and performing acts of kindness. As you win streaks, you can earn coins to buy your bird new clothes or new pets.

Also, you can find support and go on adventures with other birds, i.e., your friends and random online people from all around the world. Some users claim that this community of people who share the same struggles helped them overcome their anxious and depressive episodes.

So, this highly gamified app motivates you to do self-care even if you don’t want it, and it’s very common among those with anxiety disorders. Also, it has a mood tracker and various music tracks to help you manage anxious thoughts.

Cool features

• Breathing techniques, physical movements, and meditations are all paid off with you dressing up and entertaining your bird avatar.

Pros

• Supportive online community of like-minded people
• Buying more cute pets as you take better care of your physical self. 

Cons

• May drift you away from the initial goal of healthy self-care and turn mindfulness into yet another game.

Dare

This anxiety app helps users deal with all types of anxious feelings, whether they’re connected to the fear of flying, social situations, driving, or even their own health. The main feature here is meditations that teach you not to resist panicky and fearful emotions but to accept them. For example, when you feel chest pain during a panic attack, such meditation will guide you through total feeling and acceptance of the sensations instead of trying to numb them. The idea isn’t new, but it really helps reduce anxiety attacks. 

The app also has a mood-tracking feature inside to help you notice how your state changes daily. Together with the app, Dare sells a special book dedicated to this accepting approach as well as podcasts about it. 

Cool features

• A mood tracker inside a meditation app.

Pros 

• Lots of free meditations for all life situations, and even for insomnia.

Cons

• All meditations are centered around one approach, which can be inefficient for some people.

Kinder World

It’s the coziest app on our list that also gamifies the path to calming your nervous system. As you download it, you meet a dog named Sammy who needs your help with taking care of houseplants. As might have already guessed, you’ll be able to grow and nurture the houseplants through self-care and self-soothing activities, such as writing down something you’re grateful for and acknowledging and understanding your emotions. Basically, with every step you grow unique plants, decorate various rooms with them, and unlock cute decoration items as you progress. 

Along the way, you’ll also meet other animals and companions on your calming journey—not only animated characters but real people who are also looking for peace! Kinder World allows you to write some kind messages to users from all around the world and receive something motivating and calming back.

The app is still developing, but it already works great for gentle daily calming. By the way, your plants there never die, as the app developers wanted to create a stress-free environment.

Cool features

• You can fill jars with different emotions you acknowledge daily and then review your entire week.

Pros

• Short self-care and mindfulness exercises with a cozy interface.
• Promotes self-awareness through understanding one’s emotions.

Cons

• May work only for very light anxiety levels. 
• Still has some bugs and a limited feature set.

Roodt

We found Rootd to be a very cool app to soothe some symptoms of anxiety such as panic attacks, overwhelming thoughts, and dissociation. It has a journaling feature where you can leave your thoughts after a long day and then identify the triggers behind your worries. The app also has long-term lessons to understand how anxiety works and learn different theories, causes, and perspectives on it. 

Rootd features deep breathing and visualization tools where you can practice mindfulness skills at your own pace. What we also liked about this app is that it includes different white noises, sounds of nature, sleep stories, and ASMR meditations that allow you to quickly ground your mind.

Cool features

• Long-term lessons on the nature of panic and anxiety. 
• A wide selection of sounds and melodies for anxious moments.

Pros

• Has a free version with a limited feature set.
• Sleek and pleasant interface with friendly monsters.
• Targets at self-education about the problem.

Cons

• It’s a new app so you can meet some bugs and limitations in features.
• The app doesn’t take into consideration one’s physical health and concentrates on meditations and breathing only.

Extra! Non-mental health apps that still work

Word puzzles, crosswords, and sudoku—all these games that make your mind shift from its worries to some mental activity work great to quickly calm down. But don’t confuse it with numbing your emotions! By playing games that require some level of focus and problem-solving, you’re engaging your brain in a constructive way. This mental workout helps you break the cycle of anxious thoughts, giving your mind a much-needed break from stress. 

The key here is that such apps aren’t about escaping your feelings but rather providing a structured distraction that can help you regain control over your emotional state. You’re still present and aware, but your focus is on something productive and challenging, which, in turn, reduces the intensity of overwhelming emotions.

So, what app works as an anti-anxiety medication?

It’s sad, but no magic app will wipe away all your stress and worries. Your calm state of mind is almost always the result of your will and effort.

But it’s not so tough and gloomy! Some apps can help you build and strengthen your coping skills to bravely and gracefully meet life challenges. We believe that you already have the strength and energy inside to handle anxiety and use it to your advantage, while HeyZen’s holistic plans help you reach out to them and apply these inner resources in real life. So, don’t hesitate to try out HeyZen—your understanding friend who knows how to equip you with tools and strategies for your emotional resilience. 

FAQ

What are the best mental health apps for anxiety?

Many apps offer various types of solutions. If you want a meditation app for all kinds of triggering life events, try out Dare or Roodt. If you want an app with online therapy, you may research the app BetterHelp. There’s also Headspace with lots of meditations and a two-week free trial period (but only if you buy an annual subscription).

If you want something more comprehensive, try out HeyZen, which features not only meditations but also yoga therapy sessions, expert podcasts, and daily affirmations. All of these are packed in smart daily bundles tailored to your personal needs, while all the content is science-based and reviewed by an MD in Neuroscience.

What is anxiety and anxiety disorder?

Anxiety is a healthy emotional response to life stressors, i.e., missed deadlines, an accident at work, a broken kitchen drawer, etc. The overall anxious feelings may come along with nausea, fatigue, insomnia, etc.

Normally, you experience these symptoms short-term, and your psyche slowly recovers to function as it did. However, if anxious symptoms start to affect your daily life and last for more than six months, it may be a sign of them growing into a disorder. There are various types of it: phobias, agoraphobia, generalized disorder, panic disorder, etc. 

As each type requires a specific approach, don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with a licensed therapist or a psychiatrist who can give you the right diagnosis and prescribe the needed treatment.

Are there evidence-based natural ways for mental health treatment?

Yes, and HeyZen is packed with them. This systematic review and the trial show that mindfulness meditation works great in alleviating the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorders and stress; hence, it can be used as a complementary therapy for mental illnesses.

Another study shows that cognitive-behavioral therapy, yoga, and stress education also benefit mental health and reduce anxiety symptoms.

The point is that all these exercises make your brain focus on the present moment and understand that there’s no need to overreact and worry. Also, these techniques activate your body’s parasympathetic nervous system, or the rest-and-digest mode, to lower your heart rate, normalize blood pressure, alleviate chronic pain, and strengthen the immune system.