The hype created by various smartphone apps in simplifying the various complexities of life, including profession, business, and most importantly, health, has ultimately been further raised by the introduction of specific mental health applications.
Noting that mental health is akin to effective management of stress, the current article primarily seeks to examine how the mental health apps out there can effectively help manage stress.
Mental Health and Stress Management
🔹 Defining Mental Health
Mental health, as best defined and explained by the WHO, refers to a state of mental well-being. It indicates the capacity of the human mind to withstand or cope with the various stressors of life, in all their vividness and extremes.
Not to exclude, mental health also signifies one’s ability to learn and work well, as well as its efficiency in contributing to community welfare. What is more important to note here is that mental health is integral to the overall physical well-being of an individual when it comes to possessing the collective abilities of decision-making, relationship-building, and making the world a better place to live.
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🔹 The Role Of Mental Health In Managing Stress
The understated doubtlessly denotes that sound mental health is critical to managing stress. However, not every individual is born with the same mental capabilities when it comes to facing various problems and stressors in life.
However, if these issues go to the extent of not being able to be controlled by one alone, confiding in a trustworthy partner or friend will be highly appropriate. Nevertheless, instances like these are common among laymen, where most of them either tend to easily admit to failures or succumb. At the same time, the remaining percentage try to cope with the various stressors in their lives, attempting to handle them as best as they can. The second case necessitates acquiring mental stability for beating and managing stress.
Understanding that one can probably drain one’s physical and mental capabilities when dealing with a wide range of stressors, it would be in one’s best interest to master techniques that, besides assisting in effectively coping with the same, will also improve or enhance mental health. Thus, it would be worth adding here that a good number of stress management techniques have come into being, including mindfulness, exercise, relaxation, and meditation.
Effectiveness Of Mental Health Apps In Managing Stress
The time and cost involved in seeking help from a professional mental health therapist have strongly instilled the need to consider creating viable mental health apps to help manage stress. This section, therefore, briefly discusses the effectiveness of the same for the stated purpose.
Research studies in this regard have brought forth facts conveying or confirming the efficacy of the different mobile-based applications in helping individuals cope with stressors. The experimental and control groups assessed revealed that about 69.2% of them found these apps highly useful, whereas the other 57.7% reported having improved their stress awareness, and the remaining 61.5% of mobile app users expressed increased motivation for seeking treatment.
At first glance, this study has been found to substantially quantify the efficacy of the stated apps in helping subjects manage their stress levels by seeking urgent therapeutic consultation based on the results provided by these apps.
What could be discovered in this context is the initiative taken by the concerned mental health care services in Korea to initiate such a program to improve accessibility for people finding it difficult to seek treatment and the required solutions to manage their stressors on an efficient note.
In yet another instance, it was noted that individuals and organizations are relentlessly utilizing the various applicable mobile applications to encourage stress-coping mechanisms in their employees. Nevertheless, concerns remain related to the non-confirmation of the applicability of the existing apps for mental health and mobile health interventions.
These issues have been enough to prompt the employees from the mobile health team to frame out an evidence-based psycho-educational journey that would be personalized enough to help them build resources. As such, these resources are meant to reduce stress for the users of the mental health apps built on smartphones.
Best Mental Health Apps To Manage Stress
The following are the mental health apps considered best to manage stress effectively:
- Best for stress
- Best for Meditation
- Best for OCD
- Best for Drinking Less Alcohol
- Best for Therapy
- Best for Boosting Mood
Conclusion
A study relating to the use of mental health apps quantitatively vouched for their effectiveness. Consequently, this has provided sufficient grounds for concluding that mobile applications like these are indeed worthy of helping and treating people with stress-related disorders.
However, one needs to analyze their pros and cons just to be sure which among these is safe to invest one’s trust and reliance on. The motive to effectively manage one’s stress should be highly considered when selecting a specific mental health app.
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