Apps
There are so many advantages to using technology, and despite the potential downside for a small number of adolescents, there’s some pretty compelling research that suggests that overall, technology has tremendous advantages for young people.
Joint research by Murdoch University and the University of Western Sydney found that technology can contribute to the following in the lives of young people:
- Creativity
- Individual identity and self-expression
- Strengthening of social relationships
- Belonging and collective identity
- Building and strengthening communities
- Civic and political participation
- Self-efficacy and wellbeing
With all that in mind, here are some apps that I would suggest for young people (in fact, for anyone of any age really):
Mood Mission
Mood Mission is an evidence-based app designed to empower you to overcome feelings of depression and anxiety by discovering new and better ways of coping. It’s free to download.
Calm Harm
With a significant number of young people engaging in self-harming currently, we’re developing more creative ways of helping them to cope and use alternative strategies when they are feeling distressed. The urge to self-harm is like a wave. It feels the most powerful when you start wanting to do it. Learn to ride the wave with the free Calm Harm app using these activities:
- Comfort
- Distract
- Express Yourself
- Release
- Random
- Breathe.
When you ride the wave, the urge to self-harm will fade. Also free to download and you can learn more about it from their website.
Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. Just as we eat well and stay fit to keep our body healthy, mindfulness meditation is about mental health and looking after the mind. It’s free to download from various app-stores or the developer website
Strava
I use this app and I love it! Tracking your exercise is a great way to see how well you’re doing, plus you can connect with friends and family and follow each other and encourage each other to keep going and congratulate them when they do well.
Strava is Swedish for “strive,” which epitomizes our attitude and ambition: We’re a passionate and committed team, unified by our mission to build the most engaged community of athletes in the world. Every day, we’re searching for new ways to inspire athletes and make the sports they love even more fun.
Mind Shift
Mind Shift is an app designed to help teens and young adults cope with anxiety. It can help you change how you think about anxiety. Rather than trying to avoid anxiety, you can make an important shift and face it.
Mind Shift will help you learn how to relax, develop more helpful ways of thinking, and identify active steps that will help you take charge of your anxiety. This app includes strategies to deal with everyday anxiety, as well as specific tools to tackle exam anxiety, perfectionism, social anxiety, performance anxiety, worry, panic and conflict.
Deep Sleep
Deep Sleep by Andrew Johnson is a simple digital sleep tool with a clear focus on guided meditation that is useful for who have trouble stilling their minds, a prerequisite for deep restful sleep. With less focus on diagnostics and analytics, the soundscape paired with the authoritative yet soothing, lilting directives of Andrew Deep Sleep is compelling in its simplicity and reminds us that detailed sleep monitoring may not be the only approach to improve sleep quality.