NHS Digital have created a library of useful health apps. We have put together some that will be useful with this condition.

• Action For Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society. Their website offers a range of simple, practical resources to help you increase your meaningful activity, build positive connections with others and generally feel better about yourself.
• Be Mindful Online is an online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) course and is approved by the NHS. The Be Mindful pathway reduces levels of stress, depression and anxiety, and was designed by experts so you can learn to practise mindfulness at a speed you are comfortable with – the 4-week programme of mindfulness training is completed at your own pace. Leading mindfulness teachers guide you through instructional videos, interactive sessions, and mindfulness assignments supported by motivational e-mails. Please note that there is an associated charge for the Be Mindful Online service. There is a free introduction available via the Be Mindful Online website.
• Breathing and Relaxation Exercises for Stress is a collection of resources put together by NHS Scotland you can do to relieve stress and relax your body and mind. They are designed to be simple and can be done at home, at work or out and about. For some of them it helps to lie down, or sit, but they will still work if you aren’t able to do those things; the exercises include playlists you can listen to as well as short films to ‘follow along’.
• Calm Harm is an award-winning app developed for teenage mental health charity stem4 by Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, using the basic principles of an evidence-based therapy called Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). Calm Harm provides tasks to help you resist or manage the urge to self-harm, and aims to help users to channel the urge to self-harm in more constructive ways.
• Catch It is an app developed by the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester, to help users better understand their moods through use of an ongoing diary. It was designed to illustrate some of the key principles of psychological approaches to mental health and well-being, and specifically Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
• Clear Fear is an app developed for teenage mental health charity stem4 by Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and uses the evidence-based treatment CBT to focus on learning to reduce the physical responses to anxiety by learning to breathe, relax and be mindful as well as changing thoughts and behaviours and releasing emotions.
• Crisis Tools was co-produced by the NHS, Young Minds, 42nd Street and YPAS; it’s a collection of online guides, tools and resources designed to improve your confidence, knowledge and skills in supporting young people in crisis. Everything on the site is free and was created by young people working in partnership with mental health experts.
• DadPad is an app which provides on-the-go advice to help fathers enjoy their babies, feel more confident and support their mental and emotional wellbeing. It offers fathers with practical tips on things like feeding, sleeping and bonding with your baby as well as information to help dads adjust to their new roles and cope with the physical and emotional strains having a baby can place on individuals and relationships. DadPad is available free to new and expectant fathers in County Durham and Darlington, Teeside, North Yorkshire and York under contract by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) focuses on teaching people strategies to help them live their best and most productive life, with an emphasis on mindfulness, distress tolerance and emotional regulation. DBT is often used to help people with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorders, addictions, eating disorder, and PTSD – the website above offers several short courses designed to teach the fundamentals of DBT and provide some helpful strategies for managing difficult emotions.
• MindEd is a free educational resource on children, young people, adults and older people’s mental health created by NHS Health Education England. The website has a collection of e-learning packages applicable across the health, social care, education, criminal justice and community settings, and is aimed at anyone from beginner through to specialist.
• My Possible Self was developed to provide an easily-accessible toolkit to help manage anxiety, low mood and a range of other mental health issues. The app contains various resources, including ways to monitor your mood, visual and audio exercises to help manage difficult emotions or aid sleep and a tag/tracking system to establish when people, places and events influence your mental health.
• NHS Mental Wellbeing Audio Guides serve as brief, informative introductions to a variety of mental health issues including anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress; they were created by healthcare professionals working for the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust. There are also a selection of transcripts from these audio guides available online here, which can be translated into other languages by clicking the ‘Recite Me’ bar at the top of the screen and using the ‘Change Language’ option there.
• NHS Inform – Problem-Solving Guide is an interactive online resource created by NHS Scotland to help people develop the skills and resilience required to identify and constructively engage with challenging issues or situations. The guide is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and uses a variety of techniques derived from this approach.
• NHS Inform – PTSD and CPTSD is an interactive online resource created by NHS Scotland to help people understand and manage mild to moderate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Based on Trauma-Focused Cognitive Therapy, this resource attempts to establish simple, practical ways to address negative symptoms of PTSD in order to improve quality of life. Please be aware that this is not intended as a replacement for proper trauma-focussed psychological interventions.
• NHS (TEWV) Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a particular way of paying attention to the present moment. When we’re tuned in to the present moment, the mind is less likely to get caught up in unhelpful patterns of thinking and feeling; mindfulness helps us become more aware of our thoughts and emotions and relate to them in a different way. Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust offer full courses intended to help develop these skills in combination with elements of cognitive-behavioural therapy – the team provide brief initial sessions designed to introduce people to the basic principles of mindful practice with an associated full course for those who are interested in further developing these skills. Please contact the team at [email protected] if you are interested in attending.
• PTSD Coach is an app developed by the US department of Veteran’s Affairs for those who have, or may have, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The app provides you with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support (note that some of these are local to the US) and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD. Tools range from relaxation skills and positive self-talk to anger management and other common self-help strategies. You can customize tools based on your preferences and integrate your own contacts, photos, and music.
• Recovery College Online is a free online mental health resource designed by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. The Recovery College provides a range of online educational courses to people with experience of mental illness, from service users to their family to friends and staff.
• Recovery Record is a free app developed as a personalised eating disorder management companion. If you are struggling with body, shape or weight concerns, Recovery Record can help you build and maintain your recovery with goals, coping tactics and customised monitoring tools.
• Safe Places is a nationwide scheme intended to provide safe, supportive environments for vulnerable people if they feel scared or at risk while they are out and about in the community. Their free-to-use Safe Places apps show all the Safe Places in districts that have decided to make the apps available. The apps have a function called ‘Get me to my nearest Safe Place Now’ (panic button) which immediately directs you to the nearest open Safe Place. If no Safe Place is located within a 15-minute walk it will automatically offer to call the non-emergency 101 number to get help over the phone.
• SafeSpot is an app designed to help young people improve their coping skills which gives you your own personalized coping plan, useful strategies and tools to help and directions to local resources. The SafeSpot website also has a collection of workbooks to help understand, cope with and reduce stress which you might find helpful.
• Samaritans Self-Help is an app designed to provide a type of support that you can use without having to discuss your feelings with someone else. It will help you learn safe, memorable techniques for coping with things that are troubling you, through a range of interactive features. It can also help you make a plan to stay safe in a crisis, and keep track of things you can do away from the app to help yourself feel better.
• Sleepio is a 6 week online program designed by sleep experts and based on cognitive and behavioural techniques; it has been reviewed and approved by the NHS. Each week during your Sleepio course you will ‘Visit The Prof’ to receive your weekly session. Each session is automated, yet the content is tailored to your particular problems (based on the Sleep Test questionnaire you complete before the course), your week-to-week progress in improving your sleep and the choices you make during the session. Please note that Sleepio is not currently free to NHS clients in North or East Yorkshire; current charges are listed on the app website.
• Stay Alive is a suicide prevention resource for the UK provided by the Grassroots suicide prevention charity, packed full of useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis. You can use it if you are having thoughts of suicide or if you are concerned about someone else who may be considering suicide. In addition to the resources, the app includes a safety plan, customisable reasons for living, and a LifeBox. Here you can store photos and memories that are important to you.
• The Medito App is intended for people who have never meditated before or want to deepen their meditation practice; it’s completely free, containing no ads, no spam and with no need to sign up or pay. The app includes a beginner and intermediate course, sleep sounds & meditations, breathing exercises, a stress & anxiety pack, and much more.
• Qwell is free, safe and an anonymous online mental health and wellbeing service, available to all adults aged 19+ in the Vale of York area. This has been commissioned by Vale of York CCG. Adults can access optional support from BACP accredited counsellors and qualified emotional wellbeing practitioners, alongside the chance to access support from peers via moderated discussion forums and self-help through reading and submitting content. There are no waiting lists, no referrals and no thresholds required to access the service and it is available 24/7, 365 days of the year; please see their website for registration details.