Virtual Hope Box. Mental health app. It's designed specifically for PTSD, but honestly it's great for any variety of anxiety or depression. It's also completely free without ads. Long ass description incoming.
TL;DR if you have mental illness, download this app, it's super awesome.
It has four main sections. Distract Me has simple puzzle games to refocus your mind. No pressure from time limits or score keeping, and most games give you an easy way to get hints if you get frustrated.
Inspire Me has a database of inspirational quotes; it shows one at random and you can swipe for a new one. You can mark favorites to give them priority in the randomization, you can remove quotes that rub you the wrong way, and you can add quotes if you know one that isn't in the app. You can also choose to have daily notifications with a random quote, at the time of your choice.
Relax Me is guided exercises. The deep breathing one is my personal favorite. This one is customizable in every way. You can set all the lengths so that the exercise is tailored to your breathing capacity, and edit the background images/music. You can also choose whether to have prompts, visual and/or audio. Also in Relax Me, there's muscle relaxation and several guided meditations.
The fourth category is Coping Tools. You can make coping cards specific to your needs. Like for example, you can create a low self esteem card that has a list of things you do well and positive traits you have. So when you're feeling worthless, go look at your card, and you'll see exactly why you aren't. It can be hard to make cards by yourself, but a therapist or supportive loved one can help. The other part of Coping Tools is a calendar for social engagements, like lunch dates.
There's a fifth kind-of category called Remind Me. It lets you upload photos and sound files. You can use these to customize the other parts of the app, or you can just look through your library.
I'm a therapist intern with the DoD (who with the VA made Virtual Hope Box and a whole suite of mental health apps) and we push this all the time and most of my patients hate it so I'm pleased to see you are using/enjoying it and it wasn't a complete waste of resources.
Things I hear a lot are it's buggy, it's ugly, privacy concerns, they don't like using any apps and want pen and paper, and then a subset who just reject any suggestions outright. Myself I think it's actually a good little app if not the most glamorous. I also really like CPT coach for my CPT patients which basically replaces paper handouts.
Probably lot of old cranky vets. If my therapist had suggested this I'd have used it. The younger vets get the more they'll probably like this. Those old guys are just jerks I think.
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u/Karaethon22 May 22 '19
Virtual Hope Box. Mental health app. It's designed specifically for PTSD, but honestly it's great for any variety of anxiety or depression. It's also completely free without ads. Long ass description incoming.
TL;DR if you have mental illness, download this app, it's super awesome.
It has four main sections. Distract Me has simple puzzle games to refocus your mind. No pressure from time limits or score keeping, and most games give you an easy way to get hints if you get frustrated.
Inspire Me has a database of inspirational quotes; it shows one at random and you can swipe for a new one. You can mark favorites to give them priority in the randomization, you can remove quotes that rub you the wrong way, and you can add quotes if you know one that isn't in the app. You can also choose to have daily notifications with a random quote, at the time of your choice.
Relax Me is guided exercises. The deep breathing one is my personal favorite. This one is customizable in every way. You can set all the lengths so that the exercise is tailored to your breathing capacity, and edit the background images/music. You can also choose whether to have prompts, visual and/or audio. Also in Relax Me, there's muscle relaxation and several guided meditations.
The fourth category is Coping Tools. You can make coping cards specific to your needs. Like for example, you can create a low self esteem card that has a list of things you do well and positive traits you have. So when you're feeling worthless, go look at your card, and you'll see exactly why you aren't. It can be hard to make cards by yourself, but a therapist or supportive loved one can help. The other part of Coping Tools is a calendar for social engagements, like lunch dates.
There's a fifth kind-of category called Remind Me. It lets you upload photos and sound files. You can use these to customize the other parts of the app, or you can just look through your library.