You're rushing to get to your class in Francis Searle that starts in two minutes but you're coming from by the Arch. You have to be at this meeting at Norris in five. But you also have to be at Tech for a review session for your midterm. Can you split in two? Your mom's friend's sister's cousin's wife needs advice about her breakup with her boyfriend. You have a six page paper you haven't started yet and it's due in two hours. How can you do it all and stay sane?
Stop. Take a deep breath.
With the many things going on in everyone’s life, stress and anxiety are in abundance. NBN tested out some mental health apps and resources - here’s a list of our recommendations to keep your head above the water.
Breathe
Breathe is by far the best app, and definitely helps in any situation. It does exactly what it says: it helps you breathe (you know, better than you already do). It’s a meditation app that walks you through sequences of mindful practice. It leads you to clear your head of stress through guided exercises that are realistic to do in a busy college student’s schedule. With many guided meditations for all different types of situations, Breathe will help you become less anxious and more mindful of yourself at any time, in any moment. Breathe is perfect for listening always, whenever you’re stressed, find a cozy place, sit down and do a guided meditation through Breathe. You won’t regret it.
Advantages: Promotes mindfulness, instant help, does what it says: helps you breathe!
Disadvantages: Some meditations you have to pay extra for, but there are a lot that are free
Hot take: 5 stars
Moods
Moods is an app that tracks the user's moods (shocking!). With Moods, it is easy to view patterns in a person’s emotions, or how they’ve been feeling lately (whether that’s on top of the world or drowning in tears because, well, Chemistry). While it doesn’t provide much else other than tracking your mood, it does force a person to be consciously aware of how they are feeling — causing them to be present — which is something a lot of people typically forget to do.
Weinberg Freshman Sawyer Scheitler said, "this app is a great way to track your mood and see different trends in how you are feeling throughout the day and week."
Moods is an interactive way to teach mindfulness. It has the user click on different adjectives about how they are feeling at a particular moment. Definitely would recommend to someone struggling to be mindful and present of their current state of emotion.
Advantages: Visibly see mood patterns over a period of time
Disadvantages: Can’t do much with the app beyond mood tracking
Hot take: 4 stars.
Coloring Apps (Mandala and Recolor)
Both of these apps are based off the concept of adult coloring books, which many people use as a way to safely de-stress or be mindful. Coloring is very therapeutic and the colors help associate positive feelings depending on which one uses, boosting a person’s emotion levels. McCormick Freshman Courtney Larson said about Mandala, "The coloring app was subpar to actually coloring, it wouldn’t help in times of stress. But I love my actual coloring book for stress."
These coloring apps could be a quick solution to de-stressing while on the go, when a person doesn’t have access to a real coloring book and colored pencils. McCormick Freshman Brittany Taylor said, "Recolor is a great way to distress via an online coloring book. It is much easier to transport than a physical book and coloring utensils, yet gives the option of coloring and not just filling in the lines (I think... I don't remember exactly). This app doesn't have the best range of colors without a subscription, but overall would be helpful to take your mind off of something." Both Recolor and Mandala do the job, and which to use depends on personal preference!
Advantages: Colors are therapeutic and you get to make pretty pictures
Disadvantages: Can’t do much else with the app other than color
Hot take: 4 stars
Happify
Happify is different from the other apps because it tries to cater to one’s personal needs. It asks initial getting-to-know-you personal questions and then recommends a ‘track’, such as "conquer your negative thoughts." After picking a track, it leads you to a bunch of mini games and activities to help change your thought process (change your thoughts, change your world!). Happify is by far the most involved app. but if someone is willing to take the time and work through it, it has the potential to be incredibly beneficial... One downside is that it requires some concentration and thinking for the mini activities, and in order to benefit from them, the user really has to sit and take the time to do it, rather than just a quick, five-minute thing. Being busy students, at the end of a long day or in a moment of stress, this app might make you more stressed, because concentrating is hard sometimes and this app is supposed to be effortless.
McCormick Freshman Pravika Joshi said, "The happiness [in this app] made me feel more sad than I thought because it made me feel aware about low points in my day/week. This app made me feel more anxious, but I am also just an anxious person." McCormick Freshman Brittany Taylor also said, "Happify requires you to pay to do anything worthwhile. Nice colors and aesthetics, but not functional for free."
Advantages: Tries to cater to individuals, really gets you to reflect, forces you to focus
Disadvantages: Makes you hyper aware of ups/downs of the week, very involved
Hot take: 3 stars
Peak
Peak is the kind of app one uses to distract themselves from a stressful situations. Filled with mainly brain teasers, Peak is fun, but not exactly the best for de-stressing or calming. It consists of little brain engaging games rather than things to do that are catered to mental health (perfect for procrastination!).
McCormick Freshman Brittany Taylor says, "Peak is less about emotional health and more about mental health and sharpening your memory and other brain skills. It offers a lot of free games that you can play against others. These free games, however, get rather boring after a while since there aren't that many of them and all of the ads show more interesting looking games that require you to purchase the app." Peak can definitely be useful at times, but not the best when searching for a great app.
Advantages: Good for procrastination, good distraction
Disadvantages: Can’t do much in regard to mental health beyond distracting, might make you stressed while playing because of the things you need to do, thus you play stressfully
Hot take: 2 ½ stars
But apps aren’t the only thing out there. Maybe you hate your cellphone because the sub-zero temperature of the Midwestern Tundra has frozen its battery forevermore. No problem, NBN’s got you.
CAPS, Counseling and Psychological Services at NU has just revealed a new feature called Breathe that can be accessed anywhere: smartphone, laptop, iPad, Desktop, you name it. The website can be your new go-to instead of the pint of Ben & Jerry’s calling out from your dorm room freezer (Saving yourself from the freshman fifteen and decreasing stress? Woah, 2 in 1 deal!)
The website essentially is a meditation portal to help students find moments of balance in their stressful, busy days. The shortest meditation is roughly six minutes long, and the longest available one is about 30 minutes, which was created to help the listeners fall asleep when troubles are keeping them up at night. With sections called, "I’m Overwhelmed!" "Test Anxiety" and "Sleep," Breathe is specifically designed to cater to Northwestern students. It is an amazing resource, and is highly recommended to be tried before any other app.
Still stressed or anxious? What are you waiting for? Go explore these amazing resources!