How Can Apps Help Reduce Teenage Depression During Covid-19

Battling depression on your own is the worst thing to do when you are going through one. You need a loving, healthy support group of family, friends, and trusted individuals to help you rise above it.You may also need professional help, even medical care, and therapy, to deal with depression. 

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a mood disorder that brings a continued feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It radically changes thoughts and behavior and can lead to several emotional, mental, and physical problems. 

Cases of depression have heightened in the pandemic that has upended our lives since the start of the year. Most of us had to stay at home due to lockdown measures. If this could cause anxiety to the average person, how much more to people already susceptible to depression, like today’s youth? 

Separation anxieties, fear of the unknown, and other factors can trigger depression. Among teenagers who already have a lot on their minds, this can be aggravated. Parents and guardians need to be sensitive to what their teenagers are going through and be ready to give the support they need as they process what is happening around them without getting overwhelmed. 

Depression shouldn’t be dismissed. Someone with depression can’t just “snap out of it.”Teens need all the help, so depression doesn’t get the best of them.

Support can come in many ways. Let’s see what mobile apps can help fight teenage depression in the pandemic.

5 Mobile Apps that Can Help Fight Against Teen Depression:

1. notOK:

NotOK is a free app created for teens by teenagers, a sister, and brother tandem, who have first-hand experience with depression. The mobile app has a large red button that can be triggered to alert family, close friends, and other trusted individuals if something is not okay. Users of the mobile app can customize their support group, and add up to five people. When the user presses the digital panic button, a message is sent to the support group along with the user’s current GPS location. The alert reads: “Hey, I’m not okay! Please call, text, or come find me.”

2. Moodpath: Depression and Anxiety Test:

Moodpath helps teenagers cope with troubling thoughts and emotions and look for ways to improve their mental welfare. Teenagers can customize their support groups who will come to their aid in times of stress, depression, and anxiety. 

It provides teens with mental health assessments to guide them if they already need to seek professional help. Unlike other tests that ask users to evaluate the past two weeks at once, Mood path asks users in-the-moment questions daily for 14 days to weigh users’ emotional well being.

Teens can monitor their moods and journal their process. It will be easy for teens to have a quick review of their emotional state during the day and reflect on their thoughts and emotions. Teenagers can also receive helpful, supportive insights to help them see and understand the triggers to bouts of depression. It is also useful for their parents, family, and friends to be aware of which negative behaviors could be related to worse wellbeing because the teenager will not be strong enough to avoid the pitfalls by themselves. 

3. Wysa: Stress, Depression & Anxiety Therapy Chatbot:

Wysa is an AI-powered chatbot equipped with emotional intelligence to react to emotions that its users express. It is a mood tracker, a mood-boosting chatbot buddy, a mindfulness coach, anxiety support, all in one. 

The app is filled with daily spiritual meditation that can keep teens mentally motivated and healthy. Parents and guardians can take this chance to bond with their teenager over the meditations available in the app. 

Wysa has fun chats, useful techniques, meditations, mindfulness audios, and mental health tests for depression and anxiety. Teens can pour their hearts toWysawithout fear because all conversations are kept privateand under anonymity.

4. TalkLife:

TalkLife can link teenagers to real people worldwide through its extensive community, acting as a teenager’s extended support group for people with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, mental health issues, self-harm, and the like.

Teens sometimes find it hard to express themselves to their own family and friends. So Talk Life and its community can be an excellent avenue for teens to speak without fear of judgment about depression and other issues. 

TalkLife is a safe place to talk about any topic on mental well being, depression, emotional struggles, family problems, issues at work or in school, and the like. If you want to talk about it, somebody probably does, too.

5. Abide App:

Abide is Crosswalk’s powerful faith-based meditation app that won Tech Crunch’s 2019 Top Meditation Apps. Helping users reduce stress and sleep better. It provides stories to help users find deep rest. It also delivers daily meditations to inspire users for a productive, calm day.

Abide has millions of people meditating on the app daily. It’s simple to use, and daily meditations have 2, 5, 10, and 15 minutes versions.

Topics include the most relevant issues teens go through today, like overcoming depression, preventing worry, managing stress, sleep, and insomnia discovering purpose, finding happiness, or recovering from addiction, among others.

Conclusion: Reach Out to Someone and Get Help

The world may be experiencing one of the darkest times in modern history. But there always remains hope. Amid losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, countries worldwide are beginning to bounce back and move towards a “new normal.”

If recent events have overwhelmed you, know that you are not alone. You need to reach out and find relief in telling someone that you are battling depression. 

Mobile apps can help you cope, but they can only do so much. Mobile Apps cannot take the place of safe and loving human relationships. Through mobile apps, you can get help, connect with people, and fight back against depression. Mobile apps can help you connect with communities going through what you are experiencing. You can have access to professionals who can help you overcome it.

Amid the pandemic, keep yourself productive. Spend time with family, catch up on chores, start a home DIY project, start a blog, or learn a new digital skill. Find something to keep you active and in good spirits. 

Keep your mind and emotions in check. Initially, it is okay not to be okay to admit moments of stress, anxiety, and depression. But to never get out of not being okay is not good. The ultimate goal is that you are well—physically, emotionally, and mentally. So, be well. Reach out to someone and get help.