Suggestion for smartphone apps

[Monkey House]

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Recently a few of my patients have begun to talk about smartphone apps. I am not sure where they are finding these apps, but mood trackers, mindfulness apps, and medication apps seem to be on the rise for a subset of patients. Has anyone else noticed patients finding this stuff and are there are of these apps that have seemed useful or ok?

 

[wolfvgang22]

The VA has a whole list of apps recommended:
PTSD Coach
CBT-I Coach
ACT Coach
Mindfulness Coach
Moving Forward

Seperately, I and the dieticians frequently recommend MyFitness Pal for calorie and nutrition tracking. I myself use it daily.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

I like Headspace for mindfulness meditation. Are those VA apps available to the public?

 

[wolfvgang22]

Yeah, they are supposed to be free in the app stores

 

[tr]

I have a bunch I rec for mindfulness and relaxation scripts:

Buddhify
Calm
Stress Doctor
Headspace
The Mindfulness App

I used to spend a lot of time coaching people on belly breathing and Body Scan, but lately I have just been giving them this list of apps and telling them to find one they like and use it regularly. I think a lot of people appreciate the support of the app. It may be easier to rely on an externally provided script versus having to pull the Belly Breathing out of your pocket when you are already on the verge of a panic attack.

Not quite the same thing but lots of people have brought in sleep journaling data from their Fitbits, which is helpful for doing basic sleep hygiene and CBTi.