What Are the Best Self-Help Methods for Anxiety?

Caring for yourself means paying attention to your entire being. That includes making sure you are sleeping well, eating well, and living in the moment. Apps can help with a lot of this, whether it be by reminding you to care for your health, helping you question distorted thoughts through journaling and mood monitoring, or supporting you with meditation and breathing techniques.

Are Anxiety Apps as Good as Seeing a Mental Health Provider?

Depending on your level of anxiety, some apps can help ease much of your anxiety, but often it will help to talk with a therapist. Apps like Talkspace allow you to chat with a therapist, and Betterhelp has live video chat that can be more convenient and can cut out some of the obstacles, including travel or needing time off from work.

Is Having Anxiety Every Day Normal?

“The human condition does require a certain level of vigilance,” Skolnick said. “In terms of the normalcy of anxiety, it's always been there, but a lot of us are now tapping into and aware that we are experiencing it. We are normalizing anxiety.”

Are There Free Anxiety Apps?

Yes. There are fully free anxiety apps and others with subscription plans that are essentially donations that offer you extra content as a bonus. Many of the apps also have free versions of their plans with much less content.

Best Anxiety Apps of 2023

We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.

Afro woman looking worried and stress while looking at her phone — Photo:
Xavier Lorenzo / Getty Images

Life can be difficult when you are constantly overwhelmed with worries about what might happen. Projecting worst-case scenarios can leave you panicked, always preparing for doom, or keep you from living in the moment because your thoughts are racing. This is anxiety—and it affects our sleep, our relationships, and our job. It’s also very common: almost 40 million Americans suffer from an anxiety disorder every year—that’s 18% of the population.

The good news is that there are ways to ease and manage your anxiety, including therapy, meditation, and other forms of self-care. There are also numerous apps that can help too. Some are aimed at teens and some cater to kids, while others are meant for adults who are interested in art, journaling, breathing techniques, meditation, or simply learning more about their mental health. To help you find one, we evaluated dozens of apps and selected the ones we thought were the most useful, easy to use, and reasonably priced. Here are our picks.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: Calm
Best for Therapy: BetterHelp
Best for Newbies to Meditation: Headspace
Best for Kids: Smiling Mind
Best for Teens: Colorfy
Best Free Meditation App: Insight Timer
Best for Breathing Activities: Breathwrk
Best for Games: Happify
Best for Journaling: Moodnotes

Best Overall: Calm

Calm

Key Specs

Price: $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

With an easy-to-navigate and regularly updated app, Calm offers a wide range of support for anxiety, such as breathing techniques, guided meditation, calming music, soundscapes, bedtime stories, yoga, and even dance classes.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Celebrity read bedtime stories
Frequently updated
Discounted family and student plans
Library of diverse resources

Cons

Sleep stories can feel long
Premium subscription is costly
Nature theme is not for everyone

Overview

Founded in 2012, Calm quickly found acclaim. With over 1.5 million 5-star reviews, it claims to be the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation—and we agree.

The easy-to-navigate app offers a variety of support for anxiety, whether you prefer breathing techniques, meditation, or dance therapy. Learning the different methods of meditation is easy with expert guidance. One feature of the app that truly sets it apart from most is Calm’s Sleep Stories read by celebrities like Harry styles, LaVar Burton, Kate Winslet, Kelly Rolland, and Pink. There are also ambient music tracks performed by deadmau5, Moby, Disney, and Alanis Morissette.

There’s a free version of the app that offers limited features, including timed meditations, sleep scenes, a bedtime story, a breathing exercise, journaling resources, and a monthly calendar with mindfulness prompts to focus and soothe. The app has plenty for kids, too, including meditation, music, and stories.

Plans & Prices

There’s a seven-day free trial for the premium membership, then it's $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Free membership option includes timed meditations, sleep scenes, a bedtime story, and a breathing exercise.

Best for Therapy: BetterHelp

BetterHelp

Key Specs

Price: $60 to $90 per week or $240 to $360 per month
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: No

Why We Chose It

Quickly link up with expert therapists for therapy, whether via phone, chat, or video call. BetterHelp offers individual and couples therapy, so you can address how your anxiety is affecting you and your relationships.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Multiple ways to connect with therapists
Therapists are highly vetted
Offers individual, couples, and teen therapy

Cons

Doesn’t accept insurance
No free trial
No medication management

Overview

With over of over 25,000 therapists, the BetterHelp app makes it easy to connect with the professional who's right for you. You’ll start by filling out a short intake questionnaire, then the company will match you with a recommended therapist to suit your needs, often within 48 hours. You have the option to switch therapists as often as you like until you find the one who fits. All of its therapists have at least a master's or doctorate degree and three years and 1,000 hours of experience.

Your app subscription membership includes one live session per week via live chat, video, or phone sessions. You also can message your therapist 24/7 between sessions, with therapists often responding promptly Monday-Friday. Other benefits of the service include a personal and private online journal, and group seminars, or “groupinars,” based around various mental health subjects, such as setting boundaries and learning coping skills. If you aren’t satisfied with the service, you can quit your membership at any time.

Plans & Prices

Memberships cost $60 to $90 per week, billed monthly, based on your location, your chosen therapist, and how long you want to meet. Financial aid is supposedly available, but information about how to get it is not easily accessible on the site (contact BetterHelp support for details).

Best for Newbies to Meditation: Headspace

Courtesy of Headspace.

Key Specs

Price: $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

Using adorable animations and gamified milestones, Headspace is a fun way to learn meditation and mindfulness at any age, no matter how much time you have.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Lots of beginner-friendly sessions
Fun animations
Heavily discounted student plan

Cons

May not be for meditation experts
Library can be overwhelming
Mainly meditation-focused

Overview

Founded in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, and Richard Pierson, a marketing and brand development expert, Headspace’s mission is focused on improving the health and happiness of the world.” It does this by making meditation easy, even if you’ve never tried meditation before. In many ways, it feels like the non-meditation, meditation app because it features fun, colorful animations and gamified milestones to make learning a blast.

Meditation teaches you to welcome the thoughts that rush through your head, but to learn to let them go. It teaches you to sit with yourself. The Headspace app has a wide variety of meditations and courses to improve anxiety, relieve stress, motivate you, refocus, and improve your attention span. The app even has short, two-minute “SOS” meditations to calm you when you are on the edge of a meltdown. There are mindful fitness sessions to work your mind and body, and “sleepcasts” with ambient sounds and soft, plotless narratives to carry you into sleep.

Headspace offers plenty of meditations for kids, too, so they can learn to live better in the moment and focus on school and enjoying life.

Plans & Prices

Headspace offers seven-day and 14-day free trials, depending on whether you choose to let your subscription roll into a monthly or yearly plan for $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year. (Just quit before the trial ends, and you won't be charged). There is also a family plan option that offers six accounts for $99.99 per year and an incredibly discounted student plan offering 85% off for $9.99 a year.

Best for Kids: Smiling Mind

Key Specs

Price: Free
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

Originally created for kids only, Smiling Mind is a great free app with a wide selection of meditations to help kids cope with whatever comes their way.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Tons of kid-friendly content
Targets all ages
Free

Cons

Mainly meditation
Australian accents may be hard for some to follow

Overview

Originally funded by the Australian government to reduce kids’ stress by teaching them mindfulness, Smiling Mind is an evidence-based app created by psychologists and health professionals. The app won Australia’s #1 Apple Health & Wellbeing App in 2018 and is still free and run by a non-profit. It has tons of content for kids, targeting different age groups, including 7- to 9-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds, 13- to 15-year-olds, and 16- to 18-year-olds. It even has guides for teachers to bring mindfulness into classrooms.

The app starts kids off with “The Bubble Journey” meditation, which only lasts a few minutes. To keep kids engaged and coming back for more, they achieve badges based on progress. Also included is the ability to journal, learn sense counting, and other mindfulness exercises. There is plenty for adults, too, with specialized programs for healthcare workers and educators that help with focus, relationships, concentration, mindful eating, and more.

Plans & Prices

Smiling Mind is 100% free.

Best for Teens: Colorfy

Colorfy

Key Specs

Price: $9.99 weekly
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

Fun and calming, Colorfy helps teens take themselves out of a difficult moment and relax through coloring activities, many of which are based on the senses.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Gorgeous images
Can be enjoyed by all ages
Easy to use

Cons

Some users have complained about glitches
Coloring only
Expensive

Overview

Colorfy is an easy-to-use app that allows the user to get creative while promoting calm through coloring florals, animals, gardens, mandalas, unicorns and more. Content is updated daily for premium users, with increased access to new gradients, brushes, images, and color schemes. Interesting features include the ability to draw a mandala, color a photo-based drawing, and write a message, which you then color.

Much of the content centers on the senses, with images of food and people in action, allowing users to get out of their head to focus on feeling. Just getting a break to color is a great relaxation technique you can do anytime, anywhere with the Colorfy app. There is a free version that features very limited content and tons of ads. A three-day free trial gives you access to the premium version, with new content added daily. Though the app is marketed towards teenagers, there is plenty for people of all ages.

Plans & Prices

There’s a free version with ads and limited content. The premium version starts with a three-day free trial that rolls into $7.99 per month.

Best Free Meditation App: Insight Timer

Key Specs

Price: $60 per year to become a “supporter” and unlock extra content
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

With over 15,000 sessions to choose from, Insight Timer is a great way to practice mindfulness without paying for a premium subscription.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Tons of free content
Celebrity-led meditations
Community-based

Cons

Not everyone wants community
Amount of content can be overwhelming
Some users have dealt with glitches

Overview

With over 15,000 mediations led by over 3,000 teachers, Insight Timer has plenty to keep you meditating, whether you become a “supporter” and jump into its paid plan or just enjoy the free version. The seven-day intro class is a good way to learn about the practice of meditation before diving into specific meditations (stress relief, sleep, focus, healing, and relationship skills). Insight Timer also features celebrity meditation guides, including Russell Brand and Gisele Bündchen. Plus, it’s cool knowing that Jennifer Aniston and LeAnn Rimes use the app for their meditation practice.

Insight Timer’s interface is crisp and smooth. The app boasts a unique feature that allows you to connect with other meditators, shoot them messages, and join group chats based on your personal interests, such as working on relationships, weight loss, or connecting with the LGBTQIA+ community. Like other meditation apps, there’s a plethora of ambient music to listen to, but in this case, it’s free. There are also yoga sessions, motivational talks, and motivation sessions for kids. You can also create your meditations, set the time length, choose music, and select an end bell sound.

Plans & Prices

Insight Timer offers a free version with plenty to choose from, but to unlock all the content the app has to offer, you can opt to become a “supporter” for $60 per year.

Best for Breathing Activities: Breathwrk

Key Specs

Price: $7.99 per month; $38.99 per year; $199 for a lifetime
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: Yes

Why We Chose It

Breathwrk is great for breathing exercises, whether you want to make it a daily habit to quell your anxiety or exhale your anxiety in the moment before a big exam.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Clean and colorful interface
Targeted exercises
One of the least expensive options

Cons

Breathing only
Some users complain of glitches

Overview

Breathwrk offers a library of over 75+ science-based breathing exercises, most ranging from two to three minutes long, with an additional 25+ meditation courses, most 10-15 minutes long. Targeted breathwork exercises are available to help you de-stress and focus, whether you are preparing to put on a big presentation or trying to drift into sleep.

With a fun and colorful interface, Breathwrk is super customizable, from breathing exercises to reminders to ensure you are on track to hit daily mindful-breathing streaks. The Breathwrk free plan offers classes from the “calm,” “endurance,” and “focus” categories, with the paid plan offering the entire catalog of its courses and exercises.

Plans & Prices

Breathwrk’s premium subscription is $7.99 per month, $38.99 per year, and $199 for a lifetime.

Best for Games: Happify

Happify

Key Specs

Price: $ 14.99 per month; $139 per year; $449.99 for a lifetime
Platforms: iOS, Android
Free Trial: No

Why We Chose It

A fun way to learn to live in the moment and focus on positive reinforcement, Happify has easy-to-attain goals—or games—that will give you positive boosts throughout your week.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Quick daily activities
Free version
Has a little of everything
CBT and positive psychology for everyone

Cons

Not all activities will be for everyone
Some users complain of long loading times
Deadlines for activities can add stress

Overview

After completing a short quiz based on your identity and stresses, Happify provides personalized activities developed with positive psychology techniques and CBT interventions to improve your happiness. The app works on six skills to improve your happiness: savoring the moment, showing gratitude, aspiring to your goals, giving to others, having empathy, and improving your physical health. The app says that 86% of users saw happiness improvement within two months, and you can see those benefits if you use the program three to four times per week.

Each daily activity on the track takes two to three minutes and includes journaling, meditation, mood check-ins, and more. There are frequent webinars focusing on topics to improve your happiness as well as strength-based assessments. Everything is about living in the moment, not getting caught in catastrophic thinking, and focusing on positive reinforcement. The free version allows access to limited tracks, while the paid version offers over 100 tracks to work on based on your goals and a tracker to monitor your happiness.

Plans & Prices

The premium plan costs$14.99 per month, $139 per year, and $449.99 for a lifetime.

Best for Journaling: Moodnotes

Moodnotes

Key Specs

Price: $9.99 per month; $39.99 annually
Platforms: iOS only
Free Trial: Seven days

Why We Chose It

Moodnotes is a great app to build your emotional vocabulary and better understand your feelings and patterns of anxious thinking by using mood tracking and journaling.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Simple interface
Builds emotional vocabulary
One of the less expensive options

Cons

Doesn’t include mediation
Journaling focused, which may not be for everyone
Not available to Android users

Overview

Moodnotes is more than just a journaling app; it will help you grow your emotional vocabulary, better recognize how you are feeling, and improve your mood. Dr. Drew Erhardt and Dr. Edrick Dorian, both psychologists, created the app along with a team of app designers, based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and positive psychology techniques.

Though Moodnotes should probably not replace seeing a therapist, it can augment the process, helping you take time during your day to recognize how you are feeling so you can see patterns and notice how they are affecting you. Advice throughout helps you learn positive thinking habits.

The app can also be used on Apple watches. The premium version includes unlimited entries, access to the full article library, and added monitoring and insight access.

Plans & Prices

A seven-day free trial of the premium version rolls into either $9.99 monthly or $39.99 annually. Often there is an offer for $24.99 a year.

Final Verdict

Learning to recognize and manage anxiety is one of the best things you can do for yourself. While apps alone are not recommended as a replacement for talk therapy that addresses the core of your anxieties, a great talk therapy app combo we love is BetterHelp. BetterHelp connects you via its app with trained therapists who can help you get to the root of your anxiety and learn personalized tools to address and manage your anxiety triggers.

For on-the-fly anxiety relief via an app, Calm offers breathing, meditation, ambient music, soundscapes, yoga, and even dance classes. Many apps on the list have trial plans, so give them all a shot and see what fits best, whether you prefer meditation with animation from Headspace, coloring with Colorfy, or hitting goals with Happify, There’s an anxiety app available for every budget and age.

Compare the Best Anxiety Apps

Company	Price	Platforms	Free Trial
Best Overall Calm	$14.99 a month or $69.99 a year	iOS, Android	Yes
Best for Therapy BetterHelp	$60 to $90 per week or $240 to $360 per month	iOS, Android	No
Best for Newbies to Meditation Headspace	$12.99 a month or $69.99 a year	iOS, Android	Yes
Best for Kids Smiling Mind	Free	iOS, Android	Yes
Best for Teens Colorfy	$9.99 weekly	iOS, Android	Yes
Best Free Meditation App Insight Timer	Free or $60 per year to become a “supporter” and unlock extra content	iOS, Android	Yes
Best for Breathing Activities Breathwrk	7.99 per month; $38.99 per year; $199 for a lifetime	iOS, Android	Yes
Best for Games Happify	$ 14.99 per month; $139 per year; $449.99 for a lifetime	iOS, Android	No
Best for Journaling Moodnotes	$9.99 per month; $24.99 annually	iOS	Yes

Guide to Choosing the Best Anxiety App

What Is Anxiety?

“Anxiety is your brain trying to protect you from a known or unknown fear or danger. It tries to overcompensate for that protection,” says Ahvegyil Skolnick, LCSW, a Schenectady, NY-based psychotherapist. That fear can look like projecting into the future and having constant thoughts of worry about worst-case scenarios. It can keep your head ringing with panic. Between 2016 and 2020, the rates of children with anxiety increased from 7.1% to 9.2%. And since the pandemic hit, anxiety has increased for everyone, but especially for people in the Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities.

How Do Anxiety Apps Work?

Most anxiety apps guide users through implementing self-care tools. Apps can act as mental health cheerleaders. They can also offer a community of others going through similar experiences that you can connect with. There are also apps like Talkspace that offer traditional talk therapy, making it more convenient because it’s in the palm of your hand.

Are Anxiety Apps Effective?

“Depending on the severity of your anxiety, apps can always be a resource,” Skolnick says, “but apps shouldn't be the only thing that someone's using, especially if their day-to-day functioning is really impaired.” Most apps focus on teaching mindfulness, and a 2022 study showed that it can often work better than escitalopram which is used to treat anxiety and depression. For many people, soothing anxiety involves multiple interventions, which can include any combination of therapy, medication, anxiety apps, or classes.

How to Compare the Best Anxiety Apps

When comparing anxiety apps, it’s important to try different ones to see what works for you based on your preferences and needs. Keep these elements in mind:

Pricing: Subscription costs for anxiety apps vary from free to $9.99 per week. Many of the paid apps offer free versions, too, which have less content but can be more than sufficient.
Platforms: Some apps are only available on iOS systems and others only on Androids. Ensure the app you choose is available on your devices.
Coping tools offered: Each app offers different things, and not every coping tool will be your cup of tea. Not everyone likes meditation, nor does everyone want to journal. There are certain apps that include everything, whereas others are more focused on certain coping skills like meditation or breathing.
Level of skill needed: Especially for the meditation and breathing apps, if it’s your first time trying either, it’s important to access courses for beginners. Meanwhile, some might be too simple if you are an expert meditator. You can often use the free trials to see if the courses fit your needs.
Time needed: Some apps have meditation or breathing sessions that lost only a few minutes, while others can be 10+ minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are the Best Self-Help Methods for Anxiety?

Caring for yourself means paying attention to your entire being. That includes making sure you are sleeping well, eating well, and living in the moment. Apps can help with a lot of this, whether it be by reminding you to care for your health, helping you question distorted thoughts through journaling and mood monitoring, or supporting you with meditation and breathing techniques.
Are Anxiety Apps as Good as Seeing a Mental Health Provider?

Depending on your level of anxiety, some apps can help ease much of your anxiety, but often it will help to talk with a therapist. Apps like Talkspace allow you to chat with a therapist, and Betterhelp has live video chat that can be more convenient and can cut out some of the obstacles, including travel or needing time off from work.
Is Having Anxiety Every Day Normal?

“The human condition does require a certain level of vigilance,” Skolnick said. “In terms of the normalcy of anxiety, it's always been there, but a lot of us are now tapping into and aware that we are experiencing it. We are normalizing anxiety.”
Are There Free Anxiety Apps?

Yes. There are fully free anxiety apps and others with subscription plans that are essentially donations that offer you extra content as a bonus. Many of the apps also have free versions of their plans with much less content.

Methodology

To curate this list of anxiety apps, our experts researched 38 mental health apps for alleviating and managing anxiety and assessed data from internally collected user surveys. The factors considered in the evaluation of each app included whether experts were involved in the creation of the app, how often the app was updated to include new methods and subject matter, which evidenced-based methods were used to alleviate anxiety and mental health concerns, and the number of therapies offered. We also considered cost, ease of use, and reviews in the Google Play and Apple app stores to ensure user-friendliness.

Edited by

April McCormick

and

Simone Scully

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

Tell us why!

Sources

Real Simple is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts in our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy.