Social Anxiety Apps You Should Be Trying
Are you interested in trying apps for social anxiety?
I thought I’d do a little run down of some of the best options that I know of for managing social anxiety with an app.
Some of these I’ve tried and others I’ve not, but I’ve researched them enough to be able to give my opinion. My best advice is to start with the free ones and see if there’s one you like.
My personal favorite is Woebot for managing negative thinking so you could try that if you deal with a lot of unhelpful thoughts.
If your bigger issue is physical symptoms of anxiety or the inability to relax, you might want to start with something like Headspace.
Woebot
Like I mentioned, this is one is my favorite perhaps because I’ve used it the most.
It’s a very simple interface: There is a robot who chats with you and asks you questions to guide you through various thought challenger exercises (and other techniques as well).
If that sounds a little weird (talking to a robot), let me tell you that you quickly get used to it. The robot actually likes to make jokes, which helps to keep things light.
Calm
The Calm app is designed to help you with sleep issues, stress, and anxiety. Many people with social anxiety struggle with falling asleep at night.
Perhaps you toss and turn, worrying about upcoming events or things that happened in the past.
If this is you, you might want to give Calm a try. Their website had me answer a few simple questions to get started.
There is also a calendar for you to keep track of how many times you’ve meditated in a month.
And, you can get a paid version (for a monthly fee) to get premium features like 7-day programs to manage stress or improve sleep.
Headspace
Headspace is another meditation app with free and paid versions.
Headspace teaches you meditation and mindfulness, with sessions as short as one minute.
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While an annual subscription is a bit pricey, this is a very popular app that is worth considering.
Worry Watch
The Worry Watch app helps you…
- write down your worries and remind you to think about them later
- reflect on whether the thing you worried about turned out as bad as you expected
- analyze your thought patterns
- figure out whether your worries have any basis in reality
The app includes an Anxiety Journal where you can write down details of your worrying like the
- date
- context
- type of scenario
- intensity
- thought pattern
- outcome
It also includes an Anxiety Tracker and Positive Affirmations. This is a good app to try if your social anxiety involves a lot of worrying thoughts.
Sanvello (formerly Pacifica)
The Sanvello app helps you with stress, anxiety, and depression and has over 3 million users.
Sanvello is also covered by some health insurance plans, so it’s worth looking into if you have employer health insurance.
Sanvello has been evaluated through research and shown to be effective for mild to moderate anxiety and depression (in a randomized study with 500 people).
Beat Social Phobia
I’m including this app because there aren’t that many specific to social phobia, and this one fits the bill!
Beat Social Phobia by Andrew Johnson is an inexpensive app that uses hypnosis to help you overcome social anxiety. This is an app you’ll probably find best used in bed at night.
That about sums it up!
The apps tend to fall into two main categories: Those for relaxation or meditation and those for working on your thoughts.
So, I suggest you figure out where your main issue lies (relaxation or troublesome thoughts) and then start from there.
And if you’re finding that an app alone is not enough, I have used and recommend the online therapy service Betterhelp. Through their service, you can chat with a therapist online at an affordable price.
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Here are some of my favorite social anxiety tools
Thanks for reading! I hope you found some helpful tips. Since this site is about social anxiety, I wanted to also share some tools I use that I hope you’ll find helpful. Some of these are affiliate links, so if you decide to try them, I’ll earn a commission. However, I only recommend things I have used myself and would recommend to a friend or family member.
Social Anxiety Masterclass: The Social Anxiety Masterclass is my signature course where I walk you through everything I know about how to manage social anxiety.
Audible Subscription: I recommend a lot of self-help books on this site, but I actually prefer an audiobook subscription over print books! My favorite subscription service is Audible because it has all the best-sellers and they stay in your digital library forever (even if you end your subscription). You can sign up for a free trial and listen to your first two books for free.
Online Therapy: For online therapy, I have personally used and like the service offered by Betterhelp. It's easy to get started from the comfort of your home. You'll even get a discount on your first month of therapy when you use my link.
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