There’s an app for everything these days. You can order takeout, book a vacation, and keep track of your spending. Plan your week, your month, your year. But it’s not just the practical stuff that’s covered. A growing number of apps focus on improving and supporting mental health, with some of them designed to help users navigate life’s difficult times.
Like breakups. (Yes, you can find love on an app and then use another app to get over the subsequent heartache.)
“Getting through a breakup can be incredibly tough,” says clinical psychologist Daniel Sher, who's based in Cape Town, South Africa. “The experience is comparable to grief, and you can end up experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety as a result—not to mention a whole lot of loneliness and insecurity about the future.”
佛罗里达州博伊顿海滩的一位有执照的心理健康咨询师乔维卡·格雷说，在大多数情况下，分手后的最初阶段可能是最具考验性的阶段。她说：“很难避免自我挫败的想法，质疑出了什么问题，以及抵制与前任接触的冲动。”。“有些人会采取自我毁灭性的行为，以此作为应对的一种方式，让自己感觉更好。”
这是应用程序和其他资源真正有价值的地方。格雷说：“当一段关系结束时，情感会更加强烈，人们可能会觉得自己更加脆弱和敏感。”。“当我们感受到沉重的情绪时，我们经常会感觉到它们在我们的身体里，这会进一步加剧这些情绪。”应用程序可以成为一个工具，帮助你放松和保持当下。
这样做的目的不是为了分散自己对这些强烈情绪的注意力，而是为了sit mindfullywith them. This might be the last thing you want to do, but it’s an important part of the healing process. “Bottling up emotions or trying to avoid them is like trying to hold a beach ball under water," says Rockville, Maryland, therapist Jennifer Rollin. It becomes exhausting, and when you finally let go the ball will fly above the water with force. The alternative is to experience your emotions like waves—they will naturally rise and peak on their own if you are able to sit with them.”
帮助你度过分手的应用程序
Rx Breakup(free; iOs and Android)is a breakup-recovery app developed by a team of professionals, including a marriage therapist. The app, which Sher recommends, gives you prompts and alerts to assist you in navigating and coping with intense emotions.
Mend免费；iOSincludes meditation and journaling prompts, helpful articles, and a mood tracker, says Miami clinical psychologist Erika Martinez, Psy.D. Mend is also linked to the “Love is Like a Plant” podcast, which covers all aspects of dating, relationships, sex, and heartbreak, and is hosted by app’s founder Ellen Huerta.
Another of Mend’s features is a self-care log—a crucial part of your getting-over-them toolkit. “It’s important to remember that during this time of emotional turmoil, self-care is vital,” Martinez says. For this aspect of breakup recovery, apps likeHeadspace和Calm（免费；iOS和Android），引导你通过正念的练习，可以是很好的资源。
穆德诺茨($4.99; iOS)helps you track your moods (each one is represented as a color and an emoji) and the possible reasons behind them, allowing you to give as much detail as you wish. The app prompts you to figure out why you feel the way you do, which helps you understand what’s driving your emotions. It also helps you identify emotional traps and offers ideas on how to avoid doing so in the future.
“日记is a great way to process your thoughts and emotions,” says Grey. “We may not always have access to others to share how we are feeling, or feel comfortable talking about the breakup right away, so this provides a way to process and release those emotions in a healthy manner.”
Sweat It Out
While there’s no shortage of apps to help you survive the end of a relationship, it’s important to remember all the other ways you can help yourself recover. One of the most basic but effective?Exercise. “Any physical activity helps to boost the 'feel-good' endorphins in the brain,” Grey says. She also advocates healthy eating and getting enough sleep. Again, these are basic elements of good mental health, but anyone who’s been through a breakup knows working out, eating a decent meal, and getting a solid seven hours of shut-eye can be tough tasks when you’ve nursing a broken heart.
If you need a little digital help, Grey suggests investing in a fitness tracker likeFitbit, which helps you create goals and holds you accountable. “It doesn’t just help you create a healthier lifestyle—it can also serve as a good distraction,” says Grey.