App of the week: Recover

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on helpful apps. We focus on a variety of products that are useful for work, personal use, or both, providing our own thoughts on the apps and what you can do with them. This week, we learn more about our mental health with Recover.

An intro to Recover
With one in four people suffering from a mental health condition, Recover is looking to help us understand how we feel, what is causing it and what can be done to tackle stress, anxiety and depression. Encouraging people to take evolution into their own hands, the app wants to act as a guide to our emotions. While we are naturally programmed for fight or flight in life-threatening situations, our instincts still take over in social situations where our bodies haven’t yet caught up with the times.

Walking you through your feelings and emotions, the app provides tools and resources to change your lifestyle, focussing on diet changes and mindful exercises to reduce stress and boost positivity. Hoping to educate the public on what’s happening within our bodies, the goal is to remove the taboo associated with mental health worries, and give people a confident direction, setting up goals and an action plan to fit daily activities into your schedules.

Our review
Any app looking to start a positive conversation on mental health is fantastic, and Recover is a confident step in the right direction. Sometimes just being able to look at your emotions (conveyed with an emoji, of course) can help you reflect and work out your next step, and with the app offering simple advice on how to make quick lifestyle changes.

The layout is straightforward enough, with interactive methods for keeping positive and staying mindful, but my main concern is the price. At £1.99, it’s a little pricey given that most of the options and resources can be found online for free. Some sections can be pretty text-heavy too, and while it is important to educate yourself on mental health, paragraphs can be rather daunting when you find yourself stressing out. The app is currently only accessible on Apple devices, meaning you’ll be left out if you’re on an Android or Windows phone.

The verdict
If you suffer from severe depression or have no interest in mindfulness exercises, this app isn’t for you. The layout and advice it gives isn’t always accessible enough, but it’s certainly not without its merits. If you often find yourself stressed with your workload or easily irritated, you’ll find this app a handy companion to keep you calm and focussed on the positives in your life, so long as you have an iOS device.

Download Recover for iOS at Recover-App.com