(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to the Anxiety Road podcast. This is the involuntary journey finding treatment options and resources for people that have an anxiety condition, panic attacks, and phobias too. This podcast is treatment agnostic. My name is Gena Haskett. You can't shake a digital stick without a mental health or anxiety app that doesn't have some mention of the word or promoting cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as CBT.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a therapeutic treatment and it's usually applied to people with anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. The goal of the treatment is to help you develop specific skills to challenge negative thinking patterns. There are a lot of app creators who want to cash in on that or they truly desire to enhance any income opportunities. In this episode, I want to define CBT, the types of apps that you can find in it, and some pros and cons.
If you're new here, this is the podcast sharing the medical, behavioral health, meditation, relaxation, and x equals z unknown treatment options and resources for those of us on the anxiety condition or disorder spectrum. So, I want to give a short definition of what cognitive behavioral therapy is. It's a therapeutic treatment approach for anxiety, depression, and many other mental health conditions. However, it is not the only option.
There are other treatments that are tailored to a specific person or a specific mental health condition. Traditionally, a therapist will work with a client to learn skills, apply them with the goal of moving towards stability. There are also short-term group therapy meetings that will have a group of people in a room and they will learn the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy and work together to apply those skills. There's also the behavioral part.
This can include recognizing negative thought patterns and actively changing behaviors that impact your health. It is goal and task specific. It's a short-term therapy that can range from four to six weeks or longer if you need more time. Next, I want to talk about the different types of mental health apps. Now, I'm going to give you some general categories, but there can be a lot of overlap between the types of apps that are available.
Starting with barebone education, these apps will generally talk about what CBT is. They may have a couple of audio recordings about meditation and they may have a journaling component. These apps can be free, free with ads, or have a subscription plan. Then there are the chatbot apps and they provide information about CBT and give somewhat of the illusion of conversation.
You type or say something and we'll get a response based upon the AI large language model that will match your words to a database of answers or responses. Like the barebone version, there can be a meditation module or a visual mood tracker. These apps probably have a limited free access version or a version that's pay per feature so that you access the free version, but if you wanted to access the journaling function, you would pay separately for that. And also there could be a subscription.
Then there are those apps that are connected to a product or a service. These apps are often associated with online telehealth vendors. How it works is that there's a screener or initial assessment. There can be certain mental health conditions that cannot be treated virtually and some of those include substance abuse, eating disorders, major depressive disorder, and other similar types of disorders.
After the screening process, the user would be required to use the app and go through a CBT tutorial and skill practice. If there are any questions or concerns, the user would be directed to meet with a mental health coach. If the coach could not help or resolve your issue, then they might, and I emphasize might, be referred to a licensed mental health provider.
In addition to access to the app, there can be access to a variety of educational videos or audios, meditation recordings, and sometimes there is a peer-to-peer community group that's attached to the service where you can talk and communicate with other people who have similar experiences that you have. This is a subscription service with prices depending upon how much of it do you want to use or access. For example, if you want to access just the app, that would be one cost.
If you want to use the app in connection to a mental health coach, that might be an additional charge. So what are some of the pros and cons of mental health apps, specifically the ones that deal with anxiety, depression, and some of the other anxiety conditions? If you do not have the money or transportational access to get to a mental health provider, this might be the best that you can do. And I'm specifically talking in the United States. Privacy. It's just you and the app.
This might work for those people who are not quite ready to step into a therapist's office, but they still want to access some of the resources that are available online. So that certainly is an option. CBT-focused educational apps often give you information about anxiety-related conditions, and that could be really helpful to you if you just want to get started on trying to find something that's a solution for you.
Now, that information could be in the form of a game, it could be an instructional audio video series, or skill building exercises. And certainly, immediate access. Most apps can be downloaded and installed in moments. The cons. There is no therapeutic treatment in these apps. At the time of recording in 2025, there is only one approved Food and Drug Administration app, and you need a prescription to access it.
If you read the fine print on the Terms of Service or on the website, you're going to find a disclaimer that says the app does not provide therapy and encourages you to seek professional assistance and advice. Now, that doesn't keep them from using the word therapy in their promotional materials, but as I mentioned, often on the website or in the body of the app or in the Terms of Service, they will clearly, although in very small type, tell you that this app cannot provide therapeutic services.
Another con is that cognitive behavioral therapy doesn't work for every mental health condition. It's not a bandage for every mental problem that people have, which goes along with the lines that almost every one of the apps that are in the App Store tout CBT as your ticket to relief.
If you have a complicated problem, for example, you have a dual diagnosis, maybe you have substance abuse or depression, or you have a trauma experience and a hoarding problem, or certain types of mood disorders, CBT might not help. These apps do not evaluate you or your condition. By using these apps without a medical evaluation, you are in fact self-diagnosing. You might need a different treatment approach, but you'd never know that if you only exclusively work with the apps.
An AI chatbot is not a human being and certainly not a discerning listener. At best, AI chatbot will match your words with those stored in the large language model database. For example, if you say or type, I feel frustrated, it would not know the difference between you feeling exasperated or you're ready to totally give up and want to kick the bucket. A human being can tell the difference between how that term is expressed. An AI chatbot cannot.
On the Psychology Today website, there is a post about chatbots for mental health opportunities and limitations. And from the website The Conversation, there is an article called Your AI Therapist is Not Your Therapist. The dangers of relying on AI mental health chatbots. A lot of good points about the limitations of having a relationship with lines of code. It can't be done. It can be simulated, but human beings need more. So, to summarize, there's a range of apps in the marketplace.
It's important to know yourself, your condition, and to match the app that can best support you and your goals. Please know that there's a lot of empty promises regarding treatment via apps. And what the apps can do, and this is on their positive side, is to assist you in learning about your condition, help you understand and help you develop skills concerning your CPT practice, meditation and breathing opportunities, or as a just-in-time tool to help you deal with your symptoms.
I'll catch you next time on the Anxiety Road. You can visit anxietyroadpodcast.com for links and other information resources. You can listen, download, or follow the podcast via a number of iOS apps and Android podcasting applications. You can find the show on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Gaana, Pandora, or on the web at listennotes.com. Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements.
Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder. This podcast is intended for information and education purposes only and nothing in the program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.