Is the Intellect Mental Healthcare App Worth Downloading? Here’s How It Compares to the Competition

When it comes to counseling apps, there’s no shortage of choices. For instance, you can work on mental wellness with the Intellect: Create a Better You app. Its self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) programs help build healthy habits and challenge thought patterns. But is it the right choice for you? Here’s an overview of the Intellect app’s many features and how it compares to similar apps.

Getting Started With the Intellect: Create a Better You App

To begin, enter info about yourself and goals for the app. Goals include sleeping better or building stronger relationships, and the app creates a personalized program to suit your needs.

Next, complete onboarding tasks, including a personality test and guided journal prompts. The app also offers Learning Paths, four-week programs designed to help change your behaviors and habits, as well as Rescue Sessions for stressful moments. Some markets and users also get access to the app’s personal coaching and counseling options.

The app is free to try for seven days, and you’ll need to purchase a subscription for additional use. The premium version provides access to over one hundred journals and sessions.

Download: Intellect: Create a Better You for iOS | Android (Subscription required, free trial available)

Personality Test

Part of the onboarding process includes a personality test based on the Big Five. The Big Five Personality Test examines where you fall on the spectrum of five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, according to PsychCentral. Answer twenty quick questions, and the Intellect app provides information about how these responses reflect your personality overall.

Next, the app’s Home screen offers quick access to Guided Journals, Learning Paths, and Rescue Sessions.

Guided Journals

The Guided Journals offer prompts that encourage you to write about six categories: gratitude, reflection, problem-solving, goal setting, sleep, and self-affirmation. Each section provides a specific question or theme to address, and then you work it out in your own words. The journals are also encrypted for privacy.

Learning Paths

Unique to the Intellect app, Learning Paths are self-guided modules that explore topics such as emotional management, healthy sleep habits, and anxiety. For instance, audio content for the Understanding How Anxiety Works section explains the basics of anxiety, its causes, and common effects, such as procrastination or sleep issues. It feels like taking lessons from a real-life counselor.

There’s also a quiz to test your own relationship with the condition. If you score a high level of anxiety, the app instructs you to seek care from an expert. This demonstrates a level of responsibility for app users who may need more support than an app can reasonably provide.

Throughout the sessions, you’ll learn what triggers your anxiety, as well as tips for managing it. It’s a helpful way to gain new insight into your thought patterns and behaviors, and the extended support over the course of a month is remarkable.

Rescue Session

In a tough spot? The Intellect app’s Rescue Sessions can help you cope with anger, regain motivation, work on relationships, and get back to sleep.

Text and audio narration discuss your concern and provide steps to cope with it. For instance, the session on motivation encourages finding your own inspiration instead of waiting until you feel like completing a task. You can also respond to questions about the session for more personalized coping strategies.

How Does Intellect Compare to Other Mental Health Apps?

There are dozens of mental health apps available, and here’s how Intellect compares to similar options.

Woebot

The Woebot app uses a chatbot to help you manage depression and anxiety symptoms. To get started, fill out a questionnaire that gauges symptoms of depression and anxiety, then start chatting.

Interacting with Woebot feels like having a conversation with a counselor or an empathetic friend, and it uses fun details (such as emoji and GIFs) to help explain mental health topics. Use Woebot to discuss anything that’s on your mind at any time. In addition, choose from preselected Topics to chat about specific matters, such as the difference between anxiety and worry.

How does the Woebot compare to Intellect? Both offer interactive and educational ways to work through mental health concerns, and both provide a journal function. While the Intellect app offers more features to explore, the Woebot app is totally free to use, making it a great choice for those who don’t want to manage paid app subscriptions.

Download: Woebot for iOS | Android (Free)

CBT Thought Diary

One of the top CBT apps for dealing with behavior challenges, CBT Thought Diary also begins by asking a series of questions about your mental well-being to get started. Next, the app recommends Guided Journals, Crash Courses, Detailed Assessments, and Personalized Insights to help you understand and address these concerns.

When completing a check-in, select both positive and negative emotions from a list of expressive emoticons. This is an interesting feature because it feels more analogous to real life, where oftentimes you experience a range of emotions all at once. After completing a check-in, follow up with a guided journal, rituals such as affirmations, and gratitude exercises.

The journaling feature can also help walk you through your thought process, a key function of CBT. Learn to challenge harmful, unhelpful thought patterns. Write out a thought, then see whether it falls into common categories of distortion such as catastrophizing or magnifying the negative.

Both CBT Thought Diary and Intellect include features that help you identify and address unhelpful thoughts and feelings. As the name suggests, Thought Diary focuses more on journaling exercises, although Intellect has an interactive journal feature, as well. Thought Diary also includes a series of classes under its Discover tab. Intellect features more audio content, which might make it a stronger choice for people who learn best by listening. You get a week-long free trial for both apps, and each requires a subscription for full use.

Download: CBT Thought Diary for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

MindDoc: Your Companion

Developed by psychologists, the MindDoc app asks 10 questions about your general mental health and responds with personalized insights. The questions cover everything from goal-setting to general feelings of tension and nervousness. Once answered, the app offers up an Insight on how you’re doing at the moment.

Next, review strategies for addressing whatever issues are currently a concern, whether that’s looping thoughts or feelings of anxiety. Answer questions for 14 days to receive your first assessment on the Results screen for information about your emotional health overall.

To make the most of the app, a premium subscription provides additional Insights, courses on psychological topics, and more detailed mood trackers.

In this video, YouTuber The Healing Mom provides an overview of the app and goes into more details about features available with the paid version, such as intelligent mood tracking, that may impact your decision between MindDoc and Intellect.

Both the Intellect and MindDoc apps offer similar features, including daily check-ins, personalized exercises, and mood tracking options. If you’re really into data tracking, then the Results option from MindDoc might be appealing. Although the Intellect app does require a paid subscription after one week, you can use the free version of MindDoc indefinitely.

Download: MindDoc for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

Which Counseling App Should You Choose?

Many features from Intellect: Create a Better You also appear in other apps, including guided journaling, breathing exercises, and mood tracking. However, the Learning Paths, with a focus on CBT techniques, appear to be a unique feature of this app. If you’re looking for an app to supplement or even take the place of traditional counseling, then Intellect is a solid option.

For the most part, all of these apps have helpful components. Any app that you consistently use to improve your mental wellbeing is worthwhile, so choose whatever works best for you.