It's Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to support those battling mental health conditions and find new ways to improve our own mental state. One of those ways happens to be right at our fingertips. Thanks to advances in technology, mental health care is more affordable, accessible, and easier to fit into our daily routine than ever. There are now endless ways to take the steps you need in your mental health journey. Cheddar's own Baker Machado reports.

Cheddar's News Wrap

How Technology Can Improve Your Mental Health

technology tends to get a bad rap when it comes to our mental health. After all, social media has been proven to cause anxiety and depression. But now those same platforms are working to destigmatize mental illness and also encourage individuals to take a closer look at what's going on up here. It's not all bad. Thanks to technology, we have online spaces like Tiktok where people are opening up to complete strangers about struggles with mental illness and working through trauma all in creative ways with therapists, they may never even meet or even pay kind of like this, I start the session, let's talk. It's so hard for you to see people not loving you. So, you decided to agree with every little thing that they do and say licensed therapist. Dr Mariel bouquet is using Tiktok to offer a helping hand to people who are battling mental health issues and she's not the only one making therapeutic techniques more accessible. Thousands of therapists now use Tiktok is an extension of their practice. So, while you may be stumbling upon a triggering what I eat in a day video, the next video could be a therapist that's giving tips to combat diet. Culture isn't perfect, of course not. But progress is being made here and it's not just professionals that are changing the space users are opening up about their own mental health struggles. Also, they're asking for advice and forming online communities with others who can relate to them. But if Tiktok therapy isn't for you may be mindful movement is cheaper by the dozen star, Alyson stoner is helping people explore their wellness. They're a digital tool called movement genius. This is designed to improve your mental and physical well being through movement. So I started working with clinicians and experts across sectors to design movement programs specifically to help people improve their mental and emotional well being. And over the course of several months we realized this needs to be its own platform. Thousands of other apps exist today focusing on innovative approaches to wellness and even three therapy sessions, all available at your fingertips. One app is aimed at providing the tools you need before you reach crisis and it's geared specifically towards an age group whose mental health was hit the hardest by the pandemic and that students aged 14 to 22 2 longtime friends in college undergrads created dial app all to make mental health services more approachable, accessible and widely accepted among their peers. Schools have a painful time managing how to educate their students on mental health before they reach crisis and that's the key. And the experiences oftentimes awful for students who have to learn from outdated curriculum and face massive stigma entirely on their own. In this world that we're trying to create ideally, mental health care should be fully managed for schools and engaging for students and so we have four main features. One of them is the pathways that's one of the main features and it's really where we built this platform that takes over the core mental health education experience. What we do is we translate the science of mental health into short form video content so that curriculum is accessible for everyone and we cover hundreds of different relatable mental health topics and celebrate students for taking that first step. Now some of those relatable topics include overcoming fomo setting boundaries and even understanding impostor syndrome. But what happens when those students leave school and enter the workforce? Well 75% of mental health problems start by the age of 24 And the stress of all has led workers to start to reconsider their jobs. A recent report by McKinsey shows 75 out of 100 employees requires support fostering mental wellness thankfully. Digital tools have made it easier for employers to offer that support apps like talk space or combating employee burnout by helping employees connect with therapists, Talk space, found individuals who go to therapy or 41% more productive in the workplace. Virtual wellness in the workplace isn't the only thing evolving in the tech world. The social media landscape is changing. Also, there are now social media sites focused on bringing you clean media. So imagine a site where there's no misinformation, no bias, harassment or even Clickbait. A site used as a true force for good pick story is a platform looking to do just that. It's an integrity based social media platform promoting a home for healthy dialogue and a safe haven from online toxicity. NBA champ Dwight howard became picks trees, brand ambassador all to promote good vibes on social media and remind us of the amount of likes that we have in our post does not translate to how much we're liked as a person we wanted to be like for actually having knowledge and information and you know, actually wanted to learn more and I think it's just how society has basically flipped everything into us thinking that we have to get as many lights as we can to become instagram famous or social media famous see text. Not all that bad. And these are just a few of the many ways can be used to actually improve your mental health, but whether you use these digital tools or the old fashioned face to face method, the bottom line is still the same. Don't be afraid to take that next step in your mental wellness journey because you'll thank yourself later.