World Mental Health Day 2023: Mental wellness features of iPhones, Watches, you should know

Mental well-being is really important to fight depression, make good decisions at work, and also develop good immunity against illness.

Two and half years ago Covid-19 outbreak devasted the world killing millions of people. Later, to control the spread of the Coronavirus, governments globally put lockdowns, causing economic downturn and uncertainty, causing huge mental stress to all.

World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates World Mental Health Day on October 10. The ultimate intention is to bring global awareness and remove the social stigma around mental well-being.

Now, more and more people are coming forward to seek help for depression and stress to balance their personal and work lives, than ever before.

Smart hardware makers are offering dedicated mental well-being features on their products to help owners lead a balanced life. Among them, Apple comes at the top for giving top priority to iPhones, iPads, and Watches.

If you are not aware, here are mental well-being features of Apple devices:

1) State of Mind:

Apple allows users to log the state of their mind in terms of moods and emotions. Users can mark them by just selecting a particular type of emoticons. The report will let the user know if he/she is under depression/stress and need assistance.

Here's how to enable State of Mind feature on iPhone/iPad:

Step 1: Open the Health app on your Apple device.

Step 2: On iPhone, tap Browse/ If using an iPad, tap to open the sidebar.

Step 3: Tap Mental Wellbeing, then tap State of Mind.

Step 4: First-time user >> Tap Get Started. Otherwise, tap Log.

Step 4: Select Emotion to log how you're feeling right now or Mood to log how you've felt overall today

On Apple Watch

Step 1: Open the Mindfulness app

Step 2: Tap State of Mind, then tap Log how you're feeling right now or Log how you've felt overall today

Step 3: Turn the Digital Crown to select a feeling, then tap the checkmark in the upper right.

Step 4: Select any optional words that best describe this feeling, then tap the checkmark in the upper right.

Step 5: Select any optional words for what has the biggest impact on you, then tap the checkmark in the upper right.

Apple device owners can set reminders to get notifications to log their state of mind.

Step 1: On the iPhone/iPad, open the Health app, then tap Browse.

Step 2: Tap Mental Wellbeing, then tap State of Mind.

Step 3: Scroll down and tap Options.

Step 4: Choose to be reminded During Your Day, at the End of Day, or you can tap Add Reminder to set a specific time.

Apple device owners can log their mood and study their mental well-being.

2) Mental Health Assessment feature

There is an Assessment feature that can be used by the device owners to share the results with their care team for more informed conversations.

Step 1: From your iPhone or iPad, open the Health app.

Step 2: If using an iPhone, tap Browse or if using an iPad, tap to open the sidebar.

Step 3: Tap Mental Wellbeing, then tap State of Mind.

Step 4: Tap Take Questionnaire. If you've previously completed an assessment, tap Anxiety Risk or Depression Risk, then tap Take Questionnaire.

Step 5: Confirm your age, then tap Begin

Step 6: Select the answers to the questions, then tap Done.

It should be noted that the depression assessment is called Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the anxiety assessment is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). As per Apple's support page, the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke, and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. The assessments are provided in the Health app for informational purposes only and the results are not a medical diagnosis.

Apple device owners can assess their mental health by answering a few questions on Health app.

3) Sleep

Sleep plays a really important role in helping a person make a good or bad decision. Sleep deprivation will cause mood swings and there is a high possibility of making bad decisions at work and inviting wrath from the boss or even worse, may cost you the job. Also, several research studies have pointed out that the lack of sleep will also reduce the body's immunity against disease. He/she may get a cold or fever more frequently than normal seasonal flu illness.

By logging proper sleep of 8-9 hours a day, he/she can stay healthy and have an active lifestyle.

Step 1: Open the Health app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap Get Started under Set Up Sleep1, then tap Next.

Step 3: Follow the onscreen prompts to establish:

A) Sleep Goals: Set the number of hours you'd like to spend asleep.

B) Bedtime and Wake Up times: Set when you'd like to go to bed and wake up.

C) Sleep Focus: To reduce distractions, iPhone can simplify your Lock Screen and turn on Sleep Focus at your scheduled bedtime. You can also give certain people or apps permission to notify you. Learn how to customize a Focus.

Step 4: Track Sleep with Apple Watch:

Wear an Apple watch to bed to track the sleep. This option is available during setup if he/she paired the Apple Watch with the iPhone beforehand. If he/she pairs Apple Watch after setup, they can still turn on Track Sleep with Apple Watch later.

Apple device owners can track their sleep pattern with Health app.

4) Activity

Besides sleep, doing physical workouts regularly at least three or four days of a week, will keep the body fit enough to develop immunity to not just prevent but also get over illness faster with medicine intake.

On the Apple Watch, he/she can set exercise/move/stand goals to lead a healthy lifestyle. Also, device owners can even compete with loved ones and colleagues on who completes the targets for the day first or get the maximum number of weekly and monthly fitness goal badges to keep everyone motivated to stay disciplined and lead an active lifestyle.

5) Meditations on Fitness+ app subscriptions

Meditation sessions on Fitness+ promise to help users develop a regular meditation routine and improve the overall sense of well-being. Users can choose from 10 themes including Kindness, Gratitude, Awareness, Calm and Sleep.

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