We’ve found the best mental wellbeing app to get you through your exams

Feeling stressed is nothing new to me. I felt stressed three weeks into first year, and now three years later it’s only got worse. The problem is at uni it’s notoriously hard to speak to someone professional, and all DMCs are on hold until my friends come out of revision mode.

Usually, I find that going to the gym is a great way to clear my head and let my brain take a break. But with a Christmas of solid revision hanging over me, I’m not sure a quick sprint on the treadmill will cut it anymore. I need to start focusing on my mental health as much as my physical and start exercising my emotional muscles. Luckily I’ve found something that I think will help. The next big mental wellbeing app, a.k.a the exam stress saviour – Fika.

Fika is a mental wellbeing app that aims to mainstream emotional fitness. Thankfully, for my already cluttered brain, it’s pretty simple to use. There are three ways you can use Fika. You can either take some time to yourself and think through Fika’s daily self-reflection questions, or you can ask a friend to help you work through some of the topics and get a better understanding of why you’re feeling upset. You can also talk to other Fika users anonymously through the app itself and discuss the things that are really worrying you such as relationships, money or work.  

To share the wellbeing goodness, I roped in some equally stressed students to trial Fika for a week and see if it could help improve their mental wellbeing before the January exams hit.

Stressed, need to vent or just want to have a chat? Download Fika now and start exercising your emotional wellbeing

Sunnii, King’s, Comparative Literature, 3rd year

I’m coming to the end of my loan and I started to get really anxious about cash and how I was going to make it last until the end of the month. I’ve tried to save enough for all the presents and inevitable splurges, but you always seem to spend more when you go away, especially when it’s for Christmas.

Feeling worried about money, I chose the “worry and stress” topic along with two others, “goals and dreams” and “positive vibes”. I said hi to users with other similar topics and within two minutes I had someone on the other end chatting to me. It was surprisingly helpful. The other Fika user talked me through steps clearly and seemed to genuinely want to help. My life is pretty hectic at the moment so I was worried about how Fika would fit, but purposefully setting aside some time ended up really paying off.

By the end of the week, I’d managed to chat through worries about money, budgeting and stress. It was a relief to know that what I was feeling was completely normal. Just being able to sit with Fika and focus on what was stressing me out really helped my brain find a source of relief. Hopefully, this relief will carry me through December revision.

You can choose to match with other users, “Fika friends”, based on their topics.

Fika is a  free, versatile way of improving your mental wellbeing – download now

Owen, King’s, English Literature, 3rd year

Not every day is stressful, but sometimes I’ll get a mark back or someone will say something and I just need a space to vent, have a good rant and get everything off my chest. That’s why I decided to try out Fika as it seemed a good replacement for when my friends were too busy to chat.

On Friday I matched with a user who had a matching “Frustration” theme. I can’t lie, it was quite exhilarating that a complete stranger was listening. We made full use of the 10-minute session and ended up helping each other resolve our day’s problems and bonding over the struggles of a busy lifestyle. Fika gave me and the other user a space to vent about our days and talk through the negative points with someone who was willing to listen. It ended up being a great way to get things off my chest when my friends were busy.

My week trying out Fika was better than I’d originally expected. It was a release to chat to someone who didn’t know me and who I knew wasn’t already stressed with their own problems. I also liked the fact that you could just reflect by yourself. The questions were good at making you think about things a bit deeper and break down the problems into manageable chunks.

It’s great that Fika includes a five-minute countdown for each question too, as it means that you’re more motivated to sit down and actually think it through properly. Especially when uni gets quite hectic, taking five-minutes out a day just to focus on yourself and your mental wellbeing really helps.

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Fika is a free mental wellbeing app that can help you manage the January exam stress – download it here

Aidan, Queen Mary, History of Political Thought and Intellectual History, master’s

I’ve seen people using Oxfess, a student page where people chat about their worries, so I was intrigued to see how this concept would work as an app, Fika. I think the idea of people talking without shame about issues could be very positive, especially for uni students who have maybe only experienced social media as a very negative space. It’s also a nice new spin on the concept of internet anonymity being a good thing.

I liked that you only need to use a phone number and email address to easily create one of the randomly generated usernames, less faff than other apps that have longer sign-up processes. I’m also a fan of the questions that seem more designed for self-reflection on things I might not normally consider. I liked that I could re-generate the questions until I found one that resonated with me as the process really helped me figure out what I was actually worrying over.

Fika made having a helpful conversation with someone so much more convenient and useful as I could connect with people based on matching topics, rather than just randomly. I also liked that the audio guide emphasised the fact that there were two roles within Fika of talking and listening, and that listening required real neutrality and compassion. The neutrality is a nicely grown-up touch that you don’t always find online.

Worried about burdening your friends? Fika is a wellbeing app where you can talk through worries anonymously – download it now

Nancy, UCL, Experimental Psychology, 1st year

I’ve just started uni and it’s been a big change for me, so sometimes it can be a bit stressful to get my head around everything. That’s why I thought I would try out Fika. I also felt fairly safe trying to use it as none of my personal information was visible to other users.

I said hi to a user who wanted to chat about their work life and connected immediately. Since you match with other users who want to talk about similar things, I felt really at ease talking to them as I knew they were all having similar worries. We chatted for about 10 minutes and after I felt a lot more on top of things. It was good talking to someone else who was worried about the same things as me because it meant that we could share strategies and the conversation wasn’t all one-sided.

I also really liked the speed that you could begin chatting to someone after you matched. Unlike with trying to organise an appointment face to face, using Fika meant I didn’t have to wait and could start feeling better sooner. Sometimes I feel bad burdening my friends with my worries, but since all the Fika users are using it for the same reasons, I didn’t feel bad about sharing my stresses with them. It was nice.

You don’t have to connect with users to improve your emotional wellbeing; these Fika questions prompt you to analyse your worries by yourself.

Fika encourages you to make time for your mental wellbeing, talk over worries with your friends and discuss topics with other Fika users 

Download Fika here