For years, technology has evolved to help us maintain our health. First with things as essential as the analysis of our heart rate, the knowledge of our body temperature, the oxygen level in the blood… The challenge, in the middle of 2025, is to know also detect mental health problemssomething as important as our physical health.
The iPhone includes a very interesting (but unknown) function in the Health application, which allows us to record our mood. And being able to monitor how we feel is the first step to identify patterns which could indicate more serious problems, like depression.
Myths we should debunk about depression
Coinciding with World Depression Day,dispelling some of the most common myths about this mental disorder while discovering how, from our iPhone, we can identify the first signs. Because yes, depression affects millions of people around the world.
People with depression are not always sad
This is perhaps the most common mistake we make when thinking about depression. We believe that if you see someone who suffers from depression laughing while watching a movie, you invent your mental health problem. “How can he laugh if he suffers from depression?”, we ask ourselves. The reality is much more complex.
According to the World Health Organization, depression is a common mental disorder that “involves depressed mood or loss of pleasure or interest in activities for long periods of time.” This means that youno one can have moments of joy and yet I am going through depression.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V) establishes that they must be respected five symptoms for two consecutive weeksone of them necessarily being a depressed mood or a marked reduction in pleasure in activities. Other symptoms may include weight loss, slowed thinking, fatigue, or recurring thoughts of not seeing the point in living.
There is no closed list of reasons for depression
“How can you be depressed if you are doing well in life?” is a phrase we hear frequently. However, depression is multifactorial: genetics, neurobiology and the social environment are involved. Someone can be successful at their job and have a wonderful family while still suffering from depression. Just see how many celebrities and Hollywood stars have died due to depressive disorders, even if everything is at a glance.
Jim Carrey, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen have admitted to suffering from depression at certain times in their lives.
Behind what we consider success can involve a lot of sacrifice and suffering. Maybe this person achieved success by sacrificing hobbies, relationships, or countless routines that were good for them. Therefore, we should never minimize someone's discomfort by telling them, “You have no reason to be like that.”
Antidepressants are not the magic solution
There is much controversy surrounding the use of antidepressants. Although they can be effective in many cases, the real cure comes with the combination of medicines (if necessary) and psychological therapy. Without therapy, a person taking antidepressants may feel like they are cured, but as soon as they stop taking the medication, they are back to square one, or even further back. It's like removing a bandage: the wound bleeds again if it hasn't healed properly.
Depression is not due to lack of willpower
Phrases like “Come on, cheer up” or “You’re just not trying” are dangerously common. Depression is a real mental health disorder, one that we cannot control simply by “thinking positively.” Of course, for someone to come out of depression You have to want to do it and do your part in therapy.. But that doesn't mean a depressed person is weak or not trying to improve themselves. Our brain keeps us alive, but it can also play very bad tricks on us.
Children can also suffer from depression
According to UNICEF, there are in Europe 9 million children aged 10 to 19 suffering from mental health problemsdepression representing 40% of cases. The WHO adds that 50% of mental health problems appear around the age of 14. Thinking that children cannot suffer from depression because they are innocent or lack the vital problems of an adult is a mistake that can lead to undervaluing their symptoms. Even before the age of 10, cases occur and it is crucial to treat them to prevent them from getting worse in the future.
Don't wait until you're depressed to ask for help professional. The role of psychologists is very broad and they can help us in many facets of our lives and with various types of mental discomfort. If you think you need help, it's because you need it, there's nothing more to consider. Thinking about it is usually the first warning sign.
How iPhone can help you monitor your mental health
With iOS 18, Apple has improved its powerful mood tracker. This can become our ally in detecting important trends in our mental health. Through the Health app we can track detail of our emotions and moods, which will help us identify patterns over time.
- Open the Health app and go to Explore > Mental Health > Mood.
- Tap “Save” and choose between recording a momentary emotion or recording your daily mood.
- You can indicate: the intensity of your emotions, the words that describe how you feel and the factors that affect you.
The ideal is to do it every day or, if you feel bad, to recharge it at that time. This way you can find out what is behind it. For example, if there are days when you leave work that you feel bad and others that you don't, write that down. If it's very repetitiveyou will have a model to work from. Same with couples, family, friends…
To make sure we don't forget to make these check-ins, we can set custom reminders. The app can notify us at specific times of the day to make momentary recordings or at the end of the day for more general evaluations. All of this is visualized in graphs and trends that help us better understand our emotional well-being over time.
How to take a mental health test
You can also do an occasional mental health quiz. You'll find it in the Health app in Explore > Mental Health > Mental Health Quiz. This assessment will ask you questions about how you have felt over the past two weeks. Once completed, you will receive a report that you can even export to PDF to share with the doctor.
Of course, this feature is not intended to replace professional help. It is a complementary tool which helps us understand ourselves better and to detect when we might need to seek help. The iPhone puts a key tool in the palm of our hand to take the step and ask for help, or at least know that we are going through a more difficult time.
Cover image | free pik
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