The internet, social media, and smartphones have added stress to our lives, so it’s only fair that a category of mobile apps has emerged to make our brains feel better. Worrydolls is a free, simple, and popular app that uses cute virtual dolls to help you recognize, track, and hopefully move on from your fears. This mental health app may be a little too simple, especially with most of its features locked behind a paid subscription, but if this little pick-me-up helps you have better days, then it’s all worth it.

What Is Worrydolls?

The worry dolls concept comes from an indigenous, Guatemalan tradition. If voodoo dolls are for inflicting pain on your enemies, then worry dolls are for relieving yourself from burdens. When you create a worry doll, you tell it whatever you’re worried about. The doll then holds onto that worry so you don’t have to, and finishes its job whenever you’re ready to let go of your fear. Mysticism aside, this is all about acknowledging anxieties, articulating them, and gaining some control through this doll metaphor. It’s a useful exercise.

I don’t know how closely app creator Peter Wieben followed that tradition, but he claims that his grandmother introduced him to these dolls as a child. To put it in more modern-sounding therapeutic terms, Wieben's site describes the Worrydolls app as “scientific cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness techniques, and a bit of magic.”

Getting Started With Worrydolls

Worrydolls is a free download on Android and iOS. Using the app is as simple and comforting as it should be. Pressing the blue plus button creates a new Worrydoll, prompting you to type in your concern. The home screen displays a row of all your dolls. Selecting one shows whatever worry that doll currently carries. For example, “I’m worried because of...politics.”

Worrydolls knows that fears are more complicated than single sentences. so you can update existing dolls with additional information. Do this over days, weeks, or months and you’ve essentially created a diary to track your anxiety, which may give you a deeper understanding of it. Hopefully, your worries won’t plague you forever. Whenever you’re satisfied, you can tell the doll that you’re finished worrying. The app never rushes you; it doesn’t make concerns feel like content to complete. You also participate in a short exit interview when finishing worries, which encourages you to truly process what happened, good or bad.

The Worrydolls app has a chill, minimal presentation that reminded me of the early days of the App Store, before everything became loaded with noisy and stressful in-app purchase ads. It’s just a straightforward row of dolls and one side menu. The dolls have a cute and appropriately sad paper cutout look that reflects how these avatars were originally made from raggedy old scraps. You can’t fully customize them but you can choose from various diverse looks. The app could benefit from ambient music, though, for extra relaxation.

Worrydolls Magic Mode

As a heavy technology user, one of my biggest personal worries is losing track of all my premium subscriptions and wasting money, as a result. Worrydolls isn’t useless as a free app—everything I described so far costs nothing. However, I was a bit disappointed to see Worrydolls walls many of its best features behind a premium subscription called Magic Mode. At least it’s affordable, costing only $2 per month.

Magic Mode users have more dolls to choose from, and you can customize them with stickers. You can upload pictures, audio, and video to express your worries, which can potentially be a lot more cathartic than just typing out 280 characters. Magic Mode also gives you more tracking tools to better understand how you worry and eventually improve your thought process. For example, you can see if you worry more on certain days or if you’re gaining new fears faster than you’re vanquishing old ones. Turning your anxieties into data may cause some anxiety, but some people may see it as a way to take back power.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Worrydolls is no substitute for, say, a professional therapist or prescribed mental health medication. However, sometimes telling a fake doll what’s bothering you can push you toward positivity. Although it could be more substantial without betraying its simple premise or undermining its paid subscription model, Worrydolls is worth a download if you want to begin tackling your fears.

For more tools to clear your mind, check out 13 Meditation Apps to Help You Fight Anxiety and Stress. Our Get Organized series also has plenty of great tips to help you take more control over your cluttered life.