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Most doctors (mostly psychiatrists) will ask you to track your mood if you have a mood disorder like bipolar disorder or depression. And while most people (psychiatrists and patients) would agree mood tracking is good, most people would also admit to not doing it.
I understand why mood tracking doesn’t get done. It’s like a homework assignment when you’re already working full-time. You just happen to be working full-time at being crazy. Homework tends to get left in the book bag.
However, there are easy, painless, simple ways to track your mood that can offer real benefits. Sixty seconds a day. Promise.
Mood tracking is pretty simple. Mood tracking is just a way of writing down various aspects of your mood and mental illness symptoms on a daily basis to look for trends.
Mood tracking attempts to look for variables that affect a mental illness like bipolar disorder or depression. You generally want the results in a graph so it’s easier to see mood trending.
It’s easy to tell your doctor your mood right? Depressed or manic? Severity: one-through-ten. Simple.
Except it isn’t. At least not in the most helpful sense. Telling your psychiatrist what your mood is when you’re sitting in front of him might be useful, but that’s only one tiny data point and these was probably a month between that answer and your last appointment. You can’t see trends when you track moods by months unless they absolutely smack you in the face.
People Can’t Remember Their Mood (Even When Paying Attention)People are terrible at remembering mood. This is pretty much what happens:
“What was your mood last week?”
“Um, mostly OK, I guess.” Or you might say, “Depressed.”
This is not accurate mood reporting. In reality, everyone’s mood fluctuates to some degree. You were more depressed on Thursday because they didn’t air a new episode of Burn Notice. You had a visitor that lifted your mood a little for two days. That sort of thing.
By tracking your moods for depression or bipolar disorder (or any mental illness, really), you can find:
And about a million other things. Not to mention the fact you will have a record of your mood (and hopefully side effects) and when some future doctor asks how you reacted to med X from two years ago, you’ll have the answer. (Yes, an endless frustrating reality.)
So, have I sold you on mood-tracking? Good. In part two I’ll talk about how to track your mood, what to track, how to remember to track your mood and I how I track my mood in 60 seconds a day.
Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, advocate, and consultant from the Pacific Northwest. She has been living with bipolar disorder for 26 years and has written more than 2000 articles on the subject.
Find more of Natasha’s work in her acclaimed book: "Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar" on Amazon.
Connect with Natasha at the social media links below.
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I know that this can be a very helpful tool in possibly predicting a behavior while you can still do something about it. I have BP 1 with rapid cycling and I don’t mean once or twice a week. I literally have cycled so fast that by the time I write down one behavior I am well on my way to the next and then the next one after that. I would love to hear from someone who cycles as fast as I do.
Hey Natasha:
This morning is the first time I’ve encountered your blog. You seem to have 1st hand experience in what it’s like to have these issues. I was started on Lexapro for anxiety issues at least 15 yrs. ago. Since then, I have been switched to Prozac, Effexor XR, Celexa, Zoloft & Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin is the lastest venture. The MD told me to take the Wellbutrin in the am while working on weaning myself off Zoloft in the pm. I probably only got about 4-5 doses into my system of the Wellbutrin and got my Zoloft weaned down to about 25mg every other day. I would get up in the am and begin work and would forget to take the Wellbutrin so I just quit taking it but kept the weaning schedule going with the Zoloft. I’m no longer taking any antidepressant for about 2 weeks now however the dyskinesia was not completely gone but I figured it would dissapate in time. As of this past Saturday (3/30/13), I got very tearful, then underlying fear set in. By Sunday, I was a hot mess. I ended up resorting to 1/2 milligram of Zanax. This morning (4/1/13), I am borderline stable. Sorta walking the fence and feel as if I could fall off in either direction. The dyskinesia is much worse as well which doesn’t make sense to me as I thought it would continue to fade away. Getting changed to Wellbutrin was my idea as I have a co-worker that takes it and has lost all kinds of weight but my MD’s assistant told me she didn’t think it would help my issue of anxiety but my MD said it would be ok to try. I don’t know whether to start the Wellbutrin back or maybe the Zoloft or continue with the lose dose Xanax or anything at all. I wanted off the Zoloft due to the enormous weight gain. I don’t know if I need to be on it or if its just withdrawal symptoms. My official dx is anxiety with panic attacks and underlying depression & OCD. Do you have any advice on what I should do at this point?
Hi Kimberly,
Well, there are so many answers to your question. First off, I must tell you, I’m not a doctor and anything I say is my opinion and should be discussed with a doctor before making any changes.
There are some things to consider:
1. No one knows how long withdrawal can last. You may have gone off the Zoloft too fast and it’s worsening this problem. In that situation I would generally restart the Zoloft at the lowest level that you didn’t have withdrawal from and then withdraw more slowly.
On the other hand, if you’re convinced you want to try not being on medications, then you can try “white-knuckling” it. I wouldn’t advise this considering your history.
2. Finally, you could consider restarting the Welbutrin as you haven’t really given it a shot yet. But this depends on how bad you find the situation now. Can you take it if it doesn’t work?
In all honesty, I feel the safest choice is the first one, but it’s totally up to you and I recommend you discuss all options with your doctor.
– Natasha Tracy
Moodscope.com is the best tracker I’ve found, and it doesn’t involve getting tangled in spreadsheets. Go online daily, click on 20 mood indicators, and the site calculates your mood level in points. At the end of each daily survey, there’s space to add your comment on why you’re feeling this way today – changed dosages, life events, stressful times. So you get both a chart of ups and downs, and a record of what you think caused each at the time. It’s a great service, with a free version.
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the recommendation. I do like that one and it seems to be based on good psychological science but there are just two problems.
1. I’m not sure that it will be free after the beta period.
2. They own the rights to all your data.
Number 2 there is a bit of a deal-breaker for me, I don’t like companies that want to own mental health data.
– Natasha Tracy
Hi Natasha!
I am ever so grateful to have found you in 2011.
This is just a brief comment about finding you cuz i finally found ‘someone’, ‘info’ that i am finding to help me……..ie. mood tracking…is THE HARDEST for me to talk to my p-doc about to let him know how i am doing…besides this there is SO MUCH HERE ON YOUR SITE for information on depression, bipolar & mental health.
I have been struggling quite a while over the last couple years but reading your articles here is starting to give me HOPE again to move forward with my life.
I am on Effexor & Divalproex & only been working with a p-doc for last 10 months but no therapist, & p-doc has not said he has diagnosed me with bipolar, just that i am on the meds for it. He also mentioned back in summer 2011 he is hoping to take me off Effexor eventually.
Anyway i am happy to have your site to help me with some questions i am having about so many issues surrounding my mental health.
Thank you for all you do and i look forward to soaking up as much info as i can.
Judie
Hi Judie,
Nice to meet you. Thank-you for the kind words. I’m glad you finding the information here helpful. I’m honoured to help anyone find hope in moving forward because I know how difficult that can be.
I agree, it’s very difficult to talk to your doctor about accurate mood reporting – that’s why these apps help. They make the mood reporting more academic and less emotional, which I find helpful.
I’m glad to hear you’re working with a psychiatrist but maybe you can look into seeing a therapist too. They can also help you find hope and give you tools to more effectively manage your illness.
– Natasha Tracy
I use bStable. It is awesome!!! :)
Hi Kate,
What kind of app is that? Is it free?
Thanks for the suggestion.
– Natasha
Part two of this post is now available.
How to Track Your Mood in 60 Seconds or Less: https://staging.natashatracy.com/bipolar-disorder/mood-tracking-bipolar-disorder-how
– Natasha Tracy
I use a app for android called emoods, lets enter moods, if i am have psychotic symptoms, meds, daily notes and i can share this with my p-doc
Hi Steven,
I downloaded it and I don’t find it nearly granular enough to be useful or really see trends. Not for me, anyway
Of course, if it helps you, then that’s great :)
– Natasha Tracy
I’m excited for part 2 :) A pre-diagnosis and am trying to be actively engaged in being mentally healthy. I think (hope) mood charting may expidite dianonsis or non diagnosis.
Looking forward to more :)
Hi Leslie,
Congratulations for taking control over your own mental wellness. The best time to stop any problem is at the beginning. I think you’ll find you learn a lot of mood tracking. Perhaps you’ll come back and tell me about it some time.
– Natasha Tracy
I’ve been using an iPhone App called eCBTMood. It works well, but needs to be enhanced to allow you to capture some comments as well, such as what what going on at the time.
Hi Jim,
Does it track and graph moods over time? Or is it more for doing CBT exercises? (Looked like the latter on iTunes.)
– Natasha Tracy
As a rapid-cycler, I found mood charting to be an exercise in futility.
Hi Mike,
That is a reasonable sentiment and one I used to share. I have found though, I just wasn’t measuring the right things. When I had done it I just used a spread sheet and recorded numbers representing where on a scale depression, anxiety and hypomania (and I think a couple of others) were. And it turns out, this isn’t the most useful thing. It makes a nice graph, but it wasn’t helpful. (Although even that can help some people.)
What I’m using now is software and I rate, um, maybe 60 variables a day to create mood data. This is considerably more helpful.
In part two I’ll tell you all about it. (Don’t worry, I still won’t make you do it. :)