[faerie_moon_x]

I don't really like the mood tracker here. I feel some of the questions should be broken into two parts. Example: I sometimes feel very creative and full of ideas and other times dull. I think that should be two quesitons... because obviously one is depression and one is mania, or the options should be ranging from "I feel dull" to "I feel full of ideas" Instead of how it is... I did my mood tracker because I'm really all over the place, and it says possibly in mania. Sure.

Anyway, I took the mania and depression quizzes. Answering all the questions honestly to how I feel right now. I got a 54 for mania and 57 for depression, which is sever for both. I feel this is more accurate to how I feel today. I am thinking it would be better for me to do both since I've been told I have mixed states or dysphoric mania. I just want to keep track as much as I can so when I do get to see a doctor I have information rather than my not so great memory.

Has anyone else done this? Or is that a bad idea?

[tnlibrarian]

I just started using it yesterday but I'm using a mood tracker you get from ITunes. It's on my IPhone. So far I really like it--it reminds me to take my meds, lets me set goals, note what my triggers are and use slides to indicate how manic I feel, etc. It also lets you check if you've used nicotine, drugs or had alcohol. It also lets you keep track of how many caffinated drinks you have. Once your information is entered you can look at a chart that is generated that will be useful for my doctor.

I only do the quizzes if I feel like I may be manic or depressed. That was how my husband and I figured out just how badly manic I was a few weeks back and was what made me decide to get an appt. with my psych ASAP. I think they are a good way to determine if you need to see your psych soon and if there are warning signs there. I wouldn't use them as a way of diagnosing myself, though. That's why my doctor is there.

[faerie_moon_x]

Thanks Becca.

No, I don't want to diagnose myself. I already know I have bipolar, dx was about 2.5 years ago now. But, I want to test how "manic" and how "depressed" I am doing exactly. Because the mood tracker seems okay but because my pdoc said I have mixed or dysphoric mania, and possibly rapid cycling, I want to figure out if these things are happening or how frequently, so I have something to show a doctor when I get one again (which I hope someday I do....) And I don't think the mood tracker really shows how I'm feeling on both side. (For example I'm speeded up with racing thoughts and pressured speech but I'm also having crying fits and feel completely worthless, slow, irritated, and disinterested/disconnected.) So I want to keep track of this happening. I've used the mood tracker over at medhelp for a long time but even that I'm not so sure of (and I kepe forgetting.)

[Secretum]

Darkheart, I have the same complaint against PC's mood tracker. I'm fairly certain that it counts high scores on the rapid-cycling items as manic symptoms, which makes no sense...I've also considered taking both the depression and mania quiz, but that would be a lot of questions to answer every single day! I'm still in search of a good mood tracker; I've never seen one that I really like. I even tried to design my own at one point, and couldn't stick with it.

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by Secretum

Darkheart, I have the same complaint against PC's mood tracker. I'm fairly certain that it counts high scores on the rapid-cycling items as manic symptoms, which makes no sense...I've also considered taking both the depression and mania quiz, but that would be a lot of questions to answer every single day! I'm still in search of a good mood tracker; I've never seen one that I really like. I even tried to design my own at one point, and couldn't stick with it.

I also have never found one that I really like and that really shows what is going on! Since there are not physical tests for bipolar, I really feel it is important to put down what is happening to me. I also tried to design one using Excel, but I couldn't figure it out.

I don't think I'll answer the questions every day. Maybe like 3 times a week or so. Or maybe if I'm really bad try to do it every day.

[Trippin2.0]

My brother says to try moodgym. #WARNING# I've never checked it out,so i don't know how helpful it is, but my brother's a smart guy, it might be worth checking out... Just thought i'd share.

[AniManiac]

I replied to a similar thread in the Self-help forums. I use a combination of mood tracking tools. I use a free website called Moodscope every morning for an overall mood level based on rating 20 simple items, and fill in a 9-point scale mood rating for the prior day (so I have a first-thing and a retrospective score for each day). I don't use it much, but I have an iPhone app called My Mood Tracker that I like pretty well. I also track some other stuff, like drinking, hours of sleep, time of the month, meds. I dump all of it into Excel at the end of the month. I can now run some nifty stats on my mood data since I have a year of pretty consistent data. Separately, I also track sleep quality and activity level using FitBit.

Yeah, I'm a data geek...

[faerie_moon_x]

Thank you all. I will check out these other mood trackers. I have droid phone and the ones I have are not that great. I only ever get free apps, though. Not pay ones. Trying to find an online one.

Well, this is what I mean, so yesterday I had 57 depression and 54 mania
Today I took the tests again and I got a 40 depression and 52 mania, and I do feel a little better today. But I can still see I'm really disorganized and scattered. So, I think until I am out of the woods, so to speak I will keep testing to see how it fluctuates.

Originally Posted by AniManiac

...Yeah, I'm a data geek...

Heheh. I don't think I am, but can say for sure that I can't leave anything of the sort alone! Ever! I've tried a couple of mood trackers (always by hand, but that's me.). Almost immediately I'm tweaking it. With more information. But of course. One variation I came up with had too much writing. The one I use now has a little space for elaboration on a given thing. The most useful adjustment I've found? Color-coding. For instance, with sleep issues. It makes patterns really easy to see. For instance, if you see a lot of blue in my "sleep/wake issues" area, you can be damn sure I'm having a very hard time forcing myself out of bed. I'll pencil in just how long and make the areas of blue smaller or larger depending on how big an issue it's being. (Because, ya know, I just can't keep from being more precise! Lol.)

I've been mood charting for years now. I have no sense of time, so it's very useful for how long things have been going on, when meds were adjusted or added etc., which would otherwise by absolutely impossible to recall.

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by Innerzone

Heheh. I don't think I am, but can say for sure that I can't leave anything of the sort alone! Ever! I've tried a couple of mood trackers (always by hand, but that's me.). Almost immediately I'm tweaking it. With more information. But of course. One variation I came up with had too much writing. The one I use now has a little space for elaboration on a given thing. The most useful adjustment I've found? Color-coding. For instance, with sleep issues. It makes patterns really easy to see. For instance, if you see a lot of blue in my "sleep/wake issues" area, you can be damn sure I'm having a very hard time forcing myself out of bed. I'll pencil in just how long and make the areas of blue smaller or larger depending on how big an issue it's being. (Because, ya know, I just can't keep from being more precise! Lol.)

I've been mood charting for years now. I have no sense of time, so it's very useful for how long things have been going on, when meds were adjusted or added etc., which would otherwise by absolutely impossible to recall.

Yes, this is good! I like color coding. I color code things all the time. That is a big help for me. I was thinking a mood chart that has a level for each thing. For example, 0-10. Today my thoughts are racing 0 not at all to 10 can't think straight. You know, like the pain chart they have at the hospital. But I think everything is like a 0-10. People aren't just "yes or no." I'm irritated, yes or no. Instead it should be I'm irritated 0-10.

[AniManiac]

Originally Posted by Innerzone

Heheh. I don't think I am, but can say for sure that I can't leave anything of the sort alone! Ever! I've tried a couple of mood trackers (always by hand, but that's me.). Almost immediately I'm tweaking it. With more information. But of course. One variation I came up with had too much writing. The one I use now has a little space for elaboration on a given thing. The most useful adjustment I've found? Color-coding.

Color-coding is one of the analytic techniques I use for manual clustering on big spreadsheets of data. I mean, for "real" research! So yeah, I agree, it really helps. I used to create "heatmap" scales using the Excel color palettes in reds/oranges/yellows and blues/purples for some projects.

I honestly think there are some better ways and things to track than the way I'm currently doing it. I've seen some mood charting worksheets that have not only the up/down sort of rating, but a spot for irritability and energy level. I think that would be really helpful for me because although I get irritable fairly rarely, energy level doesn't always correspond to mood the way that it "should" so to speak. Hm. Maybe I'll go leaf through the collection of mood chart forms that I've picked up from the interwebs and see if I can make something I like better...

I like having a paper form that I can tuck into the back of my mood journal (a weekly-view Moleskine calendar) because it's compact and easy to take along when I travel.

[faerie_moon_x]

Well, I discovered today if you have a droid, don't get the Mood Journa Plus.... the mood journal is not helpful and it seems you're only having a manic episode if you're buying drugs.... >.> And it is really confusing, at least I thought it was! Oh, and all the questions are "yes" or "no"

Did you do healthy activity today? yes or no?
Did you sleep today? yes or no?

-.-