[DespondentDaisy]

So, I finally anfd forever quit smoking weed for almost 5 months now, and a few months after I came to the conclusion that I no longer needed to be on my medication and stopped taking my antidepressant/antianxiety meds (through supervision of my psychiatrist). I think I may have needed my meds in the past, but I realized that the highs and lows of smoking weed was really all I was medicating anymore. So now, for the most part, I'm fine. But perhaps I'm still getting used to being sober, because sometimes I feel like I'm on drugs even though I'm not. I don't know, it's weird. I think because I've been on either a medication and/or smoking weed for nearly ten years now it's still something that'll take some getting used to. Does anyone ever feel like this? I think for sure I might be a bit bipolar. I tend to tear up easily and get irritated asily, though usually only early in the morning when I'm still waking up am I the most irritable. Though I for sure want to not go back on any medication unless its really necessary.

So I'm doing this emotion log for my psychiatrist- I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I have several elements, such as irritableness, anger, tearfulness, anxiety, stress, depression, and I list them on a scale of 1-5 for every day. But the problem is, it's not like I experience them all everyday, or even at a continual period of time. Like I'll maybe have two to three agitated states and feel stressed at times one day, or tear up a couple time the next and feel anxious, but it's never a continual problem throughout the day like it has been in the past. So this leads me to believe I'm fine. Because of course one;s not going to feel happy every instant of every day, that's not normal either. Though I did feel like that a few days back, but that was unusual for me. well, what I'm trying to get at is, is there a better way of recording my emotions ? should I be marking times throughout the day as my mood changes? OR is that excessive? Any thoughts or advice would be nice. Thanks.

[Yoda]

I think it would be informative to see how your mood changes throughout the day. It would be time intensive but if you do it for awhile perhaps you or your T/pdoc can see a pattern and work to stabilize your moods.

[madisgram]

good advice from yoda. i did this mood change journal this way. using a scale of 1-10. 10 being extremely uncomfortable. you could list multible mood titles too to clarify what emotion you have, like anxiety, anger, etc. it really helped my T to see the daily pattern. i kept the journal with me so i could immediately write down the mood. i also kept a journal on days i was particularly upset. it helped me see the cause of the upset and how i felt about it. of course my mood was defined there. the triggers, etc.

[Perna]

Originally Posted by DespondentDaisy

I have several elements, such as irritableness, anger, tearfulness, anxiety, stress, depression, and I list them on a scale of 1-5 for every day. But the problem is, it's not like I experience them all everyday, or even at a continual period of time. Like I'll maybe have two to three agitated states and feel stressed at times one day, or tear up a couple time the next and feel anxious, but it's never a continual problem throughout the day like it has been in the past. So this leads me to believe I'm fine. Because of course one;s not going to feel happy every instant of every day, that's not normal either.

I don't think one should change feeling states that often during a single day; one should respond to external happenings rather than have internal ones all the time; the internal upheavals and surprises are what get resolved in therapy.

In addition to the 1-5 scale, I would add or replace with a number of times? I'd do a "2-3x agitated" and use the scale if you can say how bad the agitation was compared to other agitations? I mean sometimes we're just a "little" agitated and other times we're a lot? If they are short or "average out" in intensity, then I wouldn't use the scale but if one or more were longer than usual or more intense, I'd note that with the scale.