Tracking mood

I've been tracking my mood lately using the daily mood option here on PC. I wonder if this simple daily task can actually have a significant impact on ones long-term mental health.

I also just realized that there is another slightly more elaborate mood tracker that shows your depression, mania, anxiety and sleep scores. I just did this quiz and realized that my depression and anxiety are both somewhat problematic at the moment. I guess learning that does tell me something. I'm aware of my depressed state because it is almost constantly with me, but I am not as aware of my anxiety...maybe because I don't really know how to deal with it, and hence want to pretend that it is not there. The anxiety has been around for some time now, but I'm wondering if it is a result of my current job situation.

anyways, which do you guys like better? the daily mood option (great, good, okay, bad, horrible) or the slightly more elaborate one? how do you guys think these tools help you in your recovery?

I used to used the medhelp one

i like to see where im going, up down up down up down with a constant stream of anxiety in the middle

Hi I use the mood tracker on here and find it excellent,my Doc suggested keeping a mood diary before my next appointment which I have but the graph on th tracker has shown how my mood changes so much particularly my hypomania,I just hope it is worthwhile as he does not believe in any resources you can use,particularly during diagnosis on the internet.
The diary I have to do is not descriptive enough, 100% = normal mood, 0% = suicidal,that doesn't explain my true emotions such as anxiety
I would recommend it
JK

my mood changes so much throughout the day how do you stick with just one? at least I know i'm pensive as well most of the time so it's stickable lol

also wondering where the other tracker you refer to can be found?

I use the medhelp one also, and although it is descriptive you can't label when or how intense things are. And for me manic doesn't mean happy and elated but disphoric. Other ones are not descriptive enough. Whoever comes up with a very flexible "how I feel right now" tracker would be doing us all a huge favor, so you can track points on a day, not just "today I feel this way, tomorrow I feel that way." More like "It's 12:30 and I feel like this, at this intensity," with symptoms you can choose. I think that will really help pinpoint triggers.

I use an app on my phone called moodreporter. It is more detailed for bipolar, med tracking and stressors. It would also work just as well for depression. It also gives you a graph which I like. And the option to email the report to your pdoc or treatment team which my pdoc likes.

I thought the daily mood was helpful but didn't like the way it spaced data points in the readout.
So being a math nut I designed a three dimensional, non Euclidian graphing system to track my moods.
Basically it used 3 axis, (see figure A) with one (Y) representing the date, one (Z) representing Mania/depression and one (positive X values) representing mixed states
It worked well but took quite a bit of explaining before the shrink got the hang of reading it.

Figure A

(After though; You know this post looks Creeply like an excerpt from my maths textbook)

I use Moodscope, which is a free online site, and uses a standard psychological scale to measure overall mood. It produces a nice graph that you can annotate. You can also have your mood reports emailed to "buddies" for support. I use this to keep my hubby informed of what my mood is like without having to tell him, "gosh, I only scored 35 today, I must be doing pretty crappy," directly. It helps.

I also use a paper-based form with a simple 9-point scale plus space to track meds, hours of sleep, etc. At the end of each month, I dump all the data into a spreadsheet. Yes, I'm a professional geek.

I also have a smartphone app called My Mood Tracker which also has nice graphs and a variety of useful options. But I haven't gotten in the habit of using it.

Thanks for the responses! It seems like people that do use the mood trackers find some benefit for it. It especially sounds helpful for communicating with others - pdocs, spouses, etc. those moods so might be helpful for treatment.

Maybe I'll have to get back into the habit of doing this. I've gotten kind of away from it.

I know I am late to put in my 2 cents in but here it goes..........

I tried starting out with my own with taking little bits from each other trackers that I found-- However Agitation I suppose have been told is the start of Hypomania-- I always but it as a lower score as bad though-- I always tell my T that and Pdoc due to i don't see it is a good happy as mania is some times described as-- yet at times I do feel this happy high stupid but am so sober that I would take any sort of test to prove it... those gets 2.5 on my 3 to -3 scales...

I like to track my mood- I started it before therapy to try to help them out, but I find it also difficult to keep up on it as well-- some days just pass by too fast for me, and I will have so many emotions with in a day some days- and with in hours-- IDK---

But yeah -- mood tracking I can see the benefit especially if done over time i think-- i think the more you do it, and make notes on what is going on maybe, you may or may not see a pattern to which I think would help with treatment.

Be well all!

I guess I can see the benefits of tracking your moods, I think the more elaborate one makes it more complicated than it needs to be.

Issue for me is I have a hard time figuring out what mood I'm in at any given moment. Honestly I couldn't tell you how I'm feeling at this moment. Maybe I'm out of touch with my emotions or something.

PC Mood tracker does NOT work for me or I do not understand it. How doe tyou dete the enteries you want to. I check them, then press delelte and nohing happens. What gives? This is my 3rd request or I"m giving up of it.