Mood Diary

JosephG

JosephG

Well-known member
I am currently on the waiting list for a clinical psychologist and I honestly can't wait to be able to talk to someone and to get the ball rolling on making effort to getting things better or at least more normal.
So I have started a mood diary in the mean time taking note of such details as - Mood rating, anxiety rating, social anxiety rating and making any general comments about how I've felt about the day and whether I feel I've made any irrational decisions or anything.
Do you think this is a healthy thing to do? I sometimes fear I am becoming obsessive with my problems and I don't want to be too overly focused on it all. What do you think?
 
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Feathers

Well-known member
Great to hear you've started a mood journal!

You may also want to include tracking other stuff like what you ate or what you did (any exercise etc) or look for 'trigger points/situations' that might have triggered your bad mood...

Did you read any books by Dr Burns yet? If not, I think that could be helpful!

Some psychologists/psychiatrists ask people to keep a mood journal, and some nutricionists or such ask people to keep a food journal too.. (Or you could keep it spearately on fitday.com or such, thus also measuring vitamins/minerals/protein eaten, which are also important)

It depends what you do with the written stuff: do you obsess about it and feel miserable, or do you look for cognitive distortions or 'lies' in the thinking/actions and try to see how accurate or helpful the thinking etc is?
I realized I would probably need to do this daily or at least weekly.. Even if I read all these books, I can sometimes/often still get 'hoovered up' into faulty thinking or behaviour (just a bit different than before) and need to do work on the new things too..

I like your categories and how you chose to also write 'general comments about how I've felt about the day and whether I feel I've made any irrational decisions or anything.' Might inspire me to do that too.

I usually 'vented' in my journals and wrote what I wanted to do etc. I had to consciously get myself to write down faulty thinking, with book in hand, and address it. There are also places where you can find the faulty thinking and how to 'unwind' it online, you probably found some of those yet?

(It makes me angry that 1 comment and action by Dad can 'undo' all the good work I've done yesterday, but at least it worked for a little while! :) I guess I just need to do it more often!!)

Good luck with it all & keep us posted! :)
 
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bigcat1967

Well-known member
Good luck to ya. Personally, I never really used a journal - but looking back, maybe I should have.

Just remember to keep consistent doing it every day...you should see improvements.
 
JosephG

JosephG

Well-known member
I'm using it to keep a log of my mood mostly. These are my categories:

Mood Rating: (out of 10)
Anxiety Rating: (out of 10)
Irritability: (out of 10)
Hour Slept on previous night:
Description of mood: (for example: happy, sad, lethargic)
Social Anxiety rating: (out of 10)

Life events: I want to detail any significant that's going on. Like parties, making new friends or receiving exam results.

Irrational behaviour/thoughts/feelings: This is chance to detail stuff I feel I wouldn't have done if I didn't have anything going on with me.

Comment: This is my vent section. To get everything out.


I think the reason I'm doing this is for constructive use. To work out any patterns in my moods and behaviours and try to eliminate things which make me feel worse.
I also want to keep it as a diary because my moods and the way I feel about things always fluctuates. Literally it can change within hours. I can feel anxious in the morning and then fine at lunch and then depressed in the afternoon.
When I see my psych as well I want to show it to him. I feel it will be helpful.


I just want to get on track and be a "normal" person... whatever one of those is! But yeah. I feel this could be helpful to me.
 
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