Understanding your mood helps you in better managing them and feeling better. You will be able to control your lifestyle choices better, make informed health decisions, prevent or avoid negative mood triggers, and work for a better quality of life if you are more aware of your moods. Keeping track of your emotional rhythms is an effective way to maintain your mental health.
Using a mood tracker app is a perfect way for people who have a mental illness to track their symptoms. If you maintain a good record of your symptoms, you will learn a lot about yourself and your disease, which will help you take better care of yourself. There are also other advantages of mood trackers that you might not be aware of.
1. Recognize Your Triggers
One of the advantages of a mood tracker is that you will be able to identify the causes. People with PTSD will benefit from knowing their causes to prevent circumstances that may lead to a severe episode.
People who suffer from anxiety should learn their causes to avoid circumstances that may lead to a panic attack or anxiety attack. If you can’t escape the situation, you can learn how to plan for it by creating safe coping strategies. So, how can mood monitoring assist you in identifying your triggers? You can relate your moods to events that happened during the day and record them every day. This activity will make it easier for you to see what causes your mental disorder, allowing you to know which circumstances to avoid or approach with caution.
2. Identifying Outside Factors Contributing to Your Symptoms
Many suffering from mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other conditions may not always be aware of what is causing their sadness or anxiety. Often it’s just a chemical imbalance, but other factors in your life can also play a role in your mental health.
Watching your everyday moods, like recognizing a cause, allows you to compare your moods to the places you go, the things you engage in, and the people you see. If all of these causes are correlated with a poor mood, this likely is what’s causing some of your depression and anxiety.
Then, using your mood tracker, see if your symptoms change when you avoid doing something that may be causing your depression or anxiety.
3. Increase the Accuracy of Your Diagnosis
Mood trackers are beneficial to both you and your mental health services in identifying your mental health condition. A doctor may use your symptoms to make a more precise diagnosis, allowing them to give you the best care possible.
A mood tracker app will also help you and your doctor figures out how well a drug is working and whether you need to change the dosage, mix of medications, or even the type of medication you’re taking. Similarly, your psychiatrist will use the information from your mood tracker app to help you learn how to manage your emotions. Your psychologist will know precisely how to help you understand and combat your negative emotions because you know what’s triggering them.
A mood tracker might be a lifesaver if you’re having trouble recognizing your mental condition and controlling your symptoms. Serenity Mental Health Centers has developed a printable mood tracker that our patients can use in their planners, papers, or even hang up in their homes. If you’re able to take control of your mental condition by keeping track of your moods, you can download and print it for free. If you’d rather keep track of your symptoms electronically, there are several free and paid phone applications that will enable you to keep track of your moods and even export them to a spreadsheet. You can also make your mood tracker in a bullet journal if you like getting in touch with your creative side.
Keeping track of your moods can be done in various ways; finding one that works for you and sticking with it. You’ll be shocked by how well it can assist you.