What about a mood diary? (female problems?)?
Question:
When's the best time of the day to fill out a mood diary? I mean, my mood isn't always the same day through night, when it's bad. I just think it might be a good idea to keep something like that before seeing a doctor (I'm living in a developing country right now and it's not possible to see someone until I move back home, may as well do something productive until then. Mood has been a problem for the last 10 years at least. I wait, but it's not going away)
Excercise, changing my diet and positive thinking only helps so much. It's a problem that effects everything including my marriage! I think I need meds!! Help!
Answers:
Mood diaries are typically filled out at the end of the day so that you can look back on the day and list the times that were particularly bad or good for you. But the problem I had with it is that I often couldn't remember the times and triggers, etc. So what I did was keep a small note pad with me during the day and jot down quick things. So let's say that you start to feel really anxious, write down the time of day and how anxious you're feeling on a scale of 1-10. Also try to write down what happened just before you began feeling anxious, even if it was just something small. This is called the trigger and it can be helpful to figure out what these triggers are and see if there is a pattern. After you've taken your notes for the day you can then write them down in more detail or you can fill out a chart. This site has a blank mood chart diary (pdf version) if you want to take a look. http://www.psychiatry24x7.com/bgdisplay.
As you're saying it could also be physiological in nature but even so, keeping this type of diary can be helpful for a physician and for a therapist. I have bipolar disorder and my period and perimenopausal stuff can really aggravate the bipolar symptoms so it may be possible that you have an underlying mood disorder and your hormone fluctuations are making it worse. It's sounds like you've been dealing with this way too long and so I suggest that you keep the mood diary like I suggested and also list any diet changes that you make and anything that seems to affect your moods in a negative or positive way. Then when you get home have a complete physical to rule out any underlying medical condition such as a thyroid problem and show your doctor the diary that you've kept. I'm sure it will be very helpful for them. Your doctor may end up referring you to a psychiatrist to get a further diagnosis of any psychological disorders.
I wish you all the best, take care
Good Idea? No, excellent idea! Hey, why didn't I think of that!
If I hadn't just recently discovered YouQA.com s I too might have thought that my every mood swing was an isolated incident and that it suggested that I really had a problem. Now I'm discovering that the kind of thing that I experience, (that I had formerly thought was rare and very much out of the ordinary), is much more commonplace than I had ever imagined.
Why are you letting this get you down? It only happens when your pre-menstrual, so you know it's reactionary. It only reflects how it makes you feel about yourself. It's a guilt trip. The more you react, the worst you feel. And you're going to react. Your defenses are down and you're not having your best day. I do the same thing and I have to constantly remind myself. It's a downward spiral. The best you can hope for is to stay level-headed and objective the remind yourself "I'm getting my period." Don't analyze it. Don't analyze how badly it makes you feel about yourself, you're all ready spinning out of control. Get off the merry-go-round, write it down and tell yourself, "I'm doing it again and it's making me crazy." And let it go.
Your smart enough to think you need to be objective. Act on it. Go for it, girlfriend. I do the same thing and I tell myself, "I'm doing it again." And I don't care what it is or how bad it is, it's all the same thing. You are not neurotic, you're tripping on it and it's dragging on and on and it's making you feel worse. How bad do you have to feel before you just stop? Write that down and ask yourself next time you start your period.
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