found this info topic about patient life charting (in the bipolar room) .
this sounded interesting to me.
now i'm wondering, would it make sense, to try to chart life, or episodes, or events/triggers, for unipolar depression too? i've always had problems to tell a (new) doc in 10 minutes time "what's wrong with me".. or to remember when was what, when which changes occured, ...
is this life charting specifically useful for bipolar disorders (only?)? is it different for when 'just depressed'? mood, episodes or triggerin events, over the years, to plot them, would it help? or help docs to get what's been happening? (well not only depression for me, ptsd as well.) or maybe is there different life charts for unipolar? wondering..

any thoughts on this?
has anyone done this life charting? how does it help?

mynah

I think that charting your moods when you have unipolar depression is an excellent idea.  Did you see the link in the bipolar room (http://www.moodtracker.com)?  I've been using it and it gives you space to write notes.  This would be an excellent area to chart what is going on during the day, identify triggers, thoughts, patterns . . . I say go for it!  It definitely can't hurt - your doctor(s) may find something hidden in your mood pattern and help you better.

Go for it!

Hey Mynah--

I've kept a chart for seven months since my unipolar depression began.  It's been pretty useful for charting out patterns and progress with my meds.  (or lack thereof)  When I go into the pdoc's office, it's a lot easier to remember when I felt like s***e and when I felt okay.  I even use a highlighter to show how I feel worse in the morning than in the afternoon/evening.  I definitely recommend charting yourself.  If I relapse in a few years, I'll know for sure what worked and when.  Good luck!

thanks a lot Kim and Dan! thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.
so, seems to make a lot of sense to try this. true, it can't hurt. and sure would be useful to read in later hard times what has helped before.
have to admit i didn't usually read in the bipolar room. didn't see that other link. i'll check it out! :)

mynah,
Happy to see you back.

The Life Charting can work for anyone to use. You can turn it into a journal or diary of daily or weekly up, down or normal times. You can put in your daily accomplishments or what you wanted to do but couldn't. Make comments regarding the unaccomplished activities and how you could avoid whatever makes you not to start or complete the task. How would you make yourself get more motivated. You can take this when you go to the pdoc if you forget or get tongue-tied when wanting to ask questions or tell about what happened to you between visits. It's an excellent idea to keep a life chart. It will help you and the pdoc to understand more about you.

thanks sheepwoman :)

i'm trying for now, but just 'the basics'. mood.
the more detailed charting feels too overwhelming for me right now. i'm kind of at the point of 'just managing to get up plus get showered', and already exhausted again.
i see how it makes sense to chart different things, note them, and also think it could be helpful for future doc visits. (i guess when i've found a doc who is interested in details.)
the MoodTracker site too, had a look at it now, i like it, easy to see what's going on, with the graph it gives. and some space for notes too.
have to admit, when i first posted, i also had those ideas in the back of my mind, what i had read about life charting, of 'charting backwards'. like what had been when, over the last years, per month. i decided not to think too much about this now. i do think it would make sense for me, but it is too much work for now, and a bit delicate for me to 'go back to triggering events', in my thoughts. enough already going on now and here.
next week i'll be going to hospital, inpatient therapy. i had also thought it could be helpful to show such a chart. sure it could be helpful. but too much for now. i'll have to find other ways to communicate what's been going on. i hope they'll take the time (and give me the time) for me to 'find my words' and do the tell...
i still like the idea of showing such a mood chart, to a T or doc who's interested, maybe with some comments(diary), and also to use it to see what works and what not and when and why... for now i just do what i can. it can grow with time. i think i'll do more of charting, maybe more detailed too, either in hospital (if they think it a good / useful tool) or when i'm back.
thanks y'all for your input on this.

(((((((((((Mynah))))))))))
Wishing you well on your upcoming hospital stay. I also hope they give you some good coping skills.

I found when I was too exhausted to do anything, I would add one more thing to my daily activities. The more I did and accomplished, the better I began thinking about myself. What a surprize it was to find out I could do something other than sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I have slipped a bit backwards in the past month, but I am again self-motivating to return to the higher level of functioning. I get up between 5 & 6 AM everyday. An old habit from when I was working and it doen'y seem to want to change. I go with the flow.

Whether or not the hospital approves of your charting, continue to do it. You will begin to see patterns that you are falling into and give you the opportunity to work on correcting them. You know that you have to do most of the work to improve yourself and your life. Good luck,
Sheepwoman

What I did to track my moods for a while so that I could show the doctors, and try to figure if there were certain things that triggered me, and how long "episodes" of being happy/sad were by colouring the day of the week on a calender in a colour that corresponded with my mood.
   Dark Blue=Very Depressed
   Light Blue=Depressed
   Green=Neutral
   Yellow=Happy
I also had letters that corresponded to certain things...unfortunatly such as SI (self Injured) A-Anxiety S-Sick-physically etc...I also charted the phases of the moon and when I had my period...since those can affect mood too. I wanted to see any patterns.
  What I noticed as I do cycle...I tend to go for periods of a few weeks in a certain state. I also saw that weekends were really bad for me, and that PMS seemed to skip a month and hit me really hard every other month.
  It was easy, 'cause I just set the pencil crayons by my bed, and coloured the day in before I went to sleep. It also made it easy to see the patterns when I looked at it over a long period of time.
 Maybe you could do something like that...
Misfit