A mood tracker app allows you to track your mood over time. This can be useful in understanding your mood patterns and determining what factors may be affecting your mood. Mood trackers can be used in conjunction with other tools. Such as journaling, to help you gain insight into your mental health.
How does a mood tracker work?
The process is simple, you record your mood at set times throughout the day and then look at the results to find “triggers”. Triggers are things that could be causing you to have anxiety, clinical depression, or other mood disorders. Disorders such as Bipolar disorder, Cyclothymia, Dysthymia, Major depressive disorder, Persistent depressive disorder, Seasonal affective disorder, or Atypical depression.
The more you use a mood tracker, the more you begin to notice how specific situations trigger specific moods. It boosts your self-awareness, supporting you to adapt your day-to-day decisions.
You can use CareClinic as a mood tracking app which will automatically use your data to help you discover correlations. Aside from this, it can just be used as a simple diary to track and manage your health.
What are the benefits of using a mood tracker app?
A mood tracker can also be used as a simple diary to track and manage your health. By writing about how you feel, you can lessen the cognitive burden and stress of having to keep things in your mind. This should help you feel better overall. Additionally, by tracking your mood over time, you may be able to identify patterns that can help you better understand your mental health.
Many people use a mood tracker as a self-help technique as part of an overall self-care plan. Self-care is an act of taking cautionary steps outside the doctors’ clinic to help yourself.
A recent study indicated that people who engage in self-care report fewer doctor visits, better mental health, and a better quality of life. The study was titled “The Role of Self-Care in Improving Quality of Life.” done by M.Ramdas, D.J.Greenfield, and S.C.Dearing at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The study participants were all members of a health maintenance organization in New England. They completed questionnaires about their health, wellness practices, and quality of life.
Below we show you a quick example of how to get started tracking your mood, writing in your journal, and looking at the results in the Reports section.
How do people track their mood?
The popular ways to track mood changes are by using a paper journal or an app alongside using a feelings wheel or mood map.
What is the feelings wheel or emotion chart?
The feelings wheel is a visual mood-tracking tool that you can use to identify and track your emotions. The outermost circle of the mood chart contains the different emotions that you may be feeling, while the innermost circle indicates the intensity of that emotion. To use the feelings wheel, simply select the emotion(s) that you are feeling and rate the intensity of that emotion on a scale of 1-5. You can select multiple emotions to get a more accurate gauge of your current mood.
The feelings wheel is a great tool to use if you are struggling to identify the emotions that you are currently experiencing. It is also helpful in tracking your mood over time as you can see how your emotions change and fluctuate.
The main 7 moods in this mood chart are:
Happy, Sad, Disgusted, Angry, Fearful, Bad, and Surprised. As an example bad further breaks down into: Bored, Busy, Stressed, and Tired. Try to use this mood chart when explaining your mood to yourself or others.
What is the mood map?
The mood map is another mood charting tool that you can use to track your mood.
The mood map is a grid that is divided into four quadrants:
- The first quadrant is for happy emotions, such as joy, love, and contentment.
- The second quadrant is for negative moods, such as anger, sadness, and fear.
- The third quadrant is for mixed emotions, such as anxiousness and excitement.
- The fourth quadrant is for neutral emotions, such as calmness and boredom.
To use the mood map, simply place an ‘X’ in the quadrant that best represents your current emotion. You can also use the mood map to track your emotions over time by recording your emotions in each quadrant for each day. The mood map is a great tool to use if you are struggling to identify the emotions that you are currently experiencing. It is also helpful in tracking your mood over time as you can see how your emotions change and fluctuate.
Why You Should Use Mood Tracker Apps
A mood tracker can have many benefits and help improve your life in several ways. Below is a list of reasons why you should track your mood using a mood tracker app:
- Using a mood tracker will allow you to connect your feelings to events that happened throughout your day. For example, you may be dealing with an abrupt rush of depressive feelings which leads you to be in a sad mood. After examining, it turns out that a slight problem at work affected you deeply. This may be more so than you could consciously be aware of.
- Logging your mood enables you to be able to see any repetitive patterns in your daily life. When your mood changes, other aspects of your life may be changing as well. You may have strong moods that correspond with working night shifts or irregular shift times. If you notice your mood on Sunday evenings changing, it can potentially be due to anxiety related to going to work the next morning.
- Obtain insight on the specific things you will need to take care of your mental wellness. When you choose to acknowledge the things that you are feeling, you can then understand the things that you will need to take care of. You can view it as a way for you to take an active approach to your mood. Not allowing your negative feelings to instinctively control you.
- Communicating openly with other people in your life. When you are familiar with your emotions, you can identify how other people affect your mood. If you observe that you are experiencing a rush of happiness when you are spending time with a specific friend, you might want to express your appreciation to them or create more occasions for you to spend more time together. If you are experiencing feelings of anger towards someone because they are continuously taking advantage of your kindness, you can consider different ways to make a healthier situation for yourself and inform them of your thoughts as to what you can and can’t provide in the relationship.
- Mood Tracker Apps Aid in a Medical Diagnosis. Mood trackers are useful in understanding your mental health condition. It can also be significantly beneficial for your health care providers. A psychiatrist or therapist can use the symptoms that you are tracking to provide you with a more accurate diagnosis.
The Benefits of Mood Tracking in Therapy and Medication Management
A mood tracker can also enable you and your psychotherapist to keep track of how a specific medication is interacting with your body and whether you may need to alter the dosage amount, the combination of your medication, or possibly the type of medication you are currently taking.
Mood tracking can also be used to monitor your progress in therapy. If you are attending weekly sessions, your therapist can use the information from your mood tracker to help understand how you have been feeling during the week and if there have been any positive or negative changes in your mood since the last session. This will allow them to tailor the content of your therapy sessions to better address your needs.
Medications for mood disorders such as depression or anxiety can take up to six weeks to reach their full effect. A mood tracker can help you and your psychiatrist determine if the medication is working for you and if any changes need to be made to your treatment plan. You may also use the app to determine if you are taking your pills on time and keeping your adherence levels up.
How to get started tracking your mood?
Let’s suppose we came to the journal a few times throughout the day and decided to enter our mood. We could then step back and take a look at Reports (after three entries) and it would produce the following chart:
Diary Entries in a Mood Tracking App
In the case of your well-being, your mood plays an integral part in controlling your energy levels, where your attention is focused, and what actions are being taken. That is why understanding your mood through mood tracking is essential for your overall mental health and well-being.
Using the Diary Entry feature will allow you to write openly about your mood. You will be able to write anything related to your moods like how you are feeling, why you are feeling this way and potential steps you are taking to improve your mood.
An example of this can be seen through Sarah, a 28-year-old with no prior mental illness diagnosis. Sarah has recently been experiencing troubles with her mental health and is unsure why; she starts writing in her mood diary entries of her mood to gain some insight. An example of what she may write is:
‘Woke up feeling okay; Then I got ready for work and started my day. I was reading and responding to my emails when I came across an email from my boss asking me to start a new project. This made me instantly feel overwhelmed because I was already working on three very time-consuming tasks. I focused on getting my work done for the rest of the day. I even had to skip lunch to ensure everything was completed. When I got home, my family wanted me to make dinner. I was feeling so stressed I had to get someone else to make it.’
In this example, it is clear that Sarah’s stress from work carried on into her home life. This is a correlation that might not have been as easily identified if she did not articulate her thoughts and feelings throughout the day.
Using Journal prompts alongside Mood Tracking
You may be the type of person that does not know how to verbalize your mood on your own. You can use the prompts feature as a starting point. This feature will provide you with questions regarding your current situation to get you to think of things that you can write for your entry. For example, if you are experiencing anxiety the prompts will be as follows:
- How do you really feel? (Physically and emotionally)
- What is causing this anxiety in you? Explain in point form.
- Ground yourself by looking away from this anxiety, write about 3 things that make you feel in control
- Stop and take 3 deep breaths slowly with your eyes closed. Now write about 1 thing that makes you happy (Like your puppy, sunny days, hiking, a day at the beach).
If you are experiencing intrusive thoughts, an example of the questions you can use as prompts are as follows:
- I am not feeling great or even upset because?
- My immediate reaction to this situation is?
- To remedy this thought, I need to remind myself that? (Three things that you know for certain are true that you may be overlooking).
- I know that the outcome may not be what I would like but I can look past this for now by thinking about this positive aspect.
Prompts are a good tool to use if you would like to express your feelings through words but do not know where to start. In addition to this, the Diary Entry feature allows you to add pictures to go along with your mood diary entries. These pictures can be used to explain how you are feeling without using words. CareClinic comes built-in with a library of other prompts as well, be sure to try them all.
Mood Data in Reports from Mood Tracker & Mood Diary
Unless you are able to organize, analyze and process the data you are working with effectively on paper, reaching a precise conclusion can be challenging. That is why the CareClinic app will compile all the data that you have input into meaningful charts for easy analysis of your mood over time. CareClinic can provide a lot of insight into your lifestyle and overall health. These reports will display the association among all logged entries. Using the reporting tool will allow you to see all of your inputs at a high level and allow you to view charts and graphs in an easy-to-read format.
Mood tracker charts can be used in aiding your doctor, therapist, or psychiatrist to provide you with a more accurate diagnosis. Mood and anxiety disorders are partially determined by the length of time that you have been experiencing the symptoms. In general, people tend to forget their specific mood variations throughout the day. If you make a point to record how you are feeling during the day by using a mood tracker, it can benefit the identification process and guide a suitable course of therapy or treatment. This also eliminates any sort of recall bias or cognitive burden (just having to remember everything).
Utilizing Mood Tracker Reports for Effective Analysis and Treatment
In correspondence to a treatment plan, your therapist can utilize the data that you collected from your mood tracker to assist you in learning how to manage the feelings you are experiencing. After you recognize the things that are causing you to experience your negative emotions, your therapist will gain a better perspective on ways that can help you acknowledge your negative feelings and combat the situations.
Valuable insights that can be gleaned from a mood tracker report may include:
- The time of day when your mood is most impacted
- What activities or circumstances lead to changes in mood
- How your sleep, diet, and exercise habits impact your mood
- Any patterns or triggers that may be associated with changes in mood
- The overall severity and frequency of symptoms
By gaining a better understanding of the things that influence your mood, you and your therapist can work together to find healthy coping mechanisms and develop a plan to better manage your emotions.
Other App Features
You can log the actual mood you are feeling like “Depressed Mood”, “Anxious Mood”, or “Mood Swings”. Alternatively to that, you can log the side-effects of your mood like “Fatigue”, “Insomnia”, or “Brain Fog” in the diary section or using the factors listed below the mood scale.
Keeping track of how different symptoms are associated with your mood is a great way to better understand what is going on in your head. With the symptom tracker, you will be able to see trends in your mood that you may not notice otherwise.
In the symptom tracker, Sarah may log that she is experiencing stress in the morning. She felt significant stress so she rated it as a 7 out of 10. She will have this log time stamped and in the notes section write the following:
‘The stress I felt came when I saw the email from my boss. He gave me a project I didn’t have time to work on.’
Along with stress, Sarah may log anxiety as she felt this from the same incident. By tracking her symptoms, Sarah was better able to understand the things impacting her overall mood.
- Notes section for all trackers
- Biometric security (Fingerprint or face id)
- Goal settings (monthly or yearly goals)
- Built-in mental health assessments such as: GAD-7, PHQ-9, Mood self-assessment
- Reminders for Medications, Symptom Check, Mood Checks and more
- Integrations with Apple Health/Google Fit, Wearables and Siri
- Modules for storing all health data
- Trackers for managing stool, sleep, nutrition, fitness, therapy, symptoms, medications, and more
- Built-in libraries for more information on exercises and medications
- Customize and personalize the whole app, from trackers to dark mode
- Logs, Charts, Correlations
- Printable Reports
Mood Tracking FAQ’s
Is it better to use a paper journal or an app to track my moods?
Some people prefer to use a paper journal because they find it easier to express their thoughts and emotions in writing. Others prefer to use an app because it is more convenient and they can track their moods over time more easily. Some benefits of using a digital option are:
- You can track moods over time more easily to look for mood patterns using correlations charts for mood in the CareClinic App
- You can share your mood data with your doctor or therapist more easily using the Care Team module in the CareClinic app
- There are often more features and customization options with digital mood tracking apps such as added privacy and security
Can I use it as a bullet journal?
Yes, CareClinic can be used as more than a mood tracker app. CareClinic is often used as a digital bullet journal because it allows you to track and record anything that is important to you. A bullet journal generally has three main sections: a daily log, a monthly log, and a future log. You can use CareClinic to create all of these logs. You can use the app to track your mood, physical health, sleep, diet, exercise, and more.
What is the Factors Tracker feature?
The Factors feature allows you to log and track different aspects of your life that may be impacting your mood. This could include environmental factors and things like sleep, work, school, relationships, and more.
What are some things I should track in addition to my mood?
It can be helpful to track additional information along with your mood, such as:
- The time of day that you are recording your mood because certain times of day may be more likely to trigger certain emotions.
- Your sleep habits because a lack of sleep can impact your mood.
- Any medications or supplements that you are taking because some medications and supplements can cause mood swings, while others can make you feel more stable. It is important to track any medications or supplements you are taking along with your mood to see if there is a correlation.
- Your diet because what you eat can also affect your mood because some foods can provide the nutrients your body needs to feel good while others can make you feel sluggish or irritable.
- Your exercise habits because regular exercise can help improve your mood and reduce stress.
CareClinic provides individual trackers that allow you track and take notes of each individual item alongside tracking your mood to provide you insights.
Will it work if I have bipolar disorder?
If you have bipolar disorder, mood tracking can be an especially valuable tool for you. By tracking your moods and identifying patterns, you can work with your doctor to better manage your disorder. You may find that certain activities, foods, or medications trigger a manic or depressive episode, and by knowing this information you can work to avoid those things. Recording an episode in the CareClinic app can also help you remember the details later when you are discussing it with your doctor.
However, it is important to speak with your doctor or therapist before starting any type of specific tracking because they can help you determine what information would be most helpful for you to track.
Who is this app for?
CareClinic can be used by anyone, from teens to the elderly to track, manage and optimize their mood.
Does it work on Android and Apple iPhones (iOS)?
Yes, CareClinic works on all mobile phones along with the web and can sync between all devices. Many similar apps such as Daylio, Day one journal
Additional prompt templates and ideas to get you started:
- How are you feeling today?
- What emotions are you experiencing today?
- What might have caused your mood to change?
- What activities make you feel happy and why?
- What do you do when you’re feeling down?
- What are some things that make you feel stressed?
- What are some things that make you feel relaxed?
- Are there any patterns you’ve noticed in your mood?
- What are some things you can do to improve your mood?
- Are there any people or situations that consistently affect your mood?
For over 100 more journaling prompts click here.
Managing Anxiety and Guilt
The first step in getting over anxiety from guilt is acknowledging that you feel guilty. Acknowledge your feelings to yourself and try to understand where they are coming from. Once you have done this, you can begin to work on resolving the issues that are causing your guilt. If you know you were wrong and feel guilty then take responsibility for your actions and make amends. If you are unsure about whether you did something wrong or not, try to talk to someone who can help you figure it out. The hardest part may be accepting you were wrong, but this is an important step in getting over anxiety. If you can forgive yourself, it will be much easier to move on.
Often, just talking and journaling about what is causing your anxiety can help to lessen its hold on you. If you are still struggling with anxiety from guilt, there are many resources available to help you work through it. Speak to a therapist or counselor about your feelings and look for support groups in your area. With time and effort, you can learn to overcome anxiety from guilt and move on with your life.
How you can use CBT to improve your mood?
CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy. It is a type of therapy that focuses on changing negative thinking patterns to improve mood and overall mental health. Start by writing down your thoughts and feelings. This can help you to identify any negative or distorted thinking patterns. As well as to track your progress over time. Distorted thinking patterns are often based on inaccurate assumptions. Such as “I always fail” or “People are out to get me.”
Recording Thoughts and Feelings for Self-Reflection
Once you identify these patterns, you can start to challenge and change them. For example, instead of assuming that you will always fail, you could remind yourself that you have been successful in the past. Or, instead of thinking that people are out to get you, you could try to understand their motivations and see them as potential allies.
Eliminating distorted thinking patterns can lead to a more positive outlook on life, which can in turn improve mood and mental health. Other ways of changing distorted thinking patterns are to use positive self-talk, reframe situations in a more positive light, and practice gratitude.
Affirmations are positive statements that you say to yourself in order to challenge negative thinking. For example, if you are feeling down about your job, you could tell yourself, “I am doing my best and I am valuable.” Reframing is another way of looking at a situation in a more positive light. For example, instead of dwelling on the fact that you were passed over for a promotion, you could focus on the fact that you have the opportunity to learn and grow in your current position.
Finally, gratitude is the practice of feeling thankful for the good things in your life. This can help to shift your focus from the negative to the positive. Start by making a list of things you are grateful for. Such as your health, your family, your friends, or your pet. Make sure to add to this list every day. Answering these questions in the CareClinic diary alongside tracking your mood will help you determine what’s working and what’s not.
Use the CareClinic App as a Mood Tracker
CareClinic helps you remain accountable, create healthy habits and share your data with caregivers. CareClinic works as more than a mood tracker app. Additional features to add reminders, trackers, and sharing capabilities make it much more than a simple journal or tracking app. It is wise to use a full solution to track your health like CareClinic then an app just for mood tracking. As it will not provide enough context to make sense of all your health data.
If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us, otherwise, give us a try by clicking here to install the App.
