4 ms·

I think it's good to track mood swings, because it makes you notice them. After a while it makes you call out your own BS.

• Noaidi 8mo ago
  As someone with Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar Type, if you are not diagnosed with a mood disorder, tracking "swings in you mood" when you have no clinical disorder seems like a disorder of its own. I have had people tell me they were "manic". Then I showed them videos I took when I was manic and they see what I mean when I tell them they are not manic. We have come to a place where we do not want even normal fluctuation in mood, and that is a illness of its own, but it is a cultural illness.
  • Ajedi32 8mo ago
    Maybe for some it's a lot more extreme than for others, but even if it's not so dramatic as to be categorized as a mental illness wouldn't you want to know if, say, there were a direct correlation between whether you went for your morning run and your mood later in the day?
    • Noaidi 8mo ago
      Is this something that needs to be tracked to bring into your awareness? We have a memory storage device sitting on top of our spine. When I drink I feel drunk. Easy. If the change is noticeable you will notice it and remember it. I am just trying to save you time and escape the cycle of "optimizations" which is where all this data logging leads.
      • nicbou 8mo ago
        Yes? As I wrote, the mere act of writing down your feelings forces you to acknowledge them and see patterns in them. Sometimes while writing something down I realise "wait, I've been through this before" or "every time this person is around, I feel this way". It helped me be more self-aware, for my own good. It turns out that our memory storage device uses a very lossy form of compression. Memories get simplified and distorted over time. Heck, I can't even remember when something started hurting, so how should I notice a year-long pattern of thinking around a certain topic?
  • nicbou 8mo ago
    The message here was "journaling is a useful form of introspection". > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
• j_bum 8mo ago
  Strongly agree with this. I’ve been using Apple’s “mood” log for about two years now, and it is extremely helpful for me to have a concrete view of the history of my general affect. “This entire month I’ve been feeling good, I want to pinpoint why,” or “it’s clear since stressor X entered my life, my affect is lower; how can I resolve this?” These long term trends are harder for me to track without data. It might be easy for others, but not me!