Syndicated from the Bipolar Blog

In a previous post entitled “Is Your Current Bipolar Medication/Therapy Working?” we recommended filling out a form prior to your doctor’s visit to provide detailed information on the effectiveness and possible side effects of your current treatment plan. I think this form is a great tool, and I would love to have patients bring me something this detailed, but if the form seems a little overwhelming, you may prefer a simpler approach – keeping a daily mood calendar.

Banks, real estate brokers, and other businesses often hand out free pocket calendars, or you can pick up a small calendar at your local office supply store. Every day, jot down a number from 1 to 5 that best represents your mood (1 is depressed, 5 is manic, 3 is middle of the road).

The reason I recommend this mood tracking method to my patients is that it’s very easy to do, and it enables them to walk into their next appointment with a complete record of how they were feeling throughout the month. It’s often very hard to remember the entire month before the visit – usually people are just thinking of the last couple of days or weeks at most.

Now, when you step into your doctor’s office and she asks how you’ve been feeling since your last visit, you’ll really have some valuable information to share!

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  Kathleen Hardy at 2:40 pm on December 3rd, 2008

I am an obese woman who weighed 500lbs. in 2005 and am 355 lbs. at the present time. I lost weight on my own and have been at my present weight since 2007. I have been under a lot of stress in this last year relating to my financial situation and instead of binge eating the way I use to, I now waffle between over eating (but not binging), and not eating for long periods until I’m too hungry not to eat. I don’t want to be doing either of these. Before I gained my weight I would exercise my stress away and hope to get to that point again but I know it won’t happen overnight. I am considering seeing a therapist except for two things; I am the kind of person who needs to know a person before I confide in them and that is unlikely to happen with a therapist , and more importantly to me, I wouldn’t want my seeing a therapist to be something that my employers or anyone else would have knowledge of. I’ve heard that if you do see a therapist , that your record follows you . Could you please explain to me to what degree does anyone have access to this type of information without my consent?
Thank you in advance.

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“Keeping a Simple, Daily Mood Calendar”

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    Last reviewed: 25 Nov 2008