By learning more about bipolar disorder, you and your family will be able to manage your illness more successfully. If you know how to identify the early warning signs, such as unusually high energy levels, sleeplessness or recurring depression, you can get help faster. You can also help to keep yourself well by understanding how aspects of daily life such as sleep patterns and stressful situations can affect your mood
The mood chart is a useful tool to help you and your doctor monitor your illness. It allows you to bring together information about your daily mood, events happening in your life, sleep patterns and medications you are taking. You may notice patterns emerging which would otherwise be difficult to detect. When you visit your doctor, it will be very helpful for him or her to see how you have been progressing by reviewing your mood diary. Below you can download your mood chart and a sample of an already completed chart (right-click - "save target as" figure to download):
Blank mood chart
Example of a completed mood chart
Instructions for completing a mood chart
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TIPS FOR COMPLETING A MOOD CHART
What is this diary for? Understanding the pattern of your mood symptoms is critical to successful treatment. During a visit with your doctor, trying to remember your symptoms over the past few weeks or months can be difficult, especially if you are ill. By recording your mood daily, you will have much more reliable information to help your doctor decide what treatment is best for your condition. The mood charts in this diary are intended to provide you with a simple way of monitoring your illness. Mood charting will allow you to bring together important pieces of information such as your mood state, medication levels, and stressful events. Recording this information on your chart generates a simple graph on which you can see emerging patterns that otherwise might be difficult to identify. Mood charting is a good way to record events chronologically and will help you to report your mood to your doctor more efficiently. After a few months the mood chart can be a useful tool for looking to the future. Once you begin to track your mood and become accustomed to the chart, you will find it very quick and easy to enter information each day.
