Lived Experience Forum

[Loopus]

Hell-oh BPD forums, how are we? Good to hear. I'm a bit iffy today, up and down, but it's good. How do I know that?

It's a bit... gory. Sorry, that should be G.O.R.Y...B.

I've been tracking my moods in various different ways over the past few months - a great app called emoods, a whiteboard and markers, a scale of 1-10. But I've realised that I can't stay with those because it takes too much work. Im a visual person, and a visual learner. So Ive started using different coloured cells in a spreadsheet - no columns, just filling the sheet with colours, of the different emotions I feel at different times (either whenever I notice, but always at 12 midday and an average of the day before bed). 

I use gory colours (heh. Not going to get old.) - Green (jealousy and abandonment), Orange (Chirpy and happy), Red (Anger), Yellow (anxious) and Blue (sad). This way I can get a lovely rainbow of colours that kinda charts my head. It looked really pretty when i did it on paper - so this will be cool.

My question - do we track our moods? If so, how do you do it? Do you think it has benefits?

(PS Any other acronym for GORYB would be appreciated. Best I have is BORGY, but Im Star Wars not a Trekky 😛 )

[Appleblossom]

Hello @Loopus

I love your post and your wordplay.

I sometimes draw and use colour in an art book.

I am much more aware of colour in the last 5 years.

I agree with you. Colour has many applications and great capacity for healing. 

Welcome to the forum

Apple

[Lunar]

Hello @Loopus

What a fantastic thing to be doing, I think we could all use time to reflect on our moods and find better ways of expressing how we are feeling. It is not easy finding the right words to describe your mood, so instead using colours is much more helpful.

There is a great thread by @Crazy_Bug_Lady that discusses a mood journal called: Daily Mood Journal

And another thread by @mrkotter that discusses a similar mood app: Mood tracker app suggestions please

We recently did an activity where we chose cute looking bear stickers to help describe how we were feeling, it helped to take the focus off myself and more to this cute looking bear, so I felt more comfortable describing the difficult and uncomfortable feelings.

Luar 🙂

[Loopus]

Oooooh, will definetely check out the app one today! Thanks Lunar!

[Queenie]

I don't use an app as such @Loopus, however my Mrs and I have devised a traffic light system to track wellness (I guess moods could come under that umbrella). 

Green is obviously everything is cruisy and well.

Yellow means I am in need of a bit of support from her and perhaps the GP.

Red means my world is crashing and I need immediate help from my doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist and most likely require a hospital admission.

I have these colours as post-it notes and am able to leave one affixed to a door or wall without having to say anything else. Sometimes when I am acutely unwell I have a habit of becoming a little catatonic at times, so this works well.

[Loopus]

Brilliant system! My bipolar friend has a hat she wears when she's not ok, and a song she puts on or hums when she needs a bit of support. That way, their partner (who is also her spotter) can tell without them overtly saying how they are, which can be good for anxious and public situations

[utopia]

@Loopus. I think mapping our moods can be very beneficial. I noticed my moods were dropping every fortnight & we worked out that its to do with my hormones from peri menopause.
Tracking moods to compare with activities you have just done, people you have been around, food you have eaten, etc - that's good mental health care.
If we can see a pattern emerge, we may be able to reduce the next flair up.

[Former-Member]

@Loopus @outlander @Former-Member @Sans911 @Shaz51 @eudemonism

I like this & relate to in my reply to some Posts I usually choose pink text for feminine response & red for making a strong point response Yellow for Happy disposition Blue for cool & calm, green for Nature & Black for not wanting to be more important than my reason for the responding message. Purple for a high respect for this person. Amazing I am so used to responding in colour sellectives that it's second nature to me now? I'm now wondering if the receivers of my posts realise my colour codes??? 🙂

Bella xo 🙂

[outlander]

What an interesting topic! @Loopus


@Former-Member i just thought you were doing it cause you can not for a particular reason..

[Former-Member]

@outlander
Hey, Precious I am so used to just choosing the colours I did not give it thought that no one else would not have that insight?...... How AMAZED I was to find this Thread!  Now you know, don't you! 😉 I'm smiling at you here 🙂

My Love 2 U !