Mental health: Coping with stress

Have your mood states been varying significantly from day to day or maybe even hour to hour? Do you find yourself happy and content one day, anxious the next, followed by a day of feeling anger or sadness? If so, you may be like many people right now. This fluctuation in mood is also something I hear described regularly in therapy.

It can be common to experience mood variance when going through significant changes  or in the wake of a loss or transition. While we are experiencing significant stress or feeling overwhelmed it can be tough to contact consistent mood states as we attempt to adjust to so much at once. In these moments it can make sense to seek professional help

to regain a sense of clarity and perspective on mood states. Paradoxically, it can be useful to get your bearings by noticing more of what you are feeling rather than working hard to control your emotions or mood state.

Mood tracking is often used in therapy as a way to tune in more effectively to feelings, thoughts, and impulses. This can be effective in a number of ways including facilitating awareness of

the impermanent nature of our feelings, even the ones that convince us they are absolutely true and never leaving. Mood tracking can reveal patterns in our own behavior and how those patterns might correlate with other aspects of our daily life. For example, am I more angry on days when I’m participating in certain activities? Do I feel sadness following really enjoyable or positive experiences? Mood states don’t always follow patterns or a clear rhyme or reason so the more data we can gather about our experiences the better.

Mood tracking can happen in a variety of ways, and I encourage finding a way that makes the most sense for you. In therapy sometimes we use worksheets or tracking logs  to

capture information in the moment the mood shift becomes noticeable to document the following: 
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1. ​the feeling, 
2. the events taking place at the time, 
3. sensations we might be feeling in the body, and 
4. thoughts we are having. ​​​

This can all be a valuable way to tune into our experience and approach our shifts in mood and attitude with more curiosity and less judgement. I realize that even with many helpful resources and coping strategies at my disposal my mood state is not entirely in my control and especially not during times of crisis when so many things are up in the air and uncertain.

How mood tracking can be beneficial:

1. Gain valuable input on your own internal landscape, thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
2. Learn to see feeling states as temporary even when they feel permanent and unchanging.
3. Learn to spot variance and nuance in your own feelings that can assist in finding ways out of unwanted patterns and habitual behavior.
4. Track if mood shifts correlate with other events, substance use, or medications.
5. Assist in learning how to communicate feelings and mood shifts when they occur to other people

How do I track my mood?

1. There’s an app for that: There are many useful ways technology can assist with efforts to track mood. Two apps I know of that may be useful are: MoodMapper and ThoughtDiary.
2. Worksheets exist online for mood tracking and you can research all the many options to see what might make the most sense to you personally.
3. Working with a therapist and obtaining resources from them to track mood and process experiences.
4. Use a notebook or journal for less formal exploration.​

A note on my own mood in the wake of COVID-19:
Mood shifts are common enough but during current world circumstances mood shifts might be experienced more often or with more intensity. As I track my own mood I recognized 

• a day feeling content and accepting 
• followed by a day feeling anxious and behind on everything
• followed by a day feeling angry about the responses of others to the current pandemic and the limitations I don’t want to accept
• followed by a day feeling discouraged and hopeless
• followed by a day feeling excited and inspired by opportunities I am imagining. 

All this in less than one week! Prior to the pandemic I was able to have a more generalized awareness of my mood but with the changes occurring so frequently right now I’m finding that taking my emotional pulse more often and mapping my new internal landscape is useful.