Our easy-to-use mood diary has been designed to help you keep track of your mood over the course of a week. We recommend that you complete a new mood diary each week and keep them together, so that you can track your mood over a period of weeks or months and also so that you can take them to your doctor if you wish.
Recording your comments
The mood diary records a 24-hour time period for each day of the week. This is split into four sections: morning, afternoon, evening and night. Night refers to the period of time when we would usually be asleep, e.g. midnight – 8am. We have included this because sleep problems can be a factor for many people who experience depression. We felt it was important to give you an option to record your sleep patterns and, if you are not sleeping, the impact these have on your mood during the night and whether or not you turn to food at this time.
How do I record my mood?
Continue reading if you suffer from depression or are unsure if you have a mood disorder. Click here for instructions if you have bipolar disorder.
We suggest that opposite the word ‘mood’, you can either use words (e.g. agitated, low, quite well, etc.) or a number to describe how you feel. If you choose to use a number scale, then we recommend following this guide:
0 Feel okay, no feelings of depression
-1 Have some symptoms of depression, but able to function normally
-2 Struggling with symptoms of depression, some impact on ability to function
-3 Low, very limited to function
-4 Very low, feeling hopeless, not able to function, the worst-ever depression
You can also record your food (and drink) intake during each time period, and also note your activities, e.g. ‘took a walk’, ‘watched TV’, ‘slept on the sofa’.
Getting Started
You can print the mood diary directly from here if you have a printer attached to your computer (simply click on the document link below, choose ‘Open’ and then ‘Print’). You can then record your mood information on the printed diary.
If you’d prefer to download the document (either to print off pages as you need them or fill in your mood information on-screen), just click on the document link below, select ‘Save’ and then save the file to your computer.
Click here to print or save our Mood Diary template.