There’s a wonderful piece of advice I came across recently that I think works for managing depression:

“You can’t manage what you don’t monitor.” Another way of stating it, “You can’t change what you don’t track”.

But you have to be careful. While you’re monitoring your actions, don’t fall into the habit of thinking too much.

HOW you monitor or track your depression is entirely up to you. If you’re a journaler you can use your journal. My suggestion is that you have a graph so you can see at a glance what is going on. I like a picture, don’t you?

It doesn’t matter how you plan to monitor your progress. What matters if that you do something with the results. Don’t just track your depression. Make use of what you learn.

If you see an “X” on a day meaning, that you had a hard day, you have to know why it was hard. So it might mean you need to have some symbols that indicate how you were thinking, people you were talking to, words you were using….

I realize this might sound overwhelming if you’re feeling really bad. If it does, just do a one-liner each day, like “feeling really crummy today. talked with “Mary” and something she said hurt my feelings”, or “feeling much better today. took a walk and that helped”. You could always put it in a chart later when you’re feeling better.

Trust me I know how hard this will be. But think of it this way, depression is a whole lot harder. You can rely on pills but the issues are still there.

I found this hard to do as well. I’m getting good enough at it that I can track my moods pretty much all the time. I’ve learned my triggers. And that, perhaps, is the biggest reason to track your depression.

Ever since I began this particular blog, depression has been knocking on my door. It seems the closer I get to finishing this book, the harder it knocks. So far, I’ve kept it at bay by using all the tools I’ve developed.

I’m actually a little glad that it’s showing its face again. It keeps everything I’m writing fresh and real for me, therefore, it’s fresh and real for you as well

By tracking your depression, you will learn what triggers your depression.

Are you ready to put all I’ve written into practice?

Get your notebook or a piece of paper ready.

God bless and have a wonderful day.