How to Calculate Diminishing Depression

For individuals who suffer from depression, it is important to calculate the severity and note the improvement when depression is diminishing. Diminishing depression can indicate the effectiveness of psychotherapy and or medication that is being used to treat the depression. It is important to have some useful techniques to measure diminishing depression to use as a gauge in one's recovery. These techniques can be used daily, weekly or monthly to measure the rate of diminishing depression.

Things You'll Need

• Journal

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Instructions

Instructions

• 1

  Record your thoughts and feelings in a journal throughout your period of depression. Prior journal entries can be used to reflect signs of diminishing depression when compared with your current mood.

• 2

  Use online resources to evaluate your depression. The University of Maryland Medical System has developed a depression calculator consisting of questions to evaluate the severity of your depression.

• 3

  Ask close family members and friends you trust if they have noticed changes in your depression. Sometimes getting an objective opinion can give insight otherwise overlooked.

• 4

  Develop your own scale to evaluate your depression, with one being no depression and five being severely depressed; evaluate your progress daily. Document results in your journal. As depression diminishes, you should notice trends of lower scores throughout your entries.