How to Make Your Own Mood Chart

A mood chart is a tool used by bipolar patients to track the habits that affect their mood. Moods are tracked above a date by making marks above, or below, a baseline that represents a stable mood. Sleep and medications are tracked, along with mood changes, to give you a visual record of how daily habits affect changes in your mood. Being aware of how habits affect your mood will give you the knowledge to better manage manic episodes and bouts of depression.

Things You'll Need

• Ruler
• Pencil
• Graph paper

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Instructions

• 1

  Lay a sheet of graph paper on a flat surface. Lay the paper down horizontally and align the ruler with one of the horizontal lines about four rows up from the bottom of the page.

• 2

  Trace a straight line, using a pencil, along the edge of the ruler. Pencil the number of days inside the graph paper's grid boxes below the line. Begin the days with 1 and continue counting until you reach the last grid box on the page. Write the word "day" to the left of the 1.

• 3

  Lay the ruler on the left side of the graph paper, perpendicular to the day count. Trace a vertical line that meets with the horizontal line. Leave enough room to the left of the vertical line to label your mood scale.

• 4

  Place the ruler along a horizontal line in the middle of the chart. Trace a line along the chart's middle. This is the baseline that represents a stable mood --- that is, feeling normal with no depression and no mania.

• 5

  Label the baseline to the left of the vertical line. Above the baseline's label, write the numbers 1, 2 and 3, with the 3 closest to the top of the page. The numbers above the baseline represent your high moods on a scale of 1 through 3, with the number 3 representing the highest mood. Write another 1 through 3 scale below the baseline in descending order, with the 3 closest to the bottom of the page; this scale represents your low moods.

• 6

  Place the ruler along a horizontal line near the bottom of the page. Underneath the word "day," write "hours slept."

• 7

  Label the row of grid boxes underneath "hours slept" as "medications." Use abbreviations for the medication names, so that they will fit inside the grid boxes. Record the dosage and type of medication received on a daily basis.