First Visit Task

[Wonderlands]

Hi everyone,

I visited my therapist for the first time and after the session she told me she wants me to keep a diary and check in with it at least 3 times a day with how I'm feeling and how I think that feeling happened. It's going to honestly be hard to get the motivation and not put off checking in.

I also am unsure if I should check in around the same time a day with whatever I'm feeling at that point in time, or whether to record strong feelings and changes in emotion/feeling... Not sure what will be most effective.

Does anyone else keep a diary for this reason? How does yours work and do you feel it's been beneficial so far for you? What's your experience so far? How do you keep yours?

[JessF]

Hello Wonderlands, I've done this process before. There are even apps you can get on your phone that will ping to remind you to check in and rate your mood. The idea is to get you more aware of your thoughts and feelings, so they're less automatic, and help you become aware of the good as well as the bad. When we're depressed and anxious, we can disproportionately focus only on the bad and discount the times when we're feeling good. This is why I don't believe it's a good idea to only write down when you're feeling strong feelings, because it will be a biased account. If it were me, I would be setting an alarm for three set times and do my check in then.

Can I ask why you think it will be hard to stay motivated to do this? That in itself might be a feeling worth putting down in your diary.

[Wonderlands]

Hi JessF, thank you for your reply!

That's an increadibly good point, I don't want to be bias at all. So with the three checkins I'm to note how I'm feeling at that exact point in time? Rather than reflect what's happened in the past few hours?

I have a tendency to procrastinate and put things off which effects my motivation. Despite it being such a simple task (even with the simplicity and convenience of using an app), it seems huge to me.
I expressed this concern with my therapist and she said that feeling is a good opportunity to put in the diary as to explain why I feel like putting it off etc

[JessF]

That's how I would have interpreted it, but I would check with your therapist to make sure you're on the same page with it. The benefit of sticking to those times and recording when you're feeling good is that you'll start to see patterns of when you're feeling good and not so good. It's a reminder that feelings ebb and flow, otherwise there can be a tendency to reflect back on the week with a negative lens and think you've been feeling awful the whole time. It's very rarely true, and if you can find those times when things were going well, focusing on those and trying to replicate those moments is like watering a new plant, eventually it will grow.

[Wonderlands]

It makes complete sense how you explained it. More than likely it's what she wishes. I will find out however in a few weeks time when I see her again.

Thank you 🙂