Hello/newbie/technology

[Bat_Girl]

Hello this is my first post. I just started looking at this site yesterday, as I'm ready to seek more info and community.

Am 43 and have just a few months of 'working diagnosis' bi polar 2, and medication. (Anti depressant and mood stabiliser).

I've been reading about bipolar but it only just dawned on me that there's as much expertise in individuals and lived experience as there is in 'fact sheets.'

Thus, a bi polar blog search. And wha la! Here I am, reading last night many, many stories of 'mature diagnosis' bi polar.

I'm very grateful for my life so far and the experiences I've had, but I also can't believe the profound difference medication has made for me in the last few months. 20+ years of roller coaster with beautiful highs and agonising lows. It's definitely a whole new world now and I'm generally feeling good, calm, and very curious how things play out in time.

That was Hello. And it leads me to technology. I'm particularly interested if anyone has experience in using modern tech/apps for mental health. I'd like to be able to track moods, themes of thought patterns and dreams, diet and exercise/general health, major 'events' (be they inner or outer world) including conflicts/traumas. Hormones.... No doubt the list could go on. If no such app exists, it can and should I'm sure!!

I do journal (haphazardly) but would dearly love a more simple way to track things (even to produce graphs/reports of trends!) as I feel it would be a huge insight/tool to understanding self.

Any tips? Thoughts? Who's tech savvy?? (Not me) 😁

Thank you community and Beyond Blue for the space.

[blondguy]

Hello Bat Girl

Welcome to the forums and what an inspirational post too!

I am a tech head (not an expert though) I understand where your situation and its great that you have found a happy medium after starting to take meds. Thats excellent progress to have found some peace away from the roller coaster ride you have been on

This is my 34th year with initial chronic anxiety followed by depression...I didnt wake up and smell the roses and take meds until after 13 years of denial and thinking I could self improve. I was great to have some 'middle' ground without the super lows by starting the meds

There are some great apps that people will post about Bat Girl. Im sorry that none come to mind right now.

Just for my own depression and meds....I see my GP every 4 weeks and he keeps track of my progress/gives me a fine tune if I need one

Im 58 and use Dr Claire Weekes book (Self help for your nerves) as an aid for ongoing self healing. (Low Tech!)

She is the psychiatrist I am aware of that has written about her depression and anxiety illness

There are many gentle people on the forums that can be here for you like they have been for me in the last two years. There are also many people who have found the forums a healing tool to help us understand/heal ourselves through other people's experience with depression Bipolar and anxiety issues

Great to have you as part of the Beyond Blue forum family Bat Girl 🙂

My Kind thoughts for you

Paul

[romantic_thi3f]

Hey Bat Girl,

Welcome and good to have you here!

I appreciate you joining us and sharing your story! I'm really glad to hear that after lots of ups and downs you are doing well and I hope that you enjoy being apart of these forums.

I'm going to go straight to your question since this is going to be a long answer -

Moods

My go-to mood tracking app is called MoodNotes. I've tried a fair few but this is my far my favourite and I also get to see the trends which I know is something you said you're looking for. Simple layout. The great thing about this app is that you can write as much or as little as you like. It's specifically designed with CBT in mind - which means that it encourages you to write down your thoughts and reframe them into positive or more realistic type thoughts. So this is where the 'themes of thought patterns' come in.

Diet

As far as diet goes, I currently use YouAte - which is a photo based eating app. The idea is that you take a photo or write down what you eat and mark it as on path or off path. You decide which. There is no calorie counting. But there is also no data tracking.

FitnessPal is hugely popular as well as EasyDietDiary. These both show trends/data over time. EasyDietDiary I find works really well because it's based out of Australia so the foods are very simple to add.

Health

As for general health, MediSafe is one of my favourites. For a medication reminder app it is lifesaving (literally) - but it also has ways to input and track measurements like cholesterol, waist circumference, weight, glucose, mood, bowel movement level, pain level, peak flow, basal body temperature, sexual activity, spotting, blood pressure, pulse and temperature! It also has a notes section.

Hormones

As for Hormones, I also use Clue. This for me is purely just a period tracker however you can add a lot of detail as well;- flow, pain, mood, sleep, energy, cravings, digestion, skin, stool, social, exercise, meditation, party, sex, temperature and hair! Overtime it also starts to make predictions through your tracking, as well as show graphs and trends of how things are.

Okay - this is quite a list! I'm a big of a tech-nerd, but hopefully this has been useful to you! Feel free to ask any questions. I use iOS so I'm not familiar with how many of this might be on Android.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Bat_Girl]

Thank you so much.

This is very helpful!!!

I will check them out and trial etc... So much appreciated. I am not techy at all but am resolved to make more effort because I see it's wonderful usefulness!

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Bat Girl,

You're so welcome! Thank you for your reply! 🙂

I hope that you have some luck with them and feel free to post again if you're having any difficulties!

The other couple of things that I thought I'd mention is that often the local library have crash courses on technology; this can be really useful. I'm not sure how techy you are, but the library caters for absolute beginners who have never touched a computer! So if you're feeling overwhelmed this can be a great place to start.

and finally.. if technology doesn't work for you - that's okay too! I know that your priority is to track things and you can still do this with a journal. A lot of people use bullet journals; using graphs to help see some of the bigger picture.

If you're interested in this, you could click here - https://www.buzzfeed.com/annaborges/mental-health-trackers?utm_term=.soDMY5DZg#.dk3wQWvge

This site is BuzzFeed so not credible at all but I'm linking to it so you can get an idea of what other people find helpful for them. That way you know that techy or not-techy, there are lots of ways to help give you what you're looking for.

Best of luck!