Gathering the evidence - using an Activity Diary

As I’ve said in an earlier blog, what we do affects how we feel. That seems pretty obvious, right? Taking a dog for a walk or playing with a friendly cat makes us feel a bit different then sitting in a meeting at work. Playing a game of badminton, or football, or catching up with friends has us feeling differently then mopping a floor or doing the dishes.

Our mood changes all the time during the course of a typical day, but it can be hard to notice these changes or remember any difference, particularly if we have depression and everything is a bit numb. 

One of the tools we can use in counselling to help demonstrate this is an Activity Diary (which you can download here).

What that asks us to do is gradually complete a sheet which covers a full week with each day broken into two hour slots. For each of the slots, we are asked to note a short description about what we were doing and one word that describes our mood with a % score for how intensely we’re feeling that (e.g Watching tv, sad 50%).

For each activity we’re also asked to rate each activity out of ten in three areas; your sense of Achievement (A0 - 10), your sense of Closeness to others (C0 - C10), and sense of Enjoyment (E0 - E10).

An example entry might be: “reading a book, sad 40%, E5”, or “catching up with friends, sad 30%, C6, E7.” 

After completing the sheet for a full week, this gives us a lot of evidence to work with and it’s there in black and white. It’s an excellent opportunity to see any patterns of mood, and how particular activities affect how you feel. If you're doing nothing that boosts your mood or supports you, there it is too, and this can be really powerful.

We can then take action and work on building in more of the activities that give you a sense of Achievement, Closeness and Enjoyment and make meaningful changes that will help you along the road to recovery in counselling.

Why not give it a go yourself and see what you discover? How does what you're doing day to day influence your own mood?

If you would like to talk to me about working on your mental health, you can complete the online submission form or contact me directly at: mckellarCBT@gmail.com