Tough Day Today

I'm forecasting catastrophe at work, and really being hard on myself.  Things are tenuous with my budget and I keep hitting myself with should statements in regards to being more proactive toward this project.  I'm not sure anything I could have done would have helped, but I keep thinking that I should have done things differently.  I think there's some labeling going on in which I tell myself that I'm a wimp for not being more aggressive in managing some parts of my project.  However, know that I'm not a wimp and think that label is just being driven by emotional reasoning.  I'll keep challenging these thoughts and do my best to keep them in check.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Today Wasn't That Bad

So I had these forecasts of things not going well, and when I checked my e-mail sure enough there was an issue on Friday that I had to address today.  However, even though the issue is still not totally resolved it wasn't that bad.  Yes I have a budget issue, but I do believe I'll work it out in the near future.  So what have I done about this?  I've been reflecting back on my day, visualizing myself at my desk and reviewing the e-mails, and thinking about how things actually went.  The issue I had wasn't that bad, and the rest of the stuff was either pretty good or simply neutral.  Know what?  I try to capture this as an event, only and event that went pretty well rather than an event that didn't go well.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com.  I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Getting Ready for Monday

I took this past Friday off, so I'll have lots of e-mail in my in-box tomorrow.  Being me, I have these thoughts of learning that the stuff hit the fan when I was gone.  However, I'm getting better at challenging these thoughts for some specific items.  What  I mean by that is I can challenge specific thoughts such as my project has overrun its budget or the project has been canceled.  I know I do a good job of monitoring the project and have many things I can bring up as evidence of good monitoring.  Good monitoring reduces the probability of either of these things happening out of the blue.  In preparation for tomorrow I set some goals and will assess the project's status first thing in the morning.  There's a couple of things regarding my project that have me anxious but I won't go into those on this blog.  Suffice to say I expect to work through both items this week, and either they will go as planned or they won't.  If they don't go as planned, and actually go worse, then I'll do my best and seek help as needed.  If they go better than planned then why worry?

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Got Something You'd like to Share?

Now that we have the capability to e-mail our entries, such as My Experiences, Reminders, of many of the tools, I'm offering the opportunity for you to share something you wrote.  Who knows, perhaps your input will inspire someone.  Note that I'll support your anonymity and keep you name and any other things I think may identify you to others out of the write up.  That means I'll probably edit it a bit, but only if needed.  So if you think you have an entry you'd like to share, use the e-mail feature to send it to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com.  Let's see what you can do to help others!  I think you'll be glad you did.

Do You Use the Reminders?

I initially created both the My Experiences and Reminders functions of Mood Sentry.  I created these based on some write-ups I created for myself which I would review every morning.  These write ups were about a page each, which was a bit much to review on a phone.  So I broke them up into their pieces, which consisted of some text related to my experience with cognitive distortions, and some text prompting me to take some sort of action to manage my mood.  The text prompting me to action turned into the reminders.  Each reminder was initially short and sweet, such as simply asking what's gone well so far?  However, as I used the app more and more the reminders became more complex and involved.  If you're wondering what to do with the reminders, try something simple.  Just remind yourself to do one thing.  Talk about it with your therapist and see what results.

Does your Therapist have Questions for me?

I've never put this out there, but if your therapist has questions for me have her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.  I'll answer any questions she may have.  This may also be an anonymous way for you to ask a question of me or provide feedback about the app or features you'd like to see.  Think about it.

How are the Examples?

It's been quite some time since I've asked how the examples are.  The previous update had some changes to a few of the examples in My Experiences.  I did these based on comments from a reviewer who thought the examples weren't quite clear.  So, I did my best to make them a bit more clear.  The thing is that for most users, the entries only have to be good enough for themselves, however, when I put something in as an example it needs to make sense to most people.  I'm just curious as to how the examples read to other people.

Turned 50 Today

Today's my birthday, and I turned 50.  I've struggled with depression since I was a kid, but learned to hide it behind a smile, friendly attitude, and keeping a distance from people.  I tried therapy in college but didn't continue after graduation.  I picked it up again about 10 years ago.  About 6 years ago I learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which has helped me manage my mood.  Since then I've gotten an MBA and gotten married.  Good stuff.  I'm not depression free but I do a better job of managing my condition.  Mood Sentry helps, but only because of the effort I put into it. I'm glad I created the app and hope it's helping others too.  It's not really the app that does the trick, it really is the effort you put into it that counts.  Good luck.

Made Good Use of the App Today

I was feeling very stressed at work.  I made good use of the app by getting out of the office for a bit, going out to my car, and just reviewing multiple entries.  I just kept reading things that I had written to myself in an attempt to crack what thoughts were driving my mood.  I started with My Experiences, then went on to several tools.  I made use of the prioritization scheme, which seemed to help, and then other tools like Observations.  I was able to get my mood in check and get back to work.

Updated Version Available on iTunes

The updated version of the app is now available on iTunes.  The big change to this version is the ability to e-mail an entry, such as one of My Experiences, a Reminder, an Event, etc.  You can e-mail to yourself for printing out (and bringing to a session), or perhaps you can e-mail to your therapist before the session to give her a heads up on something you'd like to discuss.  Who knows, perhaps there's another use for this feature. This feature was added at a user's request.

Let me know how it works and if there are any issues.

Considering a new tool

I'm thinking of a new tool that I might find useful, and hopefully you will too.  The layout would have 2 windows, similar to the event log.  The upper window would be used to capture dysfunctional thoughts and the lower window would be used to develop pro-active, counter thoughts.  I look at the dysfunctional thoughts as barriers to success, and the pro-active thoughts as breakthroughs to those barriers.  Think you could use a tool like this?

Update on the iPhone version: it is now being reviewed by the good folks at apple.  If all goes well, it should be releasing the update in a week or so.

Reviewing My Entries at Anytime

Sometimes I'll just pick up the phone and review some of my entries just for the heck of it.  I guess what I'm driving at is that I don't always wait for a reminder to tell me to use the app, I use it as needed or even if I have some time to kill.  It's somewhat of a preemptive or maintenance kind of thing.  Not being encumbered by any particularly distressing thought when reviewing what I write to myself results in a different experience.  When I do this, I usually look back at what's gone well and also look back for anything that might have caused some distress.  I think the best word to describe how I feel when I do this is "comforted."

Had a Weird Day Today

I was porpoising up and down in my mood, mostly down.  I made the time to review the app throughout the day.  Just quick reviews, focusing on a few entries such as a few essays or maybe a few observations at a time.  Doing that helps.  The way the app is set up, when I open a tool such as Essays, the entry that I see is the last one I reviewed.  It's funny how often the last entry I reviewed is what I need to see the next time I open a tool.  Maybe any entry would suffice and thus it doesn't matter which one was last, who knows.  Anyway, I managed to keep myself in check today which was the best I could do.

Still Waiting for the iOS Update to be Approved

This can take a few days, so sorry for the delay.  I'm starting to define what my next updates will be, which will probably be released in May.  If you have any suggestion in terms of usability or a feature you'd like to have, drop me a line.  I'll keep it confidential.  Note that the e-mail feature was the result of a customer request.  Things I'm considering are code clean up (I always do that) and revising the support page.  I don't think that the current support page is that functional and can be improved a bit.  Let me know what you think.  support@moodappsllc.com

I'm Really Focused on Forecasting these Days

For some reason I'm focusing on my forecasting these days.  I think things have slowed down a bit since I released the updated app (well, almost released because I'm still waiting for iTunes to release it) and I have a little more time for self reflection.  Focusing on one distortion is interesting and is helping me handle these frequently occurring thought patterns a bit better.  I'll keep working this for the next few days and see how things go.

Caught a Forecast Early Today

I had a telecon scheduled today with a group of people I'm only starting to work with.  There was an exchange of e-mails prior to the meeting and when I read one I took it the wrong way.  The person asked how I got approval to do something and I took it to mean that I shouldn't have been given the approval to do what I did.  In fact, it was really just a procedural question asking how I got the approval.  However, once I mistook the question I not only anticipated that I had done something wrong, but expected the telecon to be confrontational too.  I caught this one fairly early and per My Experiences I tried imagining the opposite, that things would go great and also thought that I should take her comment at face value rather than reading more into it than might be there.  I responded and she replied.  Her reply was innocuous and positive.  I looked at her reply and imagined the meeting going in the same direction.  That helped reduce the feelings associated with the initial distortion, though I still had this inkling that the telecon would turn confrontational.  It did not.  In fact, it went quite well and was very positive.  I'm looking forward to working with this group.

New Versions Submitted...

I just submitted the new version of Mood Sentry to both Google Play and iTunes.  The Google Play version should be available in the next couple of hours, but the iTunes version will take a few days (Apple likes to review apps before they make them available).  Look for Android version 7 (1.3) and iPhone version 1.1.

So what's in this update?  Primarily it's the ability to e-mail an entry, such as one of your My Experiences, Reminders, or any of your Tools entries.  This was in response to a user request.  The idea is that you can e-mail an entry to yourself for printing out to make it easier to review in-session, or even e-mail it to your therapist to give her a heads up on something you wish to discuss.  If you're going to e-mail your therapist it's probably a  good idea to give her a heads up and even discuss doing so before hand.  Since I have yet to use this feature with my therapist, I have little guidance on doing so for your.  The "Hints" have been updated to include the e-mail feature.

There are other structural changes that you shouldn't notice, but will help me with some future updates.

Good luck, and feel free to send feedback: support@moodappsllc.com

How would you characterize Mood Sentry?

I think I'd characterize it as a structured journaling app.  I this this characterization is appropriate when I think of the Event Log, Observation log, Essays,  Cost/Benefit, and Ideal Self tools.  I also think the My Experiences tool falls into this category.  The Reminders tool supports a the concept of a journaling app because it supplies periodic reminders to take action.  I'm just wondering what the best way to describe what Mood Sentry is and does. Does a structured journaling app sound about right to you?

Getting Ready for a New Release

This is always an anxious time for me.  Getting ready for a new release.  I'm always concerned about releasing something that crashes, or worse, loses your data (or mine).  I tend to do a lot of testing, then cogitating on the results, then more testing, more cogitating, until I'm finally comfortable with the release.  My feeling is that I'll be ready for a new release within a week.  The android users will see it quickly, the iPhone users will need to wait for the iTunes store review.  I'll post more about the features later.  Right now, I'll talk about my thoughts during a release cycle.  I think the big driver is disqualifying the positive, feeding my tendency toward all or nothing thinking.  I may not be giving myself credit for all the work I put into a new release, which then feeds my tendency toward all or nothing thinking with negative thoughts.  I do put a lot of testing into the app, and of course a lot of thought goes into the design too.  I test as I build it, and then I test once it's complete.  This may impact other things I do too, such as the stuff I do at work.  I put a lot of thought and effort into my work tasks, and may not be giving myself credit for all I do.  This is the gist of my "Disqualifying the Positive" example in the My Experiences function.  However, I'm looking at is as a driver of my All or Nothing thinking tendency.  I'll think about this some more.

Accessing the Hints...

Accessing the hints on the iPhone version is fairly straight forward.  You simply press the hints button on the bottom of the display.  On Android it's a bit more involved.  You'll first need to bring up the options menu, and then select the hints button.  Why did I do it that way on Android?  Because I wanted to have a cleaner display.  I wanted a clean display that only has the items you are most likely to use, with the other items stored away in the options menu.  I hope you agree that the display is fairly clean, and that the stuff you need most is right where you need it.

Reflecting Back on My Day

Taking the time to reflect back on my day was very helpful today.  My day was full due to a Wednesday/Thursday class I'm taking after work.  I was feeling a bit stressed as I prepared to leave for my class, but found the time to reflect back on my day per my mid-day reminder and thought about what had gone well.  Several things had gone well today, in fact everything I did had gone well.  That made me feel a lot better.  Now it's the evening and again, things have still gone well.  The class was very interesting for me and has to do with managing a software development project.  The class applies not only to my real job but this job too.  I'm looking forward to applying portions of what I learn to this endeavor.  If I don't take the time to reflect back on how things actually went, I sometimes find myself with a feeling that things are not going well.  Challenging those feelings is something I have to do at times.

Work Stress is Still Getting to Me

Things are not going to ease up at work, which gives me plenty of opportunity to uncover distorted thoughts and keep myself functioning.  Sometimes I have a difficult time capturing the thoughts that are driving my moods.  Today was one of those times.  I think it's forecasting.  Things are kind of tenuous on one project I'm working, and I just "know" that it's all gonna go to hell in the near future.  I'm getting better at recognizing that things can play out well, and usually do.  Perhaps there is some discounting the positive going on, in that I don't take any credit for the planning and preparation I do, as well as the communication that goes on.  Keeping people talking and looking forward really does help identify the best solution.  Maybe things won't go to hell in the near future.  We'll see.

Things went well today

There were no big surprises or issues to deal with, no crises that came up while I was away.  One thing that got to me today was a poor night's sleep, not driven by any thoughts in particular but more so by me getting used to waking up a little later in the morning than I did today.  Another thing that got to me is a sore throat that has been developing over the past week.  I get these when I go through a stressful period, which work has been for the past month or so.  It makes it uncomfortable for me to eat and/or talk, which is kind of a drag.  I can get these thoughts that this sore throat will never go away, but I have enough evidence that they always have that I can battle these distorted thoughts.  Other than these two items, things went well today.

End of Vacation Blues

My vacation ends today and I have the end of vacation blues. I just feel like there was a lot more I could have done, which I think is driven by a hidden "should" statement, such as there's a lot more I "should" have done.  However, when I reviewed my Evening Reminder tonight I took the opportunity to look back on my vacation and realized that I accomplished a lot.  I didn't post what I did so I'll tell you now.  I visited the Grand Canyon and did some hiking, then went to Sedona, Az, for some more hiking, followed by a night in Palm Springs for dinner and then home.  Today I did some kayaking in the morning and spent a chunk of the rest of the day on Mood Sentry updates.  Looking back on the last week I did a lot and had some good times.  There was more I thought about doing, but I know I hit the high points.  I think I'm focusing on the  stuff I didn't get done and letting that drive my mood.  I'm magnifying the importance of the stuff I didn't get done.  Most of that stuff was catching up on my reading, which I can do at home as well as on the road.  I'm feeling a bit better now that I've put things in perspective.  I set some goals for tomorrow, which will probably be a fairly busy day.  We'll see.

Back From Vacation

I spent some time over my break reflecting on a couple of my most common distortions and recognizing how they manifest during my personal life.  I guess I typically reflect on how they impact my work life, which makes sense since work is my most stressful experience.  So it was good to take a break and reflect on how things manifest in my personal life.  All or Nothing thinking and Forecasting seem to top the bill, with many of the other distortions popping up once I get in a funk, such as Magnification.  I used the app to mainly focus on the two primary distortions and reflect how they manifested during a given day and based on that how they might manifest the next day.  I think it was good.  Now I'm home, catching up on mail (and e-mail) and starting on the next update to the app.  I'll tell you more about these updates once I get closer to release.

How are the "Hints?"

Every now and then I check on some of the usability features of Mood Sentry.  This is one of those times.  I put a lot of "hints" in the app, with the intention of indicating how I use the app and it's features.  On Android, you can access the hints by brining up the menu and selecting "hints." On the iPhone, you simply select "hints" at the bottom of the page.  The hints are lightly tailored to the different views, though many of the tools, such as Observations and Event Log have the same hints.  That's because those views tend to operate in an identical fashion.  If you have some suggestions, such as something you found particularly difficult to figure out, let me know.  Updating the hints is easy for me to do.  Send you comments to support@moodappsllc.com

Overgeneralization, Again...

Here I am on vacation, checking the status of the app on both Google Plan and iTunes.  I just noticed that two people stopped using the iPhone version of the app.  My immediate thought was that I'll never get this app moving in either market, and I started feeling very depressed.  For some reason I caught this thought and treated it as an overgeneralization.  I'm taking these two people not finding the app helpful as a sign that no one else will either.  Here's a question for myself, so what if the app is not helpful to others?  Then what?  I guess I can solicit feedback and perhaps make some changes.  And if that doesn't work, I still have my other job.  I've worked hard to build a fairly stable app that runs on multiple platforms, but if that's all I get from this endeavor, I think I missed the bigger picture.  I've done a lot in terms of making something that helps me and may be able to help others.  I've started my own business and have even worked on a marketing plan.  Not to mention learning to program on both Android and iPhone devices.  That's a lot.  I have an update in the works that I intend to have out by the end of April, and I think will add a useful feature that a user recommended.  You'll hear more about it later this month.  Let me know of any ideas you have to make this more useful, user friendly, or what ever.  Send ideas to support@moodappsllc.com.  Hope to hear from you.  Oh yes, I'm feeling a bit better right now.

Brief Vacation Update

Sorry for the delay in posting, but then I am on vacation.  So I'm working two of my challenges pretty constantly, which are all or nothing thinking and forecasting (mind reading).  What I'm doing is reviewing the "My Experiences" in the morning, with emphasis on the All or Nothing and Forecasting entries.  I'm basically doing as my Morning Reminder says, which is to review My Experiences with my day in mind and focusing on those entries that are likely to manifest.  Since I know what I'll be doing during my day I'm able to identify what situations are like to come up and what distortions are likely to arise.  Today I did pretty good, and was actually able to neutralize the distortions that have come up in the past.  That sounds odd, but when similar situations came up today I didn't have the associated forecasts I traditionally have.  That was a plus, and made today a pretty good day.