- Monitoring and managing your moods is, according to Overcoming Depression (2009), one of the most important but often most difficult parts of managing your depression. By understanding and monitoring your moods you can actively influence and change your moods given the right motivation and tools. The benefit of monitoring your moods means that when you experience an initial change in your mood, you can work through this more objectively and easily and Overcoming Depression (2009) shows that this means that when you sense even a slight mood change, you can approach your mood in a step-by-step manner and look for a potential trigger. This will help you to better understand and manage your moods.
- Keep a Mood Journal to monitor and express your feelings, emotions and moods. Keeping a journal can be a good way to learn more about your thoughts and feelings and according to Depression.com (2009) is one of the best self-help methods available. Appendix 2 provides some tips for keeping a journal and monitoring and managing your moods.
- Recognising early signs and treating depression as early as possible decreases your risk of becoming depressed again. You need to understand your depression and its triggers and be able to watch for the types of events that contributed to depression in the past, and be alert for early symptoms.
- Gathering information and finding out more about depression can reduce the misconceptions, guilt and fear which are often associated with the condition (Depression Alliance, 2009). There are a wide range of internet resources available, as well as books and information available from your doctor.
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