I’ve just had covid. One star: would not recommend.

We came home from holiday to find our daughter had come down with the dreaded lurgy and was not well at all. Of course I hugged her – what do you expect – and so I came down with it too.

I wasn’t depressed – not in the least – but the Moodscope score inevitably went down because I had no energy, could not look forward to anything, didn’t feel very strong and certainly didn’t feel active.

Thankfully, after three days in bed and lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself, I’m on the mend, with only a cough and tiredness as a legacy – hopefully one that’s only short term. I have two friends with long covid and it’s no fun at all.

It made me think, however, about the accuracy of the test. We all know that depression is an illness with emotional and physical symptoms, and the test reflects this. When you are depressed, you do not feel strong or active. When you have a physical illness however, especially a short one like a cold, while you are normally not depressed, you have no energy and certainly don’t feel very strong. The score inevitably dips.

This is where the annotations are essential. I find I usually only annotate if my score is significantly higher or lower than usual. It helps when I go back looking for patterns. My new cocktail of drugs seems to be keeping me stable most of the time, but unexpected events can still affect things. During my walking holiday, the score was higher, owing to good energy and pride scores – 3 for both. This last week, as previously mentioned, my score was lower.

Short term, for the last month, I can look at the Affectogram and see how that score was made up.  If I’ve scored low on the positive cards, I’m not normally too concerned: there’s usually a good reason. If I start scoring high on the negative cards, especially the jittery and hostile cards, then I know I might be heading for a manic phase (and then, inevitably, a period of depression) and can prepare for it.

I can also look at the Triggergram, although it is not always helpful. Over the last month I can see, on the positive side, walking, holiday, Cornwall, miles, and cardmaking: all things that make me happy. On the negative side I can see sofa, tired, nap and covid. Nothing to be worried about. I think the Triggergram can be confusing if one uses the same words for both good days and bad days. I might, for instance say, “I don’t feel like cardmaking today,” which would mean something that makes me happy would appear on the negative side. The Triggergram takes no notice of negatives.

I would be interested to know how you use your annotations and if you monitor your Affectogram and/or Triggergram. If so, how helpful do you find them?

Mary

A Moodscope member