I want to share a link to a blog post one the Moodsurfing site which talks about the value of mood charting when trying to understand complicated problems.
The story is about Lucy, a patient at Gateway (name changed, of course) and our session yesterday.
I think that the story neatly illustrates why keeping track of symptoms is so important when trying to figure out difficult psychiatric problems.
Lucy was referred for a consultation because she had cognitive and memory problems (a big deal given that she was a professor at a university), a seizure disorder (which was originally missed by the psychiatrist she saw years ago), a sleep disorder (with restless legs syndrome), migraine headaches, and depression and anxiety.
As I point out, all of these syndromes and symptoms could be connected to each other.
After five sessions I was feeling very confused, not a big surprise given that she had seen four other psychiatrists over the preceding decade without getting any answers…. but still….
And then we reviewed the mood chart that she had been filling out diligently for almost three months…
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