Many users with bipolar have noted the difficulty this has on data, as mood stability is the goal. Not 10 mood. Which would be mania. If I am rapid cycling from 1 to 10 and back to 1 then back to 10 according to the data I had a perfect 5 level day! Average mood is great for some users but completely skews and messes things up for bipolar users. This mood data determines how all factors are judged for data. So if it’s screwed everything is screwed. 1-10 ratings is so hard. I also have mania and depressions as one of my many emotions. Sometimes I don’t know what is an emotion vs a symptom and of that doesn’t encapsulate the dystopian realities of mental health management.

Favorite relevant bipolar quote: “I’m not bipolar. I’m omnipolar. I’ve been to poles you can’t even dream of”

Can you explain how you would suggest tracking if you were using this app and you were bipolar? (James or anyone else) In some ways I prefer it as a symptom because it allows for mixed states (high mania and depression). But I worry about how average mood is messing with my insights. I wish I could see how my moods are moving up and down without averages and get even a stability stat. That would mean if I was consistently low at 3 I would have a high mood stability score– that is to say it wouldn’t necessarily be a positive factor. You can have a high average mood and a low stability and vice versa.

It just feels like in many ways bipolar people are one of the people who need to track mood the most and for whom mood trackers seem to struggle with accommodating the most. Open to other suggestions.