How To Track Ptsd Symptoms

[After Sunset]

Have any of you figured out an efficient way to track your PTSD symptoms on a daily basis? I realised recently that I really don't know whether my problems—and the problems of the two others I'm in a carer position for—have gotten better, gotten worse, or stayed the same since a given point in the past. I keep a daily journal, but it's free-form and hopelessly coloured by my own impressions. Are there objective scales on which symptoms (anxiety, dissociation, flashbacks, etc.) can be rated? Any tricks or formats anyone has come up with to get an overall idea of how well they're doing?

Thanks for any help,
James

 

[deer_in_headlights]

Hi James,

This won't help, because I so do not worry about how I'm doing on a daily basis.
PTSD healing is, for me, a long, slow process as my Ts and I chip away at trauma and work on repairing the extensive damage.
I would go absolutely crazy if I had to see progress every day. For me, I need to take a very long view approach.
If I compared myself perhaps on a yearly basis, I am awed and thrilled at the progress.
If I were looking at a daily or weekly basis, looking at how I am right now, after enduring a number of emergencies and losses over the last month, I feel as if I'm stuck in swamp mud, or sliding off a cliff face.

Maybe someone can help you on the daily basis idea. I think I would just feel so defeated, depressed, discouraged if I did it that way.

With best wishes to you and your loved ones!

 

[patrick]

Here are some of the ways I track my symptoms:

1. Do I get up in the morning, take a shower and get dressed for the day?
2. Do I get out of the house (off my boat)?
3. Do I go to the gym for a workout, or at least for a soak in the hot tub?
4. Can I actually talk to somebody with a smile on my face?
5. Do I jump out of my skin every time I hear any kind of sudden noise?
6. Do I ask myself, "What the f*ck is the point, anyway?"
7. Do I drive myself crazy wondering what other people are thinking about me?
8. Did a sleep okay? No night sweats or laying awake for hours waiting for the sleeping pills to kick in.
9. Do I have at least one moment of caring about somebody else during the day?
10. Do I believe I'll actually be alive next month and think about what I might want to do about it?

These are a few of the ways I keep track of how I'm doing. More than happy to discuss anything you might be wondering about.

Pat

 

[After Sunset]

Maybe someone can help you on the daily basis idea. I think I would just feel so defeated, depressed, discouraged if I did it that way.

Deer, I actually agree with this. I don't want to track the symptoms each day for the purpose of trying to compare one day against another, because that really would lead to madness. But I need to write down how we're doing each day so I have the information to compile over a longer period of time. Otherwise it just all runs together in my mind. I want to be able to track trends in our symptoms the same way I track trends in the financial markets at my work. I'm sorry that I wasn't clear about that in my opening post.

Patrick . . . are you saying to make a list of all the things we sometimes struggle with, and then note whether they were a problem that day or not? I could see something like that working, because it's very concrete. Either I made it through work uninterrupted, or I didn't. Either my wife slept through the night, or she didn't. That would remove the subjectiveness that you encounter when you begin trying to grade feelings on some kind of scale, wouldn't it? I could see something like that working very well. Thank you! :)

 

[patrick]

Sunset,

I've been dealing with PTSD and especially the depression from it on a fairly active basis for two years now. For me, there are some very specific benchmarks for how I'm doing. Listing some of them for you was a very enlightening experence for me. I've actually thought of some more benchmarks since I wrote those.

I wonder if maybe listing some specific feelings and behaviors to watch for with the folks you're caring for might not be useful for all of you. Not trying to tell you what to do, God forbid, just wondering.

Pat

 

[After Sunset]

Listing out the specific benchmarks does sound like a very good idea, and so does writing out what behaviours to watch for in each other. It would be enlightening, and it's hard to believe that after nearly five years of dealing with all this I've never done anything like it. I have my task for tomorrow. :)

Thanks again,
James

 

[patrick]

Cool. Good Luck.

 

[PerfectEmpire]

I wanted to track my mood on a daily basis in 2008/2009. I am on the computer a lot so the most efficient thing for me was to do something electronically. I used Microsoft Excel. Attached are two screen shots of two types of diaries I kept. Hope it helps give you some ideas!

 

[After Sunset]

Those charts definitely are helpful. Thank you, PerfectEmpire. :)