Author: Adam Bolton

Anxiety and Depression Diary

The purpose of this diary:
To help you put your thoughts and feelings into words and identify potential triggers for your anxiety/depression
To establish a pattern in triggers and how they make you feel in order to better process them in future
To find out what coping mechanisms work best for you

Keeping any sort of diary is a great way of venting your emotions. Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

Tips on how to use this diary:
Take some time whenever you feel down, to write about your thoughts and feelings in as much detail as you can. Write about how it makes you feel and what you think may have caused it. Also make a note of anything you did to try and counter these feelings and whether they worked.
You may want to circle any common triggers that keep appearing. This will allow you to see which triggers cause you the most problems. It may be the case that you can limit your exposure to certain triggers or find a more productive way of coping with them.
Highlight any techniques or behaviours that were effective in dealing with your thoughts/feelings. This will help reinforce positive behaviours and help you identify what works for you and what doesn’t.

Positive behaviours you can try:
Distraction: it can be possible to calm yourself down by distracting yourself from the trigger. This may be as simple as leaving the room, going for a walk, or by doing something you enjoy.
Rationalising: particularly with anxiety, trying to rationalise your thoughts can be difficult but productive. For example, when I am dealing with an anxious thought related to my health I always ask myself ‘what would a doctor say if I told them about this’.
Talking: Talking to loved ones can really help calm anxiety and often they can help cheer you up when you’re down. They may also be able to help you rationalise your thoughts.

Day	How did I feel? (Use this space to write about any periods of low mood or anxiety) Optional: use a 1-5 scale to rank the severity of your feelings.	Triggers (Use this part to write down what you think caused these feelings)	Behaviours (What behaviours did you use to try and counter these feelings)	Did these coping behaviours work? Optional: Use a 1-5 scale based on how successful they were.	If I feel like this again, what could I do differently?
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Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday