What is Reddit's opinion of Optimism?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I tried it and have already disabled it.

I see what they are trying to do. It's a more granular version of a type of mood log/diary used in cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral therapies. Whereas this app tracks moods every hour, CBT and DBT logs track moods every day... Or they're supposed to. When people actually do them. CBT and DBT logs also track whether, how often, and how effectively people use their skills. Which wouldn't make sense in a basic mood tracking app.

It feels like a bare-bones version of the Optimism app.

But the Buzzing every hour got real old real fast. It still buzzed when I set my watch on quiet time. I'm a therapist, and if the mood quiz pops up in the middle of a session, that could be super distracting for me and my client. I imagine I'm not the only pebble in a profession where that could be problematic.

Also, as a therapist, I have a love-hate relationship with these types of apps.

On the one hand, they can provide some useful data.

On the other hand, there are inherent risks to boiling down emotional states to simple cause and effect.

I use the Optimism app on my iphone. I love it to pieces, and it made my doctor really happy when I showed it to her. Haven't tried anything else. Optimism also has a flash based version on their website that syncs with the iphone. Everything they offer is free.

http://www.findingoptimism.com

(They have a mac app too, but syncing it seems to eat data so I stopped using it.)

Http://Www.findingoptimism.com Also an app called optimism in the App Store (not sure about android) It's feature rich, export to email or printer, daily drill down or you can set a range of dates for charts. You can customize the fields to track what you want.

How a depressed person thinks, and why reason doesn't work on the depressed.

Common remarks given to depressed people that actually make them feel worse.

My favorite comment about these remarks:

>...I think that there is a big difference between applying some of those attitudes internally and hearing them from somebody else.

>I know that for me "just getting on with things" can be helpful… IF I can do it. On bad days kicking my own butt might only get me as far as out of bed. The insult comes when someone suggests that I'm not trying that, just because they can't see the results.

I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. You are not alone! I'm glad to hear you are trying things to find things that will work for you :)

Some other apps I've found useful in this area:

• Optimism - has a web and a mobile and a desktop app. Highly customizable tracker that can help you figure out what triggers make you feel better and worse.

• Focus of my day - app that lets you create customized "reminder" cards that send you reminders at random intervals throughout the day. I've made myself ones such as "It is okay to accept help from others," which is something I struggle with... Then at the end of the day you can review how you did on those things. Helps you keep positive changes at the forefront of your mind, and the random reminder times help you not become habituated to the reminders, so you don't just ignore it.

• iMoodJournal - it's paid right now, but a few things I like about this one: it asks you your mood at random intervals, you can include hashtags so that you can see what things are associated with your high and low moods, and you can take selfies to see how your face changes with your mood. Also useful if like me, you tend to forget how to answer when your therapist says "so how was your week last week?"

I've seen positive info about optimism (http://www.findingoptimism.com) which is a daily survey type thing. Unfortunately nothing for Android yet but I've toyed around with making a Google docs spreadsheet / form to fill in. Not exactly the same but maybe can get you started.

Your moods sound very similar to mine - I have no idea what 'normal' is for me anymore, despite not having a depressed episode in over a year now (which is really strange for me), I've had 2 destructive hypomanic episodes and in between them I was... mixed/ultra ultra rapid cycling. Which I think is what I'm still like now, considering I was very depressed yesterday but have been relatively 'okay' today. With the mood tracking, I started using this a couple of weeks ago and think it's a really awesome way to keep track, as it creates charts, can check off symptoms/triggers too:

http://www.findingoptimism.com/

im sure you are going to be possetivly suprised my friend :) I have not yet explored all its features but it makes tracking super quick and super easy. So it does not feel like u dont can do it even when you are deppressed, its like if people with ddeppresstions have made it. A plus is that i think it also works on smartphones for those who actually have a job and a more active lifestyle. For me the program for ur computer works best as i am home alot. here is the link: http://www.findingoptimism.com/