Monday, February 24, 2014

How Are You Feeling? A Fabulous App to Track Pain, Depression and More!


I have been using the (Free!) App How Are You Feeling for Android for over a year.  I originally downloaded to track my chronic pain from my various autoimmune diseases, because whenever my doctor asked me "So, how have you been feeling?" I really could only remember the last week or so. I wanted something that was easy, visual, and would allow me to easily see how I was feeling during a specific time range.  This app does all of that, and much more.

Quick and Easy
My favorite feature is the widget that can be installed on your home screen.  I have a terrible memory, which is totally fine for this app! Every day when I turn on my phone, the color bar is right there for me.  I just choose the color of the day (or hour, or week; its highly scalable), and enter a comment if I so desire ("Started new prescription today" or "still getting over that cold").  You make as many, or as few, entries as you want.   I usually make one entry in the morning, and one in the evening, as the way I feel is highly variable throughout the day.  Thus, I can determine at what time of day my symptoms are worse, or better!



No More Guessing. 
When I start a new therapy, treatment, or medication, I no longer have to guess as to whether its working or not; I have actual data to analyze.  For example; I recently started a new homeopathic treatment for Autoimmune disease, and I can clearly see, based on the increased number of light blue and green days, that I DO feel better.  In the past, I would have to trust my gut, or use my highly faulty fibro-brain memory- not a great data tool!




Customizable and Scalable
You can use this app to track anything; pain, mental illness, stress levels, I can see it working for almost anything that can be tracked.  I even recommended it to a developer once; to track how his application was performing; was it slow that day? was it crashing? or was it running smoothly?  Plus, it can be applied to short-term problems like a broken bone, or chronic diseases/problems.  For those using it for pain, you can choose to specifically track "pain levels" instead of just how you're "feeling".  The best part, its free!









Data is truth. 
When it comes time to analyze or look back at the data, its easy; you just zoom out and scroll to go as far back as you want; or you can choose to view each entry in a list format.



I recommend this app to anyone who is struggling to get a handle on any problem, be it health, emotions, stress, or otherwise.  Once you have the data; you have the power!

Thanks for reading!
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wishing joyful and pain-free days to all!
~The PFM


tags: chronic pain, fibromyalgia, autoimmune, lupus, mctd, uctd, depression, anxiety, bipolar, apps, treatment, symptoms.

6 comments:

  1. I LOVE this! Wish I had an Android. Will have to look for something comparable for Iphone. Booooo. Or maybe I will design one for Iphone and make gobs of money. Riiight.

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  2. It is available for iphone! I googled for it, try searching itunes. developer is readyrickshaw

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  3. I've tried the ME/CFS diary app, and had reasonable success with it, but you can only see the data for that specific diary (which has a max. time) so isn't so great for seeing how you're reacting to new medication or in general in the long term. Thanks for sharing about this app, I'm definitely going to download it and give it a go.

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  4. Awesome! Hope you find it useful :)

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