The mood labels are the categories that teen app users use to rate their momentary level of depression. The same categories are used for the weekly Mood Scores. Teen app users can rename these categories. Although the names might change, the color and meaning of the category stay the same.
Minimal: (Great on screenshot above)
Minimal depression means a person is having no to very few symptoms. To help give you a picture, we will use an example young person named Sam.
Sam is having minimal symptoms. They felt tired and low energy over the weekend because they stayed up to binge their favorite show. They felt down after they got a bad grade but it lasted just for that day. They were able to talk to their teacher and problem solve what to do next.
Mild: (Good on screenshot above)
Mild depression means a person is having some symptoms, but most of the time they don’t feel depressed.
Example: Sam has felt like they have low energy most of the time because they are having trouble falling asleep at night and then have to wake up early for school. Sometimes when they can’t fall asleep, they overeat on leftover Halloween candy. Otherwise they have not been having problems with feeling down very often.
Moderate: (Eh on screenshot above)
Moderate depression means a person is having several symptoms more often than they are not, but not every day.
Example: Now on most days, Sam is feeling tired and having trouble falling asleep. They have also begun to do worse on their assignments and are feeling like they are disappointing their parents because of it. Some days, they feel down all day and sometimes will skip out on fun stuff with their friends.
Moderately Severe: (Not Great on screenshot above)
Moderately severe depression means a person is having many depression symptoms more often, but some not every day.
Example: Sam continues to have sleep troubles and constantly feels tired. Their grades are really suffering and they have quit their job because of it. They feel really guilty like their parents are super disappointed in them. This makes it hard to think even when they are trying to do assignments. They’ve started to have some thoughts that life might be easier if they weren’t around anymore.
Severe: (The worst on screenshot above)
Severe depression means a person is having many depression symptoms almost every day.
Example: Sam now has depressive symptoms every day. They haven’t felt like doing anything except watching random videos on social media. They have skipped several days of school because they feel too tired or sick and are switching to online school. They will only eat in their room and will snack on junk food all day long. They feel like a total failure and can’t seem to get any schoolwork done. They’ve started to have more serious thoughts about ending their life.
A Mood Check-In is a place to record how you are feeling in the moment. To complete a Mood Check-In:
1. Go to your dashboard and click on Mood Check-In.
2. On the first screen, use your finger and move the slider up and down to identify your current level of depression. Please note, you can stop the slider at any point on the scale, indicating that you are either higher or lower within a category.
Then, click Next.
3. On the second screen, select the words that best describe how you currently feel. You can also select “Add Custom Word” to add any word you want to help describe how you currently feel.
When you are satisfied with the words you have selected and/or added, click Next.
4. On the third screen, in a few words record what is currently going on in your life that might be influencing your mood. For example, you can say “had a fight with mom” or “scored a goal at soccer”.
Then, click Next.
5. If this is the first time in a day you are recording your mood, on a fourth screen you will have the opportunity to record your sleep quality. Select the button with the phrase that best describes your sleep the night before.
Then, click Next.
6. On the final screen of the Mood Check-In, you can view a summary of your entries. If you approve of the details, click Approve and Save Mood Check In. If you decide you want to start over or no longer want to log this check-in, click Discard Check-In. You can also click the pencil icons to edit any of the Mood Check-In sections.
