Moodscope: born to help
manage mood
I've been a
Moodscope user for nearly four years and it's a brilliant tool for tracking
mood, which in turn helps you identify triggers for depression. The website
also sends you a supportive email every morning, especially helpful as those
with depression are often at their worst at that time. Here the Chairman of
moodscope, Adrian Hosford, shares the inspiration behind the service.
For 20 years I knew my friend Jon was an
extraordinary creative person who I could rely on to solve tricky communication
problems. I never knew he suffered from heavy bouts of depression. 5 years ago
he hit a very dark place and in desperation turned his mind to tackle how he
might manage his mood. He found the world’s most robust scientific mood test
(Panas) and used it as the basis for accurate daily tracking of his mood. The
combination of 20 positive and negative descriptive adjectives like
‘interested’ & ‘irritable’ gave him an informed understanding of his mood.
He put it online and made the selection of how strongly he felt on each adjective
(not at all, a little, quite a bit, extremely) an intuitive game. The results
were uncannily accurate and Jon began to understand his moods better as each
day was plotted on a graph where he could record his thoughts. He felt better
and started automatically sharing his scores with a few friends who wanted to
support him. He felt even better.
One of his closest friends Caroline, Jon
and I got together. Imagine, we mussed, what it would be like if everyone who
wanted to positively manage their mood could do so easily. Could that not help
make a better world? Moodscope was born.
Thousands of people joined and we
undertook independently verified research which showed it worked if most people
who took the test regularly. It worked even better for those who shared their
score with friends. In fact on a large sample of early users the average mood
improved 60% over 90 days. With help from Unlimited we redid the online system
to handle as many people as wanted to use it. Today over 60,000 people have
signed up and 35,000 people ask for the daily message reminder from other
Moodscope users who share their experience.
Jon has moved on and is now a creative
digital entrepreneur in Silicon Valley so Caroline & I manage Moodscope as
a private company with a social purpose. We keep the basic version free so that
anyone in need can use it. We have premium versions with a small monthly charge,
so we can afford to maintain and develop it (a phone app coming soon). Why not
try it and see if it works for you by visiting moodscope.com. Like brushing
your teeth, it only takes a few minutes but can improve your mood day by day.
Adrian Hosford
Moodscope Chairman
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