Just in case...

June 15, 2008 11:13 AM

Suppose you have a problem with your thinking, your mood, or your relationships. Come in, sit down, and let the internet help. Meet MoodGym and its newer sister site, e-couch.

Of course, you could probably use a real shrink, too. Find one online-personal style, complete with pictures and information about specialties, qualifications, cost, and treatment preferences.

You might be prescribed psychoactive medications, aka crazymeds. Did you know that "Lexapro gets rave reviews from the Panic/Anxiety community"? Well, you do now.

And to keep it all straight and monitor your progress, PatientsLikeMe will keep track of just about everything about you, Big Brother-style. Don't remember how you felt two days ago? It certainly does.

Good luck--and don't lose hope.

posted by sondrialiac (8 comments total)

Or, you could just post on Metafilter and let the community judge diagnose you.
posted by anthill at 12:14 PM on June 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

The data collection in MoodGym is a bit odd - very repetitive - and the scoring system doesn't make too much sense. I got one "wrong" answer in the quizzes and wound up in the middle zone for depression etc.
But then, of course, it's probably all my fault - I probably didn't do the quizzes right, I'm pretty much a total failure at everything I do... (Slouches off to eat pizza and ice cream.)

To be less flippant - the data collection and data analysis do seem a bit dicey to me - any psych literates care to evaluate them?
posted by speug at 1:18 PM on June 15, 2008

I prefer the nice and friendly hard kick in the ass (delivered with appropriately scathing comments) to break me out of my funk. It doesn't always work, but... I'll have to check out the whole test at home, away from work.
posted by Busithoth at 1:32 PM on June 15, 2008

Yah seems maybe just posting something will give you better results but that's my opinion, but I'm pretty messed up anyways for a silly computer diagnose ~
posted by Mikimi at 10:48 PM on June 15, 2008

The point isn't really to diagnose you, it's to do exercises that will help you be happier by teaching them about the way that thoughts lead to emotions, and what you can do to help yourself change your thoughts.

I feel that I get a huge amount out of moodgym, even though it doesn't rate me as depressed or anxious. So it might be worth hanging in there and completing some of the modules, just to see how they work and whether they're helpful for you.
posted by sondrialiac at 12:23 PM on June 16, 2008

MoodGym was actually recommended to me by my doctor along with meds and therapy, so I figure there must be something behind it. And I should be more consistently using Patients - nice post.
posted by jacalata at 2:36 AM on June 17, 2008

Thanks, jacalata, The only way I stay on top of it is that patientslikeme emails me every day. Their interface is a bit busy so it was a little tough to find out how to get the emails, but they're awesome--you simply click a link and it records your mood. You don't even have to sign in.
posted by sondrialiac at 9:53 AM on June 17, 2008

I'll nth the recommendation for moodgym. It helped me a lot a few months ago when I was going through an especially shitty time.

After that, I found toolstolife, which has been even more helpful. I think it's a fantastic site. It's no exaggeration to say that it helped me turn my life around, and the fact that it's totally free amazes me.
posted by semblance at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2008