Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

Curious about your improvement in therapy? Learning how to use self-rating scales in regular journaling is a good way to evaluate your progress…

The link to the above website offers a good description of how to construct self-rating scales.

It’s a great way to measure progress towards any goal and very helpful in the therapy/personal growth process.

Self-rating scales are used often in therapy to measure levels of depression and bi-polar depression.

In dealing with depression, you can create a scale which measures levels of fatigue, negative thinking, suicidal ideation, eating problems, sleep problems and other indicators of depression.

Here is a self-rating scale for depression:

(Imagine these are horizontal with a line separating the number and description):
1 not at all depressed
2 somewhat depressed

3 moderately depressed

4 very depressed

5 extremely depressed
For bi-polar depression, you can create measures that help you identify when your mood may start to elevate or become more depressed.

It might look like this:

-3 extremely depressed

-2 very depressed

-1 slightly depressed

0 stable mood

+1 slightly elevated mood

+2 highly elevated mood

+3 extremely elevated (manic) mood
This is very helpful because when your mood may start to elevate, it might be a time when trouble could occur…like not taking medications, spending money, or other behaviors common for individuals dealing with bi-polar depression.
Self-rating scales can be designed for anything you want to measure.

Self-rating scales and journaling provide you with an effective way to take more control of your life, understand yourself, and keep yourself on the path of health and wellness.

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