While attempting to beat all odds to achieve the coveted goal, embrace the deadline, or hit the jackpot to unlock a ton of dollars overnight, most of us become too passive to listen to the voice of the inner self. By the time, the warning bell rings, it’s either too late for the brain to discern between despair and depression or too embroiled for the desolated self to find an empathetic mentor. And what happens subsequently is a story that leaves all succumbed to grave silence. Against the backdrop of an unprecedented rise in dreading depression, Apple has introduced a more personalized way to let you set up and use Mental Wellbeing in Health app in iOS 18 on iPhone. Keep reading to…
Log State of Mind in Health App on iPhone in iOS 18
State of Mind is a noted health feature that requires an in-depth understanding. Hence, we are first going to discuss all the aspects.
What is State Of Mind and How Does It Work on iPhone?
Integrated with the Health app, “State of Mind” is aimed at making you more attentive to your mental health, addressing the issues that tend to cause distress, and if need be taking the timely consultation of an expert.
Once you have set up the State of Mind feature in the Health app, you can log your momentary emotions/daily moods and track them. Wondering what’s the difference between emotions and moods? Well, while emotions are short-lived and get triggered by a known cause, moods are a bit concealed and longer lasting. Moreover, moods do not have much clarity about when they get formed.
Whereas emotions can range from many things like cheerful, prideful, joyful, and more, moods can be either positive or negative. That’s the reason why it’s much easier to spot the triggers of emotions but difficult to identify the pinpoints of moods.
Having a complete log of your emotions, you can identify patterns and also be able to figure out what impacts your mind. By adding context, you can have a fair understanding of the factors that affect you the most.
Why It’s High Time You Should Pay Attention to Your Mental Health?
Mental health has a direct impact on how you think, feel, and behave. As a result, when it goes out of the track, not just how you think but also what you do get badly affected. This serious ill-functioning leaves your life jeopardized.
Mental health issues have dramatically increased in the past few years. Though there are several culprits of the metamorphic rise of mental health conditions, social disadvantage, social exclusion, inequality, and discrimination are some of the kingpins that throttle a person from within.
According to WHO, “As the world comes to live with, and learn from, the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must all reflect on one of its most striking aspects – the huge toll it has taken on people’s mental health. Rates of already-common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic, adding to the nearly one billion people who were already living with a mental disorder.”
As if our life is not already torn by the ever-mounting workloads and compounding responsibilities, the COVID-19 pandemic has left behind way too many scars too soon. Couple that with the abusive trolling that we all have to bear with on social networking platforms and we are left with no option but to embrace rope-walking.
Set Up and Use “State of Mind” in Health App on iPhone
- To get started, launch the Health app on your iPhone and hit the Browse tab at the bottom right corner of the user interface.
- Now, tap on the Mental Wellbeing option and choose the State Of Mind option that is located under the No Data Available section.
- Tap on the Get Started button -> Next.
- You will now be prompted to select Emotion or Mood. Choose “Emotion”, if you would like to log your emotion. And if you want to log what you have felt today, select “Mood”. After you have selected the preferred option, tap on the Next button.
- Then after, drag the slider to the left or right to perfectly log your mood or emotion. As most options are Very Unpleasant and Very Pleasant, you can easily get through the questionnaire. Once you have logged your emotion, tap on Next.
- Describe your feeling and then tap on Next. If you are not interested in describing your emotions, tap on Skip.
- Also, choose reasons for your current feeling and tap on Done.
- To complete the whole process, tap on the Log button and you are done!
View Logged Moods and Emotions in Health App on iPhone
Keeping track of your logged moods and emotions is just straightforward.
- Navigate to the Health app on your iOS device -> Browser tab at the bottom -> Mental Wellbeing -> State of Mind.
- On this screen, your state of mind logs for the current day will appear. If you want to view the logs in charts, tap on Show in Charts.
- After that, tap on W tab to view the weekly chart or tap on M to check the monthly chart. To view the chart of the last 6 months, tap on the 6M tab. And if you would like to check the charts of the past year, tap on the Y tab.
- At the bottom of the screen, you should see three different tabs such as States, Association, and Life Factors.
- While the States tab displays the number of entries you have logged in the Health app, the Association tab shows all the factors that have led to mental issues.
- As for the Life Factors tab, it consists of your fitness routine including the mindful minutes and total exercise minutes.
Make the best use of insightful stats and assessments to find out your mental health. Furthermore, be sure to keep a close tab on the risk level and do everything possible to reduce it. On top of all, do not forget to share your stats with your doctor to get the much-needed advice.
Enable State Of Mind Reminders in the Health App
Even if you are a super-conscious person, you would be the first one to admit that it’s not always convenient to remember everything you’ve got to do. To ward off any forgetfulness, you should set a State of Mind reminder so that you can get a timely alert about logging your moods.
- To do so, open the Health app on your iPhone -> Browser button at the bottom -> Mental Wellbeing -> State Of Mind.
- Along the bottom of the screen, select Options.
- Turn on the toggle for During Your Day or End of Day as per your needs.
- Tap on Add Reminder and customize the time for the reminder based on your needs. Be sure to tap on Add at the upper-right corner of the screen to confirm.
- Additionally, you can also
Set Reminders to Take Questionnaires in the Health App
The Health app offers you the flexibility to take a questionnaire a couple of times a year or whenever you encounter a pattern of unpleasant moods.
- In the Health app on your iPhone, tap on the Browse tab -> Mental Wellbeing -> State of Mind -> Options.
- Now, turn on the toggles next to Period Questionnaires and Unpleasant Logging based on your needs.
Add State of Mind to Favorites in Health App on iPhone
In order to make it more convenient to track important data, the Health app offers a fully customizable “Summary” screen. To ensure the “State of Mind” also shows up there, make sure to add it to Favorites.
- Go to the Health app on your iPhone -> Browse tab -> Mental Wellbeing -> State of Mind. Scroll down to the Options section and hit the star icon located next to Add to Favorites.
Manage Apps Allowed to Read Your Mental Wellbeing Data
Managing apps that can read your mental wellbeing data is pretty simple.
- Launch the Health app -> Browse tab at the bottom -> Mental Wellbeing -> State in Mind -> Data Sources & Access.
- Under the Apps and Services Allowed to Read Data, you should see a list of all apps that can view your data.
- Now, you can allow or disallow apps to read your data depending on your needs.
Manage Research Studies Allowed to Read Your Mental Wellbeing Data
The Health app also lets you take control of the research studies that have permission to read your data.
- Go to the Health app -> Browse tab at the bottom -> Mental Wellbeing -> State in Mind -> Data Sources & Access.
- Under the Research Studies Allowed to Read Data, all the research studies that have got permission to read your data.
Manage the Data Sources Allowed to Update Your State of Mind Data
- Head into the Health app -> Browse tab at the bottom -> Mental Wellbeing -> State in Mind -> Data Sources & Access.
Delete State Of Mind Logs in Health App
Whether for privacy or any other personal reason, if you ever want to wipe out your State of Mind logs, you can do so with ease.
- Visit the Health app on your iPhone -> Browser tab -> Mental Wellbeing -> State of Mind option.
- Scroll down and tap on Show All Data.
- Tap on the Edit button at the upper right corner of the screen.
- Tap the Minus red button on the left of the entry and hit the Delete button.
- If you would rather want to eliminate the logs at once, tap on Delete All and confirm the action.
Take Care of Your Mental Health As Gracefully As You Can…
While many of us spend endless hours looking cool from the outside, very few bother to even look at how the inner self looks like. Due to this deliberate negligence, it begins to feel let down not only by others but also by our own actions as well. Eventually, this very let-down turns into seclusion which gives birth to distress and depression. Hopefully, State of Mind will help you keep your mental health in prime condition.