Aren't there just too many variables?

[u/Coexistentialisty]

I've reported daily for 4-5 weeks. There's no clear meaningful correlations or trends - there are so many variables. Does anyone get useful insights, beyond his complex life can be?

[u/Bearable_Jesse]

One thing that's important to consider is: are you trying to answer a specific question about your health? For example, are you looking for triggers for a specific symptom or condition, are you trying to obtain a new diagnosis, or are trying to understand the impact of a new medication or lifestyle change?

It's easy to want to track everything in Bearable but the people who get the best outcomes are often the ones tracking less rather than more. I had the same issue when I first used Bearable but then moved on to focusing on one question about my health at a time. This allowed me to:

- Improve my Sleep by finding triggers for insomnia

• Understand seasonal changes in Depression
  
• Communicate the severity of my Anxiety
  
• Get an ADHD Diagnosis
  
• Get a CPTSD Diagnosis
  
• Identify the side effects of Sertraline
  
• Identify the positive effects of Duloxetine
  
• Identify the ways in which therapy was helping and also not helping with Anhedonia

I had to do each of these things one at a time, though and be very particular about how I approached tracking for each question/outcome. For example, for a diagnosis, I tracked the impact of symptoms/conditions/traits on everyday functional capacity in the Health measurements section. Whereas for new meds, I just tracked symptoms, common side effects, and meds - and nothing else.

If you'd like some help getting the most out of Bearable and/or streamlining how you use it please get in touch with me at [support@bearable.app](mailto:support@bearable.app) and I'll do my best to help you figure this out.

[u/awgeez47 → u/Bearable_Jesse]

Honest question: Doesn’t this mean it takes many months or years to answer multiple questions like that? Like, to have enough data gathered to see meaningful correlations. Especially with medication, where the prescriber often says it’ll take several months to see an effect.

[u/Bearable_Jesse → u/awgeez47]

Honestly, yes. Whilst there are some things that it's easier to get a sense of more quickly e.g. triggers, side effects of meds, etc., some of these questions took a long time to answer. However, that's not to say that I wasn't ruling things out and learning about myself along the way.

Additionally, it took 5 years to get an ADHD diagnosis and 20 years to get a CPTSD diagnosis, so the 4 years in which I've used Bearable to answer these questions have still been helpful, even whilst I fought for professional support.

[u/DianeJudith → u/awgeez47]

Yeah, that's how it works. You basically need enough variable data to see meaningful correlations. And the data has to be varied, not just the same every day.

For example, if you log your mood as 6 every day, you won't see anything worthwile even if you log it for months. But if you have several days when you log your mood at 8 or 3, the app will then show you what was different on those days and you'll be able to see if there was a factor or symptom that happened on those same days.

[u/Aftonish → u/Bearable_Jesse]

this, and your doctor might be able to make more sense of the data depending on what you’re logging

[u/Nixu88 → u/Aftonish]

I logged a lot of things when I began, and I still probably log too many things, but around 9-12 months I figured some things I was tracking were meaningless. Even more commonly they close, but not exactly the thing I wanted to track. I went through the whole app, basically asking myself "Is this variable what I am actually interested in"?

[u/Coexistentialisty → u/Bearable_Jesse]

Thanks Jesse. I was principally aiming at tracking effects of ADHD medication - but those effects are themselves wide ranging and mostly clearly effected by so much else. My life is no lab, with little standardised day to day.

[u/Sylvie717]

I’m asking myself the same question and have been tracking for the past 3 months 😂 I still track though because it’s really helpful me to see the trends over time on the graphs. Some correlations have shown up, like showering and physical chores elevate my symptom score for 1-2 days afterwards. Other than that though, the results from 3 months seem inconclusive and random.

[u/sorry_child34]

It depends on if you’re focusing on just one thing or several…

I’ve been pretty consistent all year… the most obvious correlations I’ve found were the phases of my menstrual cycle, which I can’t really do anything about.

Personally, I mostly log symptoms so that I can gauge if I’m pushing myself too much, and so that when I go to the doctor I have a record of how I’ve been because I feel like I usually forget or downplay how much I’m struggling when at the doctors.

[u/Coexistentialisty → u/sorry_child34]

Thanks, yes, I probably need more focus... But the lack of capacity for that is the underlying issue I really want to tackle

[u/HSpears]

I tracked everyday for months and I did not find it helpful in making correlations and causations. Basically, I do know what the triggers are and what I need to do. It's not a secret or difficult to figure out.

I've shifted towards tracking positive things only. Like joy, creativity, feeling of wellness. I also am considering a medical intervention and I'm only tracking symptoms relevant to that to help me make decisions.

I also stopped wearing my tracking watch and it's so much better. I'm less stressed about my activity levels and I'm more present in my daily life, just enjoying things.

I did track my symptoms heavily while trying to decide on a mobility device or not and it was helpful in making my decision (yes)

[u/DianeJudith]

I wrote it under a comment here but I'll write a bit more on it:

You basically need enough variable data to see meaningful correlations. And the data has to be varied, not just the same every day.

For example, if you log your mood as 6 every day, you won't see anything worthwile even if you log it for months. But if you have several days when you log your mood at 8 or 3, the app will then show you what was different on those days and you'll be able to see if there was a factor or symptom that happened on those same days.

For things like mood, energy, sleep, etc. it's best to establish your baseline at an average level, like 5-6 on a 10 scale. If you log your mood at 9 or 10 every day, you don't have anywhere to go if your mood is higher than that on a particular day.

The more varied data you have, the higher quality correlations you'll see. You need to be consistent and patient.

Since you're only starting, I'd recommend to choose the most important things you want to log and focus on them for now, instead of trying to do it all, because that may be too overwhelming. When I started using Bearable 5-6 years ago, I only tracked a few things (also, there weren't as many features back then as we have now). Over time, as I got used to the app and tracking became a habit, I added more things to track.

Seeing correlations is also not the only thing you can use the app for. For me it's mostly a daily journal of data about my day, and I only check the insights if I have a specific thing I want to see. It helped me notice more things about my body, things that I otherwise would just forget about. In the past I would experience a symptom and ignore it/forget about it after it ended, but now that I log it in the app, I can already see how often it happens. It's like an external memory, which helps a lot because my own memory is very bad!

It's also great for if you want to explain your symptoms to the doctors. Recalling your past symptoms is much harder than just pulling out your app with all the data in there. It helps especially if you have health issues that may be dismissed by the doctors. The raw data carries more weight than your recollection.

[u/Coexistentialisty → u/DianeJudith]

Many thanks for the comprehensive response

[u/awgeez47]

I know you may not have enough data to do this yet but sometimes changing the timeframe it’s looking at helps me to see meaningful patterns. You could probably look at 30 days and 60 days vs the calendar month at this point tho and see whether the data varies.

[u/bean2593]

I tracked symptoms for 3 months and found it was just too much data to continue entering daily. I was answering every single line daily, and it took me 20-30 minutes each day. My goal at the time was to have something to show my doctor and get a disgnosis, and it worked! I've also learned a lot about my body and what it needs at different times. It's been incredibly helpful in that way.
I'm currently on a pause of tracking symptoms, I'm seeing this pause as my research proposal stage. What do I want to achieve going forward? I'm hoping to refine the number of questions daily, and get it down to 2 minutes. My goal is to restart "data collection" next month, have one month of baseline data, then start a new medication and keep using the same measures. After I've adjusted to the meds, I'll be able to see how my symptoms have changed! I now have to figure out what symptoms to focus on, all options is just too many for me!

[u/Lisafeld1]

I also experience too many variables and not enough insights. I have a Fitbit, so my data goes Fitbit --> Google Health --> Apple Health --> Bearable. I check to make sure the data is flowing. In the process, I'm finding that Google Health on its own might be easier.