Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes shows how to track recovery progress by measuring frequency, duration, and intensity of symptoms like anger, cravings, and depression. She recommends a simple 1-4 intensity scale and walks through examples for tracking energy, sleep, and concentration.
Hey there, everybody, and welcome back to the Addiction and Mental Health Disorders Treatment Manual. I'm your host, Dr. Donnellice Snipes. This is unit one, part 20, setting measurable smart goals. In the last unit, we talked about setting specific goals. Now we're going to talk about how to make those specific goals measurable. There are three basic ways to measure goals. You can measure it with frequency. How often does it happen? Two times a day, once a month, three times an hour. You can also measure it with a duration like 25% of the time I feel this way. Or 50% or 75% of the time. Or you can measure the intensity. Not at all or barely noticeable. Eh, not horrible, but not good. 3 is good and then 4 is fan freaking tastic. Let's apply this to a few things. Let's talk about anger. So for somebody who has anger outbursts or for a child who has tantrums, you may measure the frequency of the tantrum. How often does it happen? How many times per day or per week? You can also measure the duration of the tantrum. How long does it last? Does it last five minutes or does it last two hours? And you can me measure the intensity of the tantrum. One is barely noticeable. It's like the kid's irritable, but we can deal. And four would be extreme. The child's like throwing themselves down on the floor and having a hissy fit. So the intensity varies. Now, in terms of progress, you may want to measure all three of these things because the child may progress. They may have temper tantrums at the same frequency, but they're not lasting as long and maybe they're not as intense. That is still progress. Eventually the frequency will come down. But it's important to note progress. Same thing may be true if you have an addiction for cravings and urges. How often do they happen? How long do they last? How long are you perseverating at? How long are you struggling with fighting that urge? And what is the intensity of that craving or that urge? One is barely noticeable. It was just kind of fleeting. Or four, you are calling your sponsor and going, dude, this is really unpleasant. Where were you? Same thing is true for urges and and cravings as what we talked about with the tantrums. You can measure all three and look for improvement in one of the three dimensions. Now, some things you may only be able to measure with 1 or 2 of the measurement tools, but ultimately it's important to measure as many aspects as possible of these three so you can see improvement. Measurement helps you Answer the question. How will I know when the problem is resolved? How will I know when I've achieved my goal? So, going back to the depression example we used in the last part, physically, I will feel like I have adequate energy. So good, a three on a scale of one to four. At least five days per week. And I will have quit eating to make myself feel better. That's sort of a yes or no thing. Affectively or emotionally, I will feel more hopeful and empowered at least five days a week. So each day I'm going to log how I feel on a scale of one to four, and I want to be a three on a scale from one to four. Five days a week, the other two days, you know, things may happen. Cognitively, my concentration will be at least a three out of four, at least five days a week. And relationally, I will enjoy spending time with my friends at least two hours per week. So that one is a little bit different. Because what I'm looking at is if I have more energy and I'm able to concentrate better and everything, am I able to redirect that energy to nurturing those relationships? So that's what that one is measuring. So spend about 30 minutes and just practice setting measurable goals. How could you measure if you have more energy frequency? Yeah, that's probably not going to be able to measure more energy intensity. Well, that is something you can measure on a scale of 1 to 4, what's your energy? Your energy is really low at a one or fan freakin tastic at a four, you know, so that's one way to measure energy duration. Probably difficult measuring. So energy may be one of those that you can only measure one way. Improved sleep. You can measure the frequency that you wake up throughout the night. So if you wake up six times, you know, ideally that gets shortened intensity. How well did you sleep? Did you sleep hard or were you waking up a lot? Did you get that good deep sleep and duration, obviously. How long did you sleep? Improved health? Reduced cravings? Feeling happier. You can go through each one of these and figure out how would you measure those? Because ultimately, if you are working a program of recovery, most, if not all of these things are probably going to be in your treatment process somewhere. So how are you going to measure them? However, once you're finished practicing using whatever goal that you chose in the last part, identify how you plan to measure your progress. Can you measure the frequency, the intensity and or the duration?
