ADHD Mood Changes Over Time
Whether your mood baseline is trending up or down over the past month, and how a real ADHD mood change differs from one bad day.
What is Mood Drift?
Mood Drift tracks whether your mood baseline has shifted over the past two weeks compared to your prior data. It's the mood counterpart to Energy Drift, a slow-moving signal designed to catch the gradual changes that day-to-day mood signals can't see.
Why it matters
In ADHD, mood and energy are linked but distinct. A sustained mood drop that doesn't show up in your energy is still worth knowing about, because a slow slide is easy to miss from the inside.
Mood Drift catches things like:
- Sustained low mood that hasn't shown up in your energy
- Sustained positive mood across the last two weeks compared with your earlier check-ins
- Slow-building emotional patterns: seasonal mood shifts, medication effects, life circumstances
When mood drift is negative for two weeks, that's a real change in your own readings, and it's worth taking seriously even if your energy looks fine.
How it works
Mood Drift compares your last 14 days of mood data to all your prior mood data. Like Energy Drift, it unlocks at 28 days of logged mood data, and it scales the result by your own normal mood variability.
The SD-scaling is important here: someone with very stable mood (consistent day to day) will see Mood Drift surface for smaller absolute shifts, because for them those shifts are meaningful. Someone with naturally wide mood swings needs a bigger shift before the signal fires.
Reading your results
| Value | What it means |
|---|---|
| +1.5 or similar | Your recent mood baseline is higher than your prior |
| -1.5 or similar | Your recent mood baseline is lower than your prior |
| Small numbers | No meaningful drift relative to your normal variability |
What you can do
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When mood drift is up: Something is working for your emotional baseline. Notice what conditions are in place: sleep, social time, light, exercise, medication. Protect them.
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When mood drift is down: A sustained dip in mood is your system telling you something. Reducing demands, protecting recovery windows, and being especially gentle with yourself all help. If the dip lasts beyond a few weeks or feels heavier than usual, it can be worth checking in with a clinician.
-
When stable: Your mood baseline is holding steady. That's information too. Predictability is valuable for planning.
Mood Drift vs other mood signals
Pulse has several mood signals at different time horizons:
- Mood Shield: 3-day asymmetry between mood and energy (right now)
- Mood Drift: two-week baseline shift (this article)
- Dip Pattern (mood dimension): mood weight during drained phases specifically
All three are useful at different moments. Mood Shield catches acute imbalances. Mood Drift catches the slow arc. Dip Pattern measures how heavy your dips feel.
Sources
- Beheshti, A., et al. (2020). "Emotion dysregulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis." BMC Psychiatry. PubMed 32164655
