Mood Rings

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When I was young they sold mood rings. A mood ring is a ring that contains a thermochromic element, such as liquid crystal, that changes colors based upon the temperature of the finger of the wearer.

Monitoring one's stress load might be a modern productive tool for Aspies. So I searched the internet for such a device and found a modern version that is still in Beta testing. It is called a Feel Wristband. It has multiple integrated bio-sensors that monitor a variety of physiological signals throughout the day (skin conductance, skin temperature, heart rate). It uses cutting edge emotion recognition and sends it to your smartphone. It appears that Fitbit might be heading in that direction also.

I think I'll get the traditional mood ring instead. I think it would be a great way to monitor my mood. A cheap way too.

I had mood ring, but it didn't work good. It changed color more pronounced only when I washed hands with warm water.

Why would anyone need a ring or whatever to tell them what mood they're in?

Seems more like it would be a waring device for others. "His ring is glowing red, run away!".

If I had a Feel Wristband, it would probably just tell me what I already know =/

Maybe and maybe not. If the Wristband could alert you that your stress levels were too high and that you needed to immediately implement proper de-stressing techniques. Then it could prevent the stress levels from reaching the distress level. It is my opinion that a host of negative traits that Aspie's exhibit are stress based traits.

The mood rings were just not sensitive enough for this task. But if you had a device with the proper monitoring sensors and proper logic algorithms, then theoretically you might have a very valuable tool.

All the Mood Rings I ever had were based on the temperature of my finger, and ended up turning black permanently when worn too often. These days, hip fashion involves a PixMob LED RF bracelet <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PixMob>. Apart from arena concerts, they can light up if you are near a random RF signal. Trippy, but a little too Logan's Run. Hehe!

In the Navy, our command DAPA would hand out stress cards to everyone. The center of the card had one of those thermochromic spots in the center. The user would place his or her thumb on the spot in the center, and then check the color of the spot. This was touted as a means to determine one's mood. In reality, it forced the user to stop and do nothing for a full minute -- time enough to calm down and focus during stressful situations.

I wore out three of those cards ...

I have severe enough alexithymia that I sometimes need to be told what mood I'm in by someone who can read me well. A lot of knowing your own mood works quite a bit like empathising with another person - e.g. reading their body language, vocal tone, etc. Emotions don't always get into your consciousness by a direct brain connection; the mood causes physical changes by releasing hormones etc., then the conscious bits of the brain read the physical changes to work out the mood. So, at least in some cases, alexithymia can be caused or made worse by poor sensory processing of body sensations (proprioception), which is something else that I struggle with quite badly.

The last counsellor I had helped me quite a bit with this. She was very good at reading changes in my posture, gestures, speech etc. that indicated my mood, and was able to pass some of this on to me so that I can do a little "checklist" if I feel odd but don't know quite what emotion is causing it. So I'm quite interested in technology that could help to alert me to my mood - especially stress, which I can suffer to really high levels without really noticing it is there, especially if I'm hyper-focused on something.

I did a little more research and it seems that the parameter that might be useful in a device would be one that can measure Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

Physiological coherence, also referred to as heart coherence or cardiac coherence, is a functional mode, measured by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis wherein a person's heart rhythm pattern becomes more ordered and sine wave–like, at a frequency of around 0.1 Hz (10-second rhythm). The term physiological coherence embraces several related phenomena—auto-coherence, cross-coherence, synchronization, and resonance—all of which are associated with increased order, efficiency, and harmony in the functioning of the body's systems. When one is in a coherent state, it reflects increased synchronization and resonance in higher-level brain systems and in the activity occurring in the two branches of the Autonomic Nervous System - ANS (sympathetic and parasympathetic), as well as a shift in autonomic balance toward increased parasympathetic activity.

This parameter would give a pretty good measure of stress levels. The definition is Heart rhythm coherence is reflected in the HRV power spectrum as a large increase in power in the low frequency (LF) band (typically around 0.1 Hz) and a decrease in power in the very low frequency (VLF) and high frequency (HF) bands. A coherent heart rhythm can therefore be defined as a relatively harmonic (sine wave–like) signal with a very narrow, high-amplitude peak in the LF region of the HRV power spectrum with no major peaks in the VLF or HF regions.

Resilience Training Program Reduces Physiological and Psychological Stress in Police Officers

But then again I do not know for sure if the Feel Wristband will provide this.

Exactly. Mine would just keep beeping until I had enough and threw it across the room. I can tell when my stress is high because my Sjogren's symptoms start getting bad. And my symptoms are almost always bad.

I'll have to quit my job at some point, but for now, I'm just pretending to be a normal person.