Who it is for
For anyone whose stress has built over weeks rather than arriving all at once, and who finds it hard to describe how it got here. A single hard week is often what the mind remembers, but the trajectory across recent weeks is often less linear than it feels from the inside.
The timeline sets out what was happening around you alongside what you noticed in yourself, so you and your clinician can see accumulation, recovery and recurrence side by side. What started a stress pattern and what keeps it going are often different.
What is inside
Page 1, read first. Why a timeline is useful, a gentle note on what looking back can bring up, and where to start on page 2.
Page 2. Five points across the last couple of months, from about two months ago to now. For each period, two prompts: what was happening, and what you noticed in yourself. A final box asks what pattern stands out.
How to use it
- 1Choose a low-demand timeThis is heavier than the other worksheets. Pick a time when not much else is being asked of you.
- 2Fill in both columnsFor each period, write a few words on what was happening and what you noticed in yourself. The point is not to score your stress.
- 3Bring the partialLeave blank anything that feels too much. Partial is enough. Bring what you have to a clinical conversation.
The timeline is not a complete history, and it does not need to be. Looking across the periods, notice what shape the trajectory takes. You can type into the PDF on a computer, or print it and write by hand.
