Get in the mood to be happy; SELF-HELP GUIDE THAT CLAIMS IT CAN IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH.

Byline: KATE HODAL

WHAT makes one person consistently moody, while another is usually quite content? Is it down to their lifestyle, their job, or their DNA? These are questions psychologist Dr Liz Miller has spent the past decade investigating. And her research has found moods aren't just the random throws of dice most of us tend to think they are, nor are they entirely dependent on our genes.

Instead, they are an internal measure of how we feel at any given time. And by identifying the physical and emotional factors that affect our moods, we can actually work on banishing the bad ones for good.

With one in four of us suffering from a mental health problem at some point in our lives, according to the mental health charity Mind, gaining control over our moods is essential in helping us maintain our own well-being.

"Mood is the most important and least considered part of our minds," says Dr Miller, whose book Mood Mapping: Plot Your Way to Emotional Health and Happiness, uses a new technique called mood mapping to help people better control their moods.

"Your mood has more influence and impact on your day-to-day affairs than any other aspect of your psychology. Our lives and our successes are defined as much by our moods as by our personalities."

But is it really possible to turn that frown upside down for good? With a little work and patience, it most definitely is, says Dr Miller. WHAT IS MOOD? We often think of mood as an inherent part of who we are as people. But that's only one part of a much larger picture, says Dr Miller. "Mood is chemical in that Dr Liz Miller claims her book, Mood Mapping: Plot Your Way to Emotional Health and Happiness (Rodale, pounds 12.99), can change your life for the better it depends on how much serotonin and dopamine occur naturally within your body, but it is just as dependent on your surroundings, your physical health, your emotional health, your relationships, and your values. These are known as the five keys of mood."

By altering just one of those things, you can help alter your mood. Mood is such an intrinsic part of our day-to-day existence, however, we are often not aware of it until it becomes extreme.

"We often don't pay any attention to our moods until we're in a really anxious one, or worried," says Dr Miller. "But by paying attention to how you feel every few hours, every day, you can change how you feel."

Mood disorders such as bipolar disorder are characterised by chemical imbalances of seratonin and dopamine within the body.

It was actually being diagnosed with bipolar disorder herself in 1997 that led Dr Miller to develop the concept of "mood mapping". Sectioned under the Mental Health Act after working for nearly a decade as a neurosurgeon, she spent 18 months in psychiatric hospitals, where she began the practice of keeping a daily journal.

"There's a lot of prejudice against doctors with mental health problems because there's an attitude that, as a doctor, you should be able to survive anything," she says. "So I tried to find my own cure by recording everything I did every day. And I realised only two things really mattered: how much energy I had and how well I felt. That was how I came up with mood mapping."

WHAT IS MOOD MAPPING? Dr Miller plotted her energy and well-being on several occasions each day onto a graph. After a while, patterns emerged that allowed her to recognise which aspects of her life needed more focus and what led her to sulk.

"We generally think of moods as either good or bad, but mapping actually puts your mental health into two dimensions, which makes it easier to handle," she says.

Dr Miller's book, released ahead of World Mental Health Day today, is set out as a 14-point plan which requires the user to check in with him or herself every few hours, every day, for two weeks, to create a mood map.

Julia Lamb, of mental health charity Mind, believes mood mapping can help change overall well-being for good. But she warns: "If you're feeling down for more than two weeks and can't trace your mood back to a particular cause, see a doctor ."

CAPTION(S):

One in four people suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lives