What a symptom diary is
A symptom diary is a record you keep yourself. Each entry is one dated day: what you noticed, and how much. Nothing else is required to make it a diary. It can be a notebook, a sheet of paper, or an app.
The fields below are details the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute on Aging say a doctor may ask about: the location, severity and duration of pain, severe fatigue, and problems with confusion or memory. A dated record holds those details in writing.
What to write down
Eight fields, each one a detail those two institutes say a doctor may ask about. None is compulsory, and a diary with three of them filled in is still a diary.
| What to record | What to write | Why it is on the list |
|---|---|---|
| Where the pain was | The areas that hurt today, in your own words. | A doctor may ask where the pain is. (NIAMS) |
| How bad the pain was | A number from 0 to 10, or the same few words each time. | A doctor may ask how severe it is. (NIAMS) |
| Fatigue | How tired you were, on the same scale each time. | A doctor may ask about severe fatigue. (NIAMS) |
| Sleep | Roughly how long you slept, and how the night went. | One of the three main symptoms listed. (NIAMS) |
| Thinking and memory | Trouble concentrating, thinking clearly, or remembering. | A doctor may ask about confusion and memory. (NIAMS) |
| Timing and change | When it started, what time of day, how long it lasted, how often. | A doctor may ask when, how long, how often, and whether it is changing. (NIA) |
| Usual activities | What you did, and anything you could not do that day. | A doctor may ask what it stops you doing. (NIA) |
| Notes and questions | Anything else, and what you want to ask at the next visit. | Make notes about your symptoms before a visit. (NIA) |
DateTuesday 15 September
- Pain: where
- shoulders, lower back
- Pain /10
- 6
- Fatigue /10
- 8
- Sleep
- about 5 hours, woke twice
- Thinking /10
- Not recorded
- When / how long
- worst from mid-afternoon
- What I did / missed
- shopping; skipped the walk
- Notes and questions
- Not recorded
A shorter version
If you want to fill fewer fields, these three make a dated entry.
- The date.
- Pain, as one number.
- Anything you could not do.
Leave the rest blank
A blank means you did not record it. It does not mean zero. A row with two things on it is still a record, and a blank on it stays blank.
How to keep one
- Pick one time of day and keep it. Entries then sit at the same point in each day.
- Write the date first. A line with no date cannot be placed on a timeline or compared with another day.
- Use the same scale every time. If today’s 6 does not mean what last week’s 6 meant, the two cannot be put side by side.
- Leave what you did not record blank. Writing 0 for “I don’t know” turns a gap into a reading.
- Make notes before an appointment. The National Institute on Aging suggests taking the time to make some notes about your symptoms before you call or visit the doctor.
What the record contains
- What you recorded, on a date. A written line remains what was written.
- Details a doctor may ask about. Where the pain was, how bad it was, when it started, what time of day it happens, how long it lasts, how often it occurs, whether it seems to be getting better or worse, and whether it kept you from going out or doing your usual activities. That list is the National Institute on Aging’s, not ours.
- Which days you filled in, and which you left blank. Each date either carries an entry or does not.
What a diary cannot tell you
- It cannot diagnose anything. A diary records what you report. Diagnosis is clinical assessment, and NIAMS describes how fibromyalgia is diagnosed.
- It cannot explain a symptom. A record holds what you wrote. It does not say why a day went the way it did.
- It cannot prove a cause. Two things written on the same line happened on the same day. That is all a line says. It does not establish that one brought on the other.
- It cannot replace medical care. A diary is something to bring to your own doctor. It is not a substitute for clinical assessment or for care.
Sources
The symptom names on this page, and the details it says a doctor may ask about, are narrow paraphrases of three public pages from the United States National Institutes of Health, all read on 17 September 2026. Everything else here describes the record itself: what a diary is, how to keep one, what it holds, and what it cannot do. Those are ours, and no source is claimed for them.
- NIAMS, Fibromyalgia: overview, symptoms and causes. The symptom names this page uses. Last reviewed May 2024.
- NIAMS, Fibromyalgia: diagnosis, treatment, and steps to take. The details NIAMS says a doctor may ask about, and NIAMS’s own account of diagnosis, which this page links to rather than summarises.
- NIA, What do I need to tell the doctor? General guidance for describing symptoms, not specific to fibromyalgia: when they started, the time of day, how long they last, how often they occur, whether they are changing, and whether they keep you from your usual activities. Content reviewed February 2020.
This page is written by Off Script Foundry, Inc., the company that publishes Tend. No clinician has checked it, and the byline at the top says so. The editorial policy sets the rules it is written to. If something here is wrong, the address at the foot of this page reaches the person responsible for fixing it.
Sources last checked: 17 September 2026. No later check is scheduled.