Red-Yellow-Green Flags

Digging into Warning Signs

How do you figure out when your mental health needs extra attention?

A tool I've found useful is Red-Yellow-Green Flags.

Everyone is probably familiar with the concept of "red flags" - those signs you're looking for that indicate danger ahead. Stop what you're doing. And yellow flags are a similar, if less dire warning - stay alert and be careful.
A lot of people experiencing mental health symptoms will make (or be helped to make) a list of the red flags for their condition. Time to get help now. Some get as far as yellow flags, issues that need attention but perhaps not immediate intervention.

These are both crazy useful to have in mind, but I think "green flag" lists are almost as important. Green flags are what life looks like when your symptoms are low. What is your normal. It's nice to have a view of what you want to see, instead of just lists of what you don't want to.

I also think keeping all three lists lets me find subtleties more easily. I'm still brushing my teeth (No red flag!) but I haven't showered in the last couple days (Also no green flag). And not only do I find things, I also can't hide things. Easy to avoid red-flag meal skipping behaviors. Harder to fake easy intuitive eating.

What do green, yellow, and red look like for you?