How we write about mental health

Mental health writing can do harm. These are the rules we hold ourselves to, written down so you can hold us to them as well.

Who writes this

The guides on this site are written and edited by The Moodify.fit editorial team, based in India.

We are not clinicians. Nobody on the team is a doctor, psychologist or therapist, and we would rather say that plainly than imply a qualification we do not have. What we can do is read the research carefully, write clearly, and link to the people who do have the qualification so you can go to the source.

Where a guide is reviewed by a licensed professional, their name and credential appear on that guide with the date they reviewed it. If you do not see that line, it has not been clinically reviewed.

How we use sources

Every factual claim about mental health links to where it came from. We prefer, in order:

• Public health bodies — the World Health Organization, the US National Institute of Mental Health, the UK NHS, India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
• Peer-reviewed research, preferring systematic reviews and meta-analyses over single studies
• Professional bodies and clinical guidelines

We do not cite other blogs as evidence. If a claim only traces back to someone else's content marketing, it does not go in.

Where the evidence is weak, contested or early, we say so rather than rounding it up into a confident sentence. "There is some evidence that" and "this has not been well studied" are allowed to appear in our writing.

Review and updates

Every guide carries the date it was published and the date it was last reviewed. We re-read each guide at least once a year, and sooner when guidance changes. If a guide has been reviewed and nothing needed changing, the review date still moves — so a recent date means someone actually looked, not that nothing happened.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it and say that we did. A substantive correction — one that changes the meaning rather than a typo — is noted at the foot of the guide with the date and what changed. We do not quietly edit and move on.

If you think something here is wrong, write to [email protected] and tell us what and why. We would rather be corrected than be wrong.

Safety

Content about anxiety, low mood and intrusive thoughts is read by people in distress. That shapes how we write:

• Crisis helplines appear on every page of this site, not buried in a footer
• We do not describe methods of self-harm or suicide
• We do not use alarming statistics for effect
• We do not tell you how you should feel. "Stay positive" is not advice, it is a way of making someone feel worse on a bad day
• Our self-checks make clear that a screener is not a diagnosis, and a positive answer about self-harm shows helplines rather than anything else

Our commercial interest, stated plainly

We make Moodify, a free Android app, and this site exists partly to help people find it. You should know that when you read anything here.

Which is why we hold ourselves to these rules about it:

• The method is always given away in full. We never hold back part of a technique so that you have to install something to get the rest.
• We say when the app is not the answer. Plenty of what we write about works just as well with a notebook, and we say so.
• No invented numbers, no invented testimonials. If we quote a user, it is a real user who agreed to it.
• We do not run comparison tables where we happen to win.
• The app is mentioned where it is genuinely the next step, and not otherwise.

What we will not publish

• Anything presenting itself as a diagnosis
• Advice about starting, stopping or changing medication — that is between you and your prescriber
• Content discouraging anyone from seeking professional help
• Claims that a product, including ours, treats or cures a mental health condition
• Machine-generated text published without a person reading and editing it

Not medical advice

Nothing on this site is medical advice, and reading it does not create a clinical relationship. It is general information, written carefully, to help you think and to help you decide whether to talk to someone qualified. If you are worried about your health, talk to a doctor.