All posts by Hugh Smith

Hope

STOP. LOOK. LISTEN.

April 8, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.
Step Eleven of Depressed Anonymous

This passage is a direct quote from Step Eleven of Depressed Anonymous. With this Step, we are taking a break, a pause if you will, and making room for a time when we will stop. Look and listen to that small voice that is waiting to prompt us into a closer relationship with our Higher power.

Many times, in the past, we have looked for the reason that our life is so confusing and chaotic. It is at this juncture in our lives that we take time out and start to examine the possible ways that have led us to where we are today. My own feelings of powerlessness removed all hope that I would ever feel good again. I was in a deep dark pit with no way out.

It happened that when I became an active member of the Depressed Anonymous Fellowship did I realize the many ways in which I could help myself. My own involvement in the group meetings gave me an incentive to pursue the growth that I saw happen in the lives of those who were coming regularly to the meetings.

I put my mind, soul, and spirit into action and began to pray that I too could have what others were having, peace and hope. I received this slowly and without fail. All along I had to keep my hand on the plow and move forward.

And thanks to the God of my understanding, this power greater than myself has given me a life purpose, filled with new friends and a commitment to share the news that there is hope… and we do recover.

Source:

Depressed Anonymous

What gives meaning to your life today?

April 7, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Many depressed people will say: “I don’t know why I am depressed. It just happened suddenly like a black cloud coming down.” They say this because they do not want to look at the terrible events which threatened to destroy the way they saw themselves and their world. These events might not seem very significant to other people, but to the person concerned they are very important. It is not the events which make them important, or frightening, or overwhelming, but the meaning we give to these events.

Dorothy Rowe, in her forward to Hugh Smith’s book Depressed? Here is a way out! she explains that it is the meaning that we give to the event that creates the depression. How true it is for my own life when I attempted to build a wall, a wall that would defend me from my constant worry that had taken me over, spiraling my life downward into a deep, dark pit. It was like a Trojan horse, who had taken my mind captive and left me with no escape. I became physically immobilized trying to defend against this force – while my thoughts continued to cycle around and around, the more powerless I became.

Even though that feared future event never took place – my false belief that it would happen – froze my feelings, thinking and behaviors. I was like a zombie. That is until I heard about a group fellowship called Depressed Anonymous. It motivates its membership to take action. To do something. To move the body into action. To learn and live the Twelve Twelve Step of recovery with others like ourselves.

Gradually, I discovered that the more I discarded my defense of sleeping, isolating and negative thinking and sought the support of others like myself, did I get better. I attended the Depressed Anonymous meetings and made use of their their recovery tools. Now, I attend meetings as often as I can. There is hope…and we do recover.

RESOURCE

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

ZOOM EASTER MEETING SUNDAY AT 4-5PM / MOUNTAIN TIME

April 4, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

INTERNATIONAL ZOOM MEETING
12 Step Depressed Anonymous Meeting
HOPE FOR TODAY

Zoom ID: 828-7881-3776 9 (No Password is needed).
EASTER SUNDAY – MEETING TIME 4-5PM Mountain time–every Sunday

contacts Randy & Mike phone: 720.771.8414 E-mail: rev77@live.com

Website for all Depressed Anonymous meetings
depressedanonymous.org

NOTICE: Whenever a blog post mentions an online meeting be sure to consult the page Online Depressed Anonymous Meetings for the most up to date and correct information. If the blog post is more than a few days old there is a chance it could be incorrect.

DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous

I depressed myself. I can undepress myself.

March 27, 2021 Hugh Smith 4 Comments

My name is Linda and the first time I read Depressed Anonymous, I did not like it and I got angry. The first part of the book about turning our mind and lives over to a Higher Power sounded good. I was ready to do that. Hey! Here it is God. You take it. No more depression! But then came the part about a moral inventory,shortcomings and the big one is that I depress myself.

What is he thinking about? I said to myself as I read the book. I had tried to un-depress myself many times. I put the book down, and went to work.

But as I was walking around at work that night feeling very depressed, bits and pieces of the book kept popping into my head and I started to think of the word “stop” just like the book suggested to do. “I depressed myself. I can un-depress myself I said to myself.”

Look for SUNSPOTS, memories from the past that were happy times and ones which bring back happy feelings from years gone by. I tried, but none came to mind. But I did find that thinking about the book and what it said did make me feel a little bit better. Then a piece of a song popped into my mind. “Seek you first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all the others will come to you.” “Hey! A SUNSPOT!” I said to myself.

Then I felt a warm glow and then I did feel better – I did it! I made myself feel better. I did un-depress myself! I had mixed feelings. I wanted to feel better, but admitting I depressed myself was not an easy thing to do.

I went back and reread the book, but now with an open mind. I have started to to follow the Twelve Steps and with the help of the Higher Power, I can have a brighter future. I am making and putting in my memory a lot of SUNSPOTS for those times when I am feeling depressed and which I can choose to draw upon when I feel that I need them.
I put up a “stop” sign and bring out a SUNSPOT to carry me through.

Source:

12 Step Meeting, Community building, Fellowship, Mutual Aid, Supportive Actions

New DA Meeting (Hope for Today) On Zoom 3/28/2021

March 27, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“HOPE FOR TODAY” DA MEETING ON ZOOM EVERY SUNDAY 4-5PM (MOUNTAIN TIME)
Depressed Anonymous 12 Step Meeting

CONTACT INFO: Randy R

720.772.8414 MT

rev77@live.com

Origination location: Denver, Colorado
Founding members: Randy R, and Mike B
ZOOM MEETING: Please contact rev77@live.com for ZOOM ID. No Password required.

Thank you Randy and Mike for making this meeting possible today and every Sunday. Welcome to all.
Hugh

Depressed Anonymous, Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Hope, Purpose, Spirituality, The 12 Steps

Lois got it right

March 25, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Lois joins a Depressed Anonymous mutual aid group.

It was December of 1992 that I made that decision. I knew that I was powerless over depression and that my life had become unmanageable. I was willing to do anything that Depressed Anonymous offered. I wanted to get rid of the pain. If Depressed Anonymous had told me that I would get well if I stood on my head three times a day, I would have done it. Daily I read from the book and consciously worked the Twelve Steps. I worked them one at a time from One through Twelve. Working the Steps to me meant posting the Step I was working on and consciously pondering it throughout the day.

Lois, a member of Depressed Anonymous

Source:

For more information on Depressed Anonymous literature and ordering online, please VISIT THE STORE at The Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore.

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

A new Depressed Anonymous meeting is scheduled for Denver, Colorado this Sunday 3/28/2021

March 23, 2021 Hugh Smith 4 Comments

Updated 29 March 2021, new Zoom meeting info for Sunday 4:00pm Mountain Time meeting

Good news for Denver, Colorado, as a new 12 Step Depressed Anonymous mutual aid group is hosting its first meeting this coming Sunday, 3/28/2120.

Group Name	Hope for Today, Depressed Anonymous meeting
Group Type	Depressed Anonymous 12 Step meeting
Day & Time	Sunday at 4:00-5:00 pm Mountain Time
Frequency	Weekly
Online Venue	Zoom.us
ZOOM ID	828 7881 3776 (No password needed) Updated 29 March 2021, new Zoom meeting info for Sunday 4:00pm Mountain Time meeting
Founding Members	Randy R and Mike B
Contact Information	720-771-8414 rev77@live.com
Origination Location	Denver, Colorado
First meeting Date	Sunday, March 28, 2021

12 Step Meeting

I was beginning to feel better, my sad mood was lifting and then my mind’s critic whispered, “Yea, but it won’t last!”

March 16, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

The mind’s inner critic has it all figured out. It had always been this way, especially the past year and a half. Always the negative verdict. No clemency here. I felt that I was doomed, never able to climb out of the hole that swallowed me alive.

When I felt the lightness in my mood it came as a total surprise. I had been walking for over a year and then suddenly I felt that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I had paid my dues to whatever it was that had me immobilized in fear and fatigue.

The inner critic in my mind made sure to let me know that this short spell of an upward positive mood was to be short-lived. “It isn’t going to last” was a thought like all the other negative thoughts that continually filled my mind. In fact it wasn’t until a few days later, that the positive mood took over completely and has stayed with me to this day.

My life changed from night to day. I could not believe that I was feeling like my old self, hopeful and filed with plans for the future. Instead of every thought spiraling me downward into the abyss, I was looking toward each new day with hope. My positive mood was deepening.

One final word. Then I became a member of Depressed Anonymous where I could share my story of hope and recovery. In fact, many times when I shared my story with the group, some of our members would tell me that it felt like I was telling “THEIR” story.

And now when reading a piece of my own story, I do hope that you join us online where we meet everyday and hear how our program of recovery is filled with solutions – it is a solution focused program – where group members gradually find a way out of depression. Depressed Anonymous has provided me with a key -the 12 Steps- for turning my life around and provided me with a plan. This plan not only works for me, but provides healing for those countless other lives who learn how to make the positive choices to live with hope and be part of a fellowship.

Please click onto our website at https://depressedanonymous.org where you will not only find answers for some of your own life’s challenges, but also be part of a community with those persons who live out recovery in their own daily lives.

For more information please check out the literature offered for our friends at The Depressed Anonymous Publications site. Our manual, Depressed Anonymous, the 3rd edition, is the book that is our guide for personal reflections as well a group discussion recovery guide.
Also, please join an online daily DA group at https://join.skype.com/EfjQ2rGUOEPv Depressed Anonymous Journey of Hope. We hope to see you there.

DA Literature, Mutual Aid

Dep-Anon: A 12 Step Recovery Program for families and friends of the depressed

March 13, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Dep-Anon, a new publication from Depressed Anonymous Publications will be available this month and serve as a support group guide for family members who have a loved one whose life is affected by depression.
Here, you will learn how the various symptoms of depression can overtake the mind and feelings of your loved one. The chapter What is Depression? provides examples of behaviors demonstrating how negative symptoms can immobilize and change your loved one.
You will join with others families, no longer feeling alone, using the tools of Dep-Anon. You can learn how the spiritual principles of the 12 Steps, applied to one’s own situation, will accompany you through every chapter of this new work.
A new feeling of hope will begin to take hold as you participate in Dep-Anon meetings. You will learn from other Dep-Anon family members how to take care of yourself. Your focus begins with yourself and not the depressed family member. You will find that you can only change yourself.

To thine own self first be true.

This week stayed tuned to this website https://depressedanonymous.org where you will be able to order your own copy or order one for a family member.
Copyright(c) Dep-Anon A 12 Step recovery program of recovery for families and friends of the depressed.
(2121) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY.

DA Literature, Mutual Aid

The best help for the treatment of the depressed family member is for the family to first take care of themselves

March 11, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Dep-Anon Is A Twelve Step Program Of Recovery For Families And Friends Of The Depressed

The best help for the the treatment of the depressed family member is to take care of themselves. This is the message of Dep-Anon, a family support group for family members of the depressed.
Dep-Anon’s publication date is set for the middle of March, 2021. Depressed Anonymous Publications is making available a new book, with it’s emphasis on the family who have a family member who is depressed. The family is suggested to first keep its focus on their own lives. This is made possible by gathering families together and their using a group approach, emphasizing the twelve spiritual principles (steps) of AA and by practicing them on a daily basis in their own lives.
The following except from Dep-Anon, directed at the family who are beginning “to see the light”.

Our depressed loved one discovers that we are taking a “hands off” attitude toward them. Armed now with the knowledge about the nature of depression, we have more understanding about life and struggles which torment and vanquish the lives of those who suffer from depression. We realize they are to blame for depression, with all the negative symptom which form that syndrome. They are mentally, physically emotionally unable to turn on and off, like a water faucet, this deepening sadness which has them immobilized and believing ghat there is no way out.
With this being said we are at the starting point in our own recovery.

COPYRIGHT(C) Dep-Anon: A Twelve Step program of recovery for families and friends of the depressed (2021) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY 40241. pg 18.

Source:

Source:

Source:

Dep-Anon Is A Twelve Step Program Of Recovery For Families And Friends Of The Depressed

Hope is just a few steps away!