” In Depressed Anonymous we are  exposed constantly to the tough message that we have to give up our self-pity and sadness if we are to be happy.  We have to think in terms of what is possible with God in our lives. Sometimes people come to Depressed Anonymous and can’t  understand what this has to do with how bad they feel. If after a number of meetings they still don’t want to work the Twelve Steps, we recommend other groups for them. Depressed Anonymous is a spiritual program and it is allowing the Higher Power into our lives that eventually delivers us from the habit of feeling sad and depressed. We in Depressed Anonymous are committed to working the Twelve Steps and listening to each other share how God , as we understand God, have worked in our lives.

Daily we pray that God will release us from our depression and will show us God’s will and way to peace.  Don’t give up on yourself but come back to meetings week after week. In time, the truth about yourself as revealed to you by the group and the Higher Power will set you free.   That is a promise.

One of the major areas of our lives that we have a difficult time with, is getting in touch with our feelings. Many of us who are presently depressed know that one of our greatest defenses is the denial of our  feelings — our ability to feel is diminished as we continually choose numbness over vitality and spontaneity.”

In Step Three we have to make a decision.  We don’t have to  feel holy or extra nice but that we only have to make a decision — that is hard for someone who is depressed but it can be done.  There is an old saying that goes like this : “Have a nice day unless you made other plans.” SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 50.

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And in section #3.15  of our Depressed Anonymous Workbook we are asked to write out our feelings about the issue of  needing to be in control and how  that applies to our selves?  How has this need to be in control kept you isolated and withdrawn from others and your own understanding of God?  Do you have difficulty in trusting others. Even God? Write out your answers.

”   I want to start to really begin to turn things order to the God of my understanding. In Depressed  Anonymous we call this God our Higher Power.

AS Bill W., said

“We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us.  Ask God  in your morning meditations what you can do each day for the man/woman who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order.

But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got.  See to it that your relationship with God is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is a great fact for us.”

SOURCE: The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 17.

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NOTE: YOU Can order the GROUP/HOME STUDY KIT (Includes both The WORKBOOK  and the DEPRESSED ANONMOUS MANUAL) at VISIT THE STORE here online. Other Depressed Anonymous literature is also available. Check it out.

“What do we consider to be the Higher Power or the God that is larger and more powerful than our personal depression?  In our prayers we believe that God or the Higher Power can free us from the burden of our joylessness, and that the why of our depression is not as important as the fact that we are depressed. What is it about our complete dependence on this obsession with sadness, our chronic fatigue and feelings of worthlessness that won’t let go of us? Granted, sometimes we feel depression is a comfort, and we’re afraid to let  go of it because we don’t as yet  know what will replace it. Hope tends to be unpredictable whereas the pain of depression is constant and predictable. We can depend on it.

We have given ourselves over to the belief that this growing feeling of helplessness is what must govern our lives, moods and behavior. We have given it license to run roughshod over every part of our life and over our relationships. Most people can’t see inside us and discover the pain that makes up our every waking moment. For the most part, we are able to hide how miserable we feel.”

Comment

In Step Two of our Twelve Step recovery program,  we begin to see the light and walk into the arena of  freedom, and can now profess that we “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, and that this simple belief gets us closer to the promise of serenity and hopefulness.

As we look at our Depressed Anonymous Workbook and those questions dealing with the Second Step we are asked to comment on this  question:

#2.15  Describe how your Higher Power might be your depression or your attachment to a person, substance, place, thing or behavior?  The Workbook commentary continues on with the following thought: For the depressed person giving up old ways of thinking and acting is much like giving up any other addiction -at first letting go of the old behavior makes us feel uncomfortable. The old behavior wants to cling to our spirit like swamp mud hangs onto knee-high boots. Before you participate in DA you would go home from work, get by yourself and ruminate on how bad you felt. This new behavior will help you think differently about yourself. You will find that this Higher Power, or God as you understand it, is not the same God that you might have met when you were young. When you were a child you came to believe that God was watching you, ready to punish you if you were not perfect. You will begin to develop an adult and new way of being related to God as you understand God. With time, persistence and patience, you will gradually trust your life to this Higher Power.”  ( See Page 48 in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition, page 48., for a full description of these thoughts.)

SOURCES:         Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition  (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.  (Home study kit-Book One)

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook  (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.   (Home study kit -Book Two)

  Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

 NOTE     VISIT THE STORE at this site for more information on using the Twelve Steps of Recovery for overcoming one’s depression.

Step  One of  the Depressed Anonymous fellowship puts it out there straight and to the point. If we want to recover from  our experience of sadness and isolation we have to get the ball moving. We will  admit  that something is  out of whack in our lives. This First Step is where we start our healing process.

In the Depressed Anonymous Workbook (See Home Study Kit) we can find answers to our questions about depression as they unfold from reflections about our life today. We will take the time and make the effort to unravel from our lives where we find our selves powerless and our lives out of control.

For example in Question  #1.11  in the Workbook it asks the reader: When have you most felt powerless over anything in your life?  How did you handle your feelings of powerlessness then?

I  believe that by looking over our past  difficult life events and circumstances which you have faced and overcome,  this in itself suggests  that you can do it again.

By reading the personal stories in our  Depressed Anonymous book, you have definite proof that those persons who follow the  12 Step program of recovery  no longer feel powerless. Now with the help of the Steps, the Fellowship of Depressed Anonymous and the tools provided for recovery, life becomes manageable. That’s a Promise!

SOURCES:  HOME STUDY KIT  (Visit the store)

Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition and The Depressed Anonymous Workbook together, include  the Home Study Kit. Each group benefits by utilizing both at every meeting.

“Some days I miss my sad thoughts. They are addictive.  They fill a space and meet a requirement of comfort and familiarity. And because humans require and seek a level of comfort and familiarity, the depressed human is no different.  Sadly  (pardon the pun) it’s the sad thoughts that  provide the deep level of comfort is the exact reason that these thoughts  are so familiar. When I  remove the sadness … I have to work to replace that big open field of nothingness left…It feels hard. It feels like work. Pressure and effort…I want to fall back into the sad thinking because I know very well how to form these thoughts and how even to feel them.  Strangely, how to make use of then. They serve a strong purpose. They validate my depression and vice versa. They have lived in me for so long that to have to fill the void of their once lived life in space, feels so hard.  Uncomfortable. My mind is having to accept this new training which  I’m  putting it through. It doesn’t want to change. At first, it is not giving a welcome to  these new positive thoughts. It is a struggle. My mind, lurching restlessly back and forth, I hear the great struggle.: ” I just want to go home to my bed. No, no,  you want to go to the grocery shopping! No, no,  please I need to just lay down . No, I’m leaving the store!! I am so depressed. No, no,  you are going to do your task today because it makes  you feel better.”  And then I tell myself, ” I refuse to be held captive and a victim to this negative dark thinking that is killing me.”

The whole day  continues on like this. It takes time to truly train the mind to accept these incoming positive thoughts…affirmations are a needed daily medicine for the sad mind, and it takes consistency. I ask myself, how bad do I want to feel better? This is the process of healing for my depressed mind and  my feelings.   Now, slowly I miss my sad thoughts less and less.  Now, I continue to  feel the need for  positive affirmations.

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I want to thank Debra S, a member of the Edenton/Elizabeth City, North Carolina,   Depressed Anonymous Group,  for sharing  an excerpt  chapter,  Missing my sad thoughts from her new  book : Depression rides in the hearse. (This work is  available this year).

Hello friends

Just a note today to share with you something  that you already know, namely,  how the continuous thinking of unpleasant thoughts wears us out.

One day, quite by accident I discovered a secret. I discovered how my mind was trying to fool me, by making me believe that I was tired, worn out and needed to lie down and just sleep.

So, again, I was wearing myself out with my gloom and doom thoughts when I believed I was too tired to do anything. I suddenly thought, “Hey, wait a minute, I don’t have to keep running from myself and let this fatigue force me down on my back. ” So, what did I do? I went to my computer desk, and began to write. It was like driving through a blasting blizzard with nothing to be seen ahead of more except the hood of my car. I continued to write. The fatigue persisted.  And then gradually with about ten minutes under my belt,  my negative thoughts slowly replaced with thoughts focused on what I was banging out on my keyboard, I felt a resurgence of energy. Now, I wanted to continue to write. Gradually, I began to feel the lightness of hope  coursing through my arteries. It was like someone had turned on the light and gave me the secret to keep on my feet, so to speak, and regain the energy that I wanted to sleep away.

I distracted myself, pulled away from the gloomy thoughts and focused all my attention on creating something brand new.  The pulling away and  knowing   now  that I can walk away from the temptation to surrender myself to that which would have continued to put me down.

Try it. It works for me. It can work for you as well.

Hugh