Category Archives: DA Literature

Belief, Believing Is Seeing, Fear, Fellowship, Mindfulness, Purpose, Step 04, Step 10, The 12 Steps

I will make a daily inventory of all my strengths

June 15, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Believing Is Seeing: 15 Ways To Leave The Prison Of Depression – Eleven

I will make a daily inventory of all my positive strengths. I tended to magnify the worst in everything in my life and make mountains out of molehills. I will focus on my stars and not my scars.

“One of the problems of being depressed is that every circumstance and situation is filled with potential hurt and disappointment. The depressed person has a tendency to think in patterns of despair, hurt, and disappointment. It appears to be a proven fact that the more a person keeps their fears and anxious thoughts to themselves, this can cause the mountain to grow larger. But by sharing these fears and thoughts with others, either by writing them out, as in a daily journal, or group discussion (like on SKYPE and ZOOM) we soon discover that our fears are not as big as we thought. The expression of fear many times decreased the size of their fear. Now that we are accepting ourselves we can begin to see that we possess the strength and persistence to tackle whatever obstacle lies ahead.

One of the features that stands out in our lives when depressed is we see everything in dark colors. Nothing looks hopeful. There does not appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel – except that it might be an oncoming freight train. We feel that we do not have a friend in the world. We feel that we’ll never feel good again. The list goes on and on.

What may be of some help is to take out pen and pencil and begin writing down your good points that you feel are your strengths. We have already done this, but it still remains an excellent exercise no matter how often you do it.

What do you remember as strengths before being aware that you are depressed? Going to Depressed Anonymous meetings has the potential to restore your sense of proportion about your strong points. At the meetings your friends in the fellowship will begin to tell you are showing improvement the more you are participating in the meetings. To listen to those who themselves are working the program and who share their lives week after week, you begin to realize that you too can begin to feel differently. Today can be a new start and yes, you do have it within yourself to be that person who is reversing old negative patterns of thinking and replacing them with thoughts of hope and optimism. You now believe that there is hope for yourself. Right now your strength seems to be that of maintaining a habitual way of thinking thoughts of hope. By the fact that you are reading this, takes the strength to want to feel good and continue to maintain a positive recovery. Begin now and reflect on your strengths. Believe that you have a way to maintain a personal persistence and desire to continue with gratitude for this new feeling of hope.”

NOTE: Take your pen and/or pencil and begin writing your thoughts down in response to the questions posed in the DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS WORKBOOK. Depressed Anonymous Publications.

Resources

These basic books of the Depressed Anonymous Fellowship can be ordered online.

See: www.depressedanon.com

Literature Available

To receive a mailing of Depressed Anonymous literature, send a Self addressed stamped envelope to: DAP, Box 465, Pewee Valley, Kentucky. 40056.

The material can be used as “handouts” at your local Depressed Anonymous meetings.

Depressed Anonymous

I have realized that I was addicted to the self

May 11, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“As a person that has suffered depression since childhood, I can say that until you start to open up, share your hurts and feelings, listen to the members of the group, watch them as they grow from the support of the group, you will not be able to get out of your prison of depression. I have been going to Depressed Anonymous for four years and only until recently have I realized that I was addicted to the self. Only then did I start to take a good look at myself and start to ask God for his help and truly mean it. I am learning to trust God and do his will an not mine. I feel better about myself. I can tell you it is a lot easier to be depressed than it is to work on yourself and admit to yourself that there is a problem. It is God’s will for us to live each day to the fullest because our time is limited. Live each day, not yesterday or tomorrow. Share with the group and your friends and you will be surprised who will be glad to listen if you would give them a chance. Accept the fact that all of us at Depressed Anonymous are here to listen to you and not make judgments on you or give advice. Even if you don’t want to share, come to the meetings because you can always get something out of them. Eventually, you will want to share and the group will listen.”

Starr, who is a member of Depressed Anonymous , writing her PERSONAL STORY, is one of the many stories that are shared in (c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) . Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Page 130.

Skype and Zoom meetings are online every day of the week. The following are a listing of persons to contact if you want more information.

Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Meditation, Prayer

There is a direct linkage between self-reflection, meditation and prayer

May 7, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related an interwoven, the result is an unshakeable foundation for life.” The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions.

In Step Four of the Depressed Anonymous program of recovery, we read from The Depressed Anonymous Workbook the following encouraging statement:

“By our daily conscious contact with God as we under stand God, I believe that my daily efforts at listening to my Higher Power’s word will help me focus in on where I need to change. I hope that my depression will always be examined the moment I feel down and blue for no apparent reason. If I slow down, take a pencil and write down what I have been thinking of lately, I do believe that my sadness will slowly evaporate – slowly like the early morning fog.

I will cast away my fears, guilt and resentments by getting them down on paper in front of me. On black and white.

Copyright(c) The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2009) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Page 27. STEP FOUR

This Workbook can now be downloaded as an Ebook for $1.00 from the Depressed Anonymous Bookstore at www.depressedanon.com.

Offer lasts until the end of May. After that it will resume its price of $12.00.

12 Step Meeting, Acceptance, Depressed Anonymous, Faith

Isolation and Covid-19 – We Offer Skype meetings – Check Our Past Posts On The Blog Here For More Info

May 3, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

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.

Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.

In our basic text, Depressed Anonymous, one of the words that show up most frequently are the words, Isolation, trust and surrender. It is not surprising that the word isolation is at the top of the list. Isolation is one of those behaviors that can keep us in depression, alone, and deepening a mood of feeling hopeless.

With the corona virus causing death, terror among all people of the earth, it has also forced us to quarantine ourselves from everyone else. Our isolation, in this case, can save our life and keep us from getting infected and suffer a painful death.

Let’s say I am depressed already and isolating because of my need to withdraw from, family and friends and suffer with my pain alone. What do I do now? Who and what can help me? I am feeling desperate. I used to go to the market, the park and at least get out of my apartment. I could feel part of the world and the life around me. At least I had the knowledge that I could go out and be with others, without having to talk or even say hello. Now I feel like I’m all alone on a deserted island.

If you are depressed and reading this now, you can find help online at the Depressed Anonymous website www.depressedanon.com. There are also daily meetings of the group International Online Depressed Anonymous which hosts the meeting via SKYPE meeting at 12:30 pm (EST).

We hope that you can take advantage of these peer led 12 step meetings. I recommend them to you. Please come and join our fellowship. We are people with hope.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

For the fellowship.

Higher Thoughts for Down Days

I want to get my life back again

May 1, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

AFFIRMATION

I will express my feelings in an appropriate and reasonable manner.

…In different contexts I would describe how I construe anger: To me it is a human response to frustration. It is not essentially evil, but it is a facet of our civility and creativity. Our task in dealing with our anger is to inspect critically the sources of our frustration and to develop ways of expressing our anger is to inspect critically the sources of our frustrations and to develop ways of expressing our anger which are socially acceptable and creative.”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

In my efforts, to find peace and sanity in my life, I am beginning to figure out a few things, namely., that if I want to get my life on track, I will have to live by the principles of the spiritual program that we call Depressed Anonymous. In my doing the 4th and 5th Steps of the program, I am finding that, I must take an inventory of my character defects that have kept me from living with trust and hope in my daily life. The principles of the Twelve Steps are an assurance that my life can get better. The more I work the Twelve Steps, the more that I must develop in my life.

I need not declare that I will never get angry again–only that I will get in touch with my feelings and express them appropriately. Once my anger is acknowledged, I hope in time, for my ability to forgive to grow and be expressed.

MEDITATION

We thank you, God, for your grace, a gift to be sure. We don’t have to be the most perfect ones to achieve it. We know it is from you that we receive the courage to live our lives in a more hopeful and serene manner.

RESOURCE
Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Hugh Smith. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Ky. Page 73.

NOTE: Higher Thoughts and other selections can be ordered online.

VISIT THE STORE

Belief, DA Literature, Fellowship, Meditation

Depression gradually dies in the light of day….

April 28, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

The best way to live TODAY is to be fully conscious of the present moment and create that strong desire to be part of it. Let’s not live in yesterday -the rent can kill you.

How often do I spend time in tomorrow and so miss the joy of today? I think one of the more serious occupations (aren’t they all serious?) of the depressed is just to sit and think , and think some more about how bad life is and what awful people they are. The self-bashing makes one’s ability to change even more difficult, as continued depressive ruminations promote a great sense of unworthiness and confusion. We feel that we have no control over what happens in our life. Actually, we are not so sure that we should care. Everything seems hopeless. Living in yesterday is to pay some high price rent – and when you are done paying the rent, you still have nothing to show for it.

I want to be responsible though I feel it’s difficult to face the fact that one of the ways of getting out of my prison is to stay and feel the pain of my sadness. I have to live in the here and now – I can’t run and hide in the unknown of tomorrow or disappear into the gloomy fog of yesterday. We begin to get mentally healthy when we take it upon ourselves to admit 1) I have a problem, and 2) secondly, I need to change the way I think about myself and my world. Again, no one need to blame us for that that we got ourselves depressed – but once we know and believe that we are depressed – we learn that we need to take full responsibility for our recovery. And one of the best ways to break our dependency on our sadness is to share and admit our depression to members of our Depressed Anonymous group. We know how depression flourishes and grows in the privacy and solitude of our minds.

Depression gradually dies in the light of open sharing and frank discussion. We are only as weak as the secrets we keep and strong as the secrets we share.”

Copyright(c) Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2020) Hugh Smith. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pgs. 39-40.

Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Journaling

All it takes is one good person to restore hope – Pope Francis

April 20, 2020 Hugh Smith 2 Comments

This statement is so true. All it takes is one good person to restore hope. This is a reality that I personally experience each day of my life. I find these individuals every day – carrying the message of hope to those others who are looking for a way out of their pain and suffering. These good people who lead are sharing their own hope, strength and experience with those who still suffer alone, and without hope. These good people take it upon themselves to communicate to others how they found hope and now want to share their recovery with others. They are using the fellowship of hope by the electronic systems such as ZOOM, SKYPE, FACEBOOK and the many face to face groups outside of the virtual world. These various communication tools enable us to reach around the world bringing fellowship to those seeking hope.

Recently, individuals in Poland decided to set up their own SKYPE meetings. Just recently in America two ZOOM group are operating, with one more about to get up and running. There is also a phone – in meeting operating. in America.

We are here at depressedanon.com (Depressed Anonymous) offering hope to those who come to our website. A Blog is offered a number of times a week. There are those good people who are not members of Depressed Anonymous who use their resources and talents to keep our websites, our ZOOM and SKYPE online programs operating with a myriad of technical skills. All in all, good persons continue to find hope and share what they have with others. so that they too can experience the hope that is real and offered freely to them.

Depressed Anonymous website at depressedanon.com will lead you to the places where you can go and join up with others at a 12 Step Depressed Anonymous meeting.

Like Francis tells us “All it takes is for one good person to restore hope.”

Won’t you be the next “one good person?” Will you join with us on this great journey where we all discover the hope of recovery and personal serenity?

The Fellowship of Depressed Anonymous

Depressed Anonymous, Depressed Anonymous Workbook

How to grow your inner security. (During Covid-19 purchase and download two DA Ebooks – each $1)

April 18, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“It is by becoming part of the group that you will experience that miracle of the group. You will find that power greater than yourself is about to restore you to a feeling of serenity and personal hope.” Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Pg. 51.

“As faith grows, so does inner security, The vast underlying fear of nothingness commences to subside. We of AA find that our basic antidote for fear is a spiritual awakening.” Bill W., in As Bill Sees it. Pg. 196.

(Depressed Anonymous is modeled on the 12 Steps of AA.)

Resource

ALERT!!!!

YOU CAN NOW ORDER TWO OF DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS eBOOKS, EACH $1. (Basic text AND Workbook. ORDER EXPIRES ON MAY 1ST. GO TO THE DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS BOOKSTORE AND CHECK OUT OTHER FINE LITERATURE.

Depressed Anonymous

The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it!

April 17, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

The spiritual life is a life that one chooses. We make a decision as it says in Step Three of Depressed Anonymous, and our lives are changed for ever.

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.”

This decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God is one o f the most important we will ever make in our lives. The more we surrender to God’s peace the more we will find our way. It is the paradox of our existence in that it is in the letting go that we receive, and it is only living in God’s will as we understand God that we can have real life and joy…” Depressed Anonymous Pg. 46.

“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 depressed now that one of our great defenses is the denial of our feelings – our ability to feel is diminished as we continually choose numbness over vitality and spontaneity.” Depressed Anonymous. Pg.50.

DA Literature

Hope is contagious!

April 14, 2020 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Yes, hope is definitely contagious,

When I attend a Depressed Anonymous meeting I hear hope spoken. My own mood is elevated listening to how others are feeling better because of using the Twelve Steps of Recovery for their lives. Now, because of online Depressed Anonymous groups on SKYPE and ZOOM, the depressed have the opportunity to feel and find hope. And once they move through the most painful experience of their lives,they come back and share with the group how their life once was and how it is now.

Persons find hope. They will find a fellowship that speaks their language.

Yes, hope is definitely contagious.

In the very helpful book The Depths: The evolutionary origins of the depression epidemic, the author Jonathon Rottenberg shares with the reader how our deep moods can lead to depression. He calls his study a mood science.

“…The mood science perspective tells us that depression, deep or shallow, is a natural product of the mood system. However a person gets there, facing deep depression is a supremely difficult trial. Rather than assuming weakness or defectiveness . We should acknowledge that getting through depression requires considerable strength .Rather than assuming permanent debility, we should recognize that some depressions are followed by thriving. Writing these words fourteen years after my episode, I recognize that I am not broken. Getting beyond the disease model will require us to honor the strengths of formerly depressed and the ways that, once reborn , they can help others build enduring recovery from depression.

It is possible.”

Yes, hope is contagious!

(c) The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic. Jonathon Rottenberg (2014) Basic Books, New York, NY. Pages 199-200.

Believing Is Seeing: 15 Ways To Leave The Prison Of Depression – Eleven

Resources

Literature Available

Hope is just a few steps away!