Category Archives: DA Literature

DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Hope

One picture is worth a thousand words!

October 14, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

The reason I started a Depressed Anonymous meeting in 1985 is because I knew that getting a meeting organized would be a help to those suffering from depression. I also know just like in any other 12 step fellowship group, power is in the group. Whatever the serious nature of the problem we face, a group of people who are on the same page, mentally, spiritually and physically, provides a healing atmosphere for the participant.

Since I was also a member of another 12 step fellowship, I instinctively knew that getting the depressed out of their isolation and into relationships with people like themselves would be therapeutic. We all had the same story to tell. It was not only a story of our struggles with our own depression but it was a story that brought a fresh new hope for ourselves and for all those with whom we shared out lives.

I mentioned the song sung by Ane Brun, the Norwegian singer, in a recent blog(10/13) and now today I would like to give you the lyrics to the song. I dedicate it to those who bring to life something new. We bring a new life not just for ourselves but for others like ourselves. In this case, here is the last stanza of her powerful message.

“It all starts somewhere

It all starts with one

Everything comes from something

It all starts with one

Starts with one.”

(You can hear her whole song on YouTube.)

I have found this song’s lyrics so powerful that I was motivated to share a small part of this song with each of you. As you and I know, ideas and movements have to start somewhere with somebody. They don’t just happen. Movements, great ideas, they always “start with one, and then two and then three and more. ” Truly a song about the power of ONE. We all know about the power of social media and how experiences of others become viral so that millions of people may see the same picture and get the same message. As the saying goes, “one picture is worth a thousand words.”

I remember well the reaction that I got when I asked my Dean of the Psychology Department if I could start a group for persons depressed. I felt that we had possibly found a way out of depression, using the 12 spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and modeling this program of recovery for persons depressed, The Dean’s response was doubtful. He gave me the “go ahead” but remarked that “since the depressed normally can’t get themselves out of bed because of their depression, don’t be disappointed if they don’t show up for this project.” I’m glad that we went ahead. We had a very successful outcome where most of the depressed in our program felt their depressed mood lighten. What happened after that is history. In May of 1985, with the help of members from our initial group, Depressed Anonymous was started. It is now is spreading around the world. Our literature is now in English, Farsi language, Russian, and presently being translated into Spanish (2019) and Dutch. The Internet has brought our message of hope into lives and homes around the globe. Our message of hope is just a click away.

Remember, it all starts with one, and two, three and more….

Hugh

DA Literature, Hope

“It all starts with one.”

October 12, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

A popular singer from Norway (Ane Brun) penned the lyrics of a song which I found to be a powerful testament to the “power of one.” If you type in the words “It all starts with one ” at You Tube you can hear the song and read the lyrics as well.

Over these many years with our fellowship Depressed Anonymous I have found that the song “It all starts with one ” to be a powerful reminder of the power individuals have when they have a passion for service. I am referring to those persons who start Depressed Anonymous meetings in their communities. They are the living proof that it only takes one person to share their passion and set up a meeting for those “still suffering” from depression. Most DA group founders who have started groups I know personally . Some are still at it after a decade or so of service.

Yes, it’s true. “It all starts with one” . Are you that one? Let us know at Depressed Anonymous if you are interested in helping others like yourself who are depressed. Depressed persons are looking to you for help.

Hugh

DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Focus, Hope

My moods began to spiral upwards once I regained control of my life!

October 10, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Is it that simple? Gaining control of my life didn’t happen overnight. I did know that most people’s depression usually lifted after a year’s time. Mine did. The catch is, that for me, it took some work and patience. No magic wand waving over my head and no silver bullet automatically killing the demon of despair that continued to beat me down. But what gradually happened was that my mood came back providing me with hope and a plan for my recovery. I began to feel some control over how I was feeling and the new mood of cheer gave me the courage to keep on doing what I was doing. In my case, my mood began to be lightened the more I continued my daily walking.

Just my determination to take of myself physically paid huge benefits. For once, in many months I felt some control over my mood and the direction where my life was heading. I was beginning to be in control instead of my life being out of control and unmanageable.

I remember in Graduate school I gave persons depressed a questionnaire determining how much control they felt they had over their lives. Interestingly, the person who felt they had less control over their lives, or none at all, these more depressed persons felt less in control over their environment and the way the direction of their life was taking.

Those who were less depressed answered that they were begin to feel more in control of their lives. These persons were experiencing more hope and the direction of their lives was providing purpose and meaning.

What to do?

First of all, get a plan that will work for you. My plan was this Step by Step program of recovery we call Depressed Anonymous. The best part of the plan is to find friends who, just like ourselves, are working the same plan. This fellowship, this non judgmental approach and support of the group provides us with our marching orders. When members of the fellowship share their story–we hear our own story. We know that just by admitting that we need help it is at this initial starting point, where we begin to spiral upwards instead of continuing the spiral downward.

If you want to take control of your life and your mood, it would do you well to join us and discover how others gained control over their lives just as it is possible for yourself.

SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Focus, Hope

My life is out of control!

October 8, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“I have come to the Step program because my life is out of control. Whatever I do or think or say seems to make no difference on the way that I feel right now. I feel out of control, and some other force is in charge of my life. I know also that this force, this power other than myself, this sadness has me captive and somehow I have felt unable to do much about it.”

Until today!

In our Home Study program of recovery, we use the Depressed Anonymous Workbook in conjunction with the Depressed Anonymous Manual, together let them lead us, Step by Step out of our depression.

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook facilitates a new self awareness by questions which we need to answer. Each Step is provides further meaningful thoughts from the “Big Book” of Depressed Anonymous. By reading certain noted paragraphs, as indicated in our Workbook, (Page #), we move through all the questions with that greater self-awareness of how depression controls every day of our lives. Actually, the Workbook, by its questions and my responses, continues to open up for me where my life can be lived with hope once again.

Example: Workbook question #1.9 “What areas of one’s life appear to be more out of control now that you are aware of how depression can isolate a person. What areas of one’s life appears more manageable now that you are aware of how you can change things around — choosing to feel differently?” Workbook, Page 9.

“It is in the admission that we are out of control that a remedy can be applied to our battle with depression. It is a paradox for our understanding of depression to learn that only when we give up control, do we gain control over what we want to be, think or do. If there is anything that creates a sense of hopelessness, it’s when we fee that we don’t have any control over our lives. When we are depressed, we feel dependent on all the forces that act on us and our environment. We feel that we are like the victims of the interminable feeling that we call depression. Depression can be like a hell or bottomless pit from which we feel we can never escape. It’s like being in an eighty foot hole with an eight foot ladder.” Depressed Anonymous Manual. Page 28.

Depressed Anonymous, 3rd ed., Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook, (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.Ky

Many Depressed Anonymous meetings use the Home Study as a meeting Step Study group

For more literature about Depression and the Twelve Steps click onto the Depressed Anonymous Bookstore.

12 Step Meeting, Belief, Counseling, DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Focus, Hope, Journaling, Serenity, Step 03, The 12 Steps

Faith Appears To Be Good For One’s Health

October 1, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Joyce was a client of mine a few years back. She was in her early sixties and just recuperating from a successful open heart surgery. She also was very depressed. That’s where I come in. I was asked by my clinical supervisor if I would spend some time with her and see how I might be of help to her. I agreed to do what I could do.

In the midst of counseling and listening to Joyce’s story, I discovered her strong faith, which included her personal faith in God which gave her the belief that she was going to get through whatever that had her in lockdown.

She wasn’t aware of our Depressed Anonymous group and so I shared my story with her and the fact that I too was once depressed. I told her how I became a believer in the spirituality of the Twelve Steps and how my belief in God delivered me from my symptoms of depression. Now don’t get me wrong -my own story is that it took me over a year to finally get free of this noose around my neck. Also, because of my faith in a program and the recovered people who lived it out in their daily lives, I started on the road to recovery.

My faith told me if I would follow some of the simple steps outlined in this recovery program I would get better. My faith got me off of my seat, out of bed and out my door to begin walking. I believed walking might be the key that unlocked my prison of depression. I read that some Doctors in England were writing out prescriptions for exercise for their depressed patients. I figured that it worked for them and so why wouldn’t exercise work for me. After a year of walking everyday I finally walked out of the mental fog, lost the jitters and became free of depression. My faith in a Higher Power and my getting my body moving on a daily basis produced the healing effect that I had hoped for.

Back to Joyce. She and I had ten sessions together and I suggested to her that she start to think about the things that she did before her depression. What provided the satisfaction and those pleasant events previously in her life. She talked about how she at one time was a cartoonist as well as a lover of writing poetry. So, that is what I suggested — that she involve herself with these pleasant activities again. She said that she believed that she could do it–even though her mind and body rebelled at moving out of her comfort zone of doing absolutely nothing. The main defense for doing nothing is the oft repeated mantra from all of us when we are depressed which is “I’ll do it when I feel better.”

With each new session she would share with me a cartoon or a poem which she had created the previous week. As she continued doing what she liked, I noticed more energy in her voice as she shared her feelings about her new creations. All the while, she was compliant with her own physical recovery from heart surgery. Her pleasant moods gave her a feeling of being in control of her life and her future. She came to believe that a power greater than herself would restore not only her sanity but her health as well. Her faith was renewed in the God of her understanding while restoring her belief that her health was going to get better. Not only did she have a plan to follow but she made the spiritual principles of the Twelve Steps her way out of depression. She continues to follow this map to this very day.

The following quote is from a work titled, The Secret Strength of Depression written by Frederic Flach, M.D., K.H.S.

“Faith appears to be good for one’s overall health. Cardiovascular illnesses are more frequently seen in depressed individuals, in patients with coronary ischemia, depression worsens the outcome, possibly due to alterations in platelet function and changes in autonomic tone. Depression is also associated with a higher mortality rate following acute myocardial infarction; for those patients who survive, the recovery process is often a more complicated one. Studies suggest that the recovery rate from medical and surgical procedures, from the repair of hip fractures to coronary bypass surgery, is faster among believers. Moreover, patients undergoing such treatment appear less likely to have serious complications or die.” Page 239.

SOURCES: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

Copyright(c) I’ll do it when I feel better. 2nd Edition 1986, 2013. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.

Copyright)(c) Believing is seeing:15 Ways to leave the prison of depression. (2017) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Fellowship, Service

Some depressions are followed by thriving. We honor the strength of those who achieve recovery. It is possible!

September 30, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“One obstacle to a more affirmative national conversation is that depression has lacked a unifying public symbol that could bring it out of the dark, and Livestrong(c) bracelets did for cancer or the rainbow flag did for LGBT. When most people think of depression, their first associations are to unfortunate images, such as a dark cloud, the color black, or a noose. One reason why depression stigma lives is that depression has a serious bumper stick problem.

But this is essentially an issue of failed marketing and messaging. It should be possible to develop a unifying symbol, and it is presented in a compelling way, many might rally. Conservatively, thirteen million US adults are currently in an episode of depression, more than twice that number have had depression in the past. When we add caregivers, millions more are indirectly affected by the quality and the quantity of our national dialogue about depression. Have no illusions. Even with a strong public education campaign, stereotypes that have been decades in the making will resist change. Still with so much to gain, it is high time that we try.

But in my view, finding more humane ways to discuss the predicament of depressed people is not just good marketing, it’s also good 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 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 people, to see their potential for rebirth after depression and the ways that, once reborn, they can help others build enduring recoveries from depression. It is possible.” Copyright(c) Rottenberg, Jonathon. The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic. (2014) Basic Books. New York, Pages 198-200.

Hugh’s comments

This work of Jonathon Rottenberg is one that everyone needs to read. Not only does it provide us with a insight into “mood science” it also is a positive statement on the depressed person’s strengths. And then it promotes the fact that once a depressed person recovers, they will go on and help others rebuild their lives.

If you are fortunate to be a member of the Depressed Anonymous fellowship you will understand this statement completely: helping others rebuld their lives completely. In fact this is where our Twelve Step program challenges the person recovered “having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps. we tried to carry this message to the depressed, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.”

SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky. (Personal Stories).

Our Big Book has more than 30 personal stories of how these stories of the recovered members of Depressed Anonymous have had their lives rebuilt and now are thriving and strengthened and reaching out to others depressed. It is possible.

DA Literature, Fellowship, Negativity

I kissed a chunk of my life away…

September 27, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

My Mother had died in 1983 and I fell into a severe depression. I felt overwhelmed and suicidal.

I never actually attempted suicide because the alcohol came into my life. It dulled my senses and made me oblivious. Alcohol also at the same time gave me this feeling of empowerment and happiness, but at the same time. – resentment because I knew what was bothering me and didn’t quite want to address the issue.

It wasn’t until 1993 that I joined Alcoholics Anonymous and got into therapy, which has been amazingly helpful. I’m growing and dealing with the death of my mother and with alcohol. My hobbies, like gardening and my writing give me great joy and are therapeutic. I’ve been working The Twelve Steps with an open mind that every day things will get better. If problem does occur, the Higher Power will give me the answer and the strength to deal with it and not to run away or shut it away like before.

Depression is something that’s so overwhelming. For me, it’s like crawling from beneath the earth and facing the light with fear that no ne would understand how I truly feel. When in depression, isolation would follow as my only friend, but actually, it was my own worst enemy. I should have been opening up to someone. Instead, I shut myself off from the world.

Through therapy, a belief in myself, and encouragement, facing each day doesn’t seem difficult.

Working my Twelve Steps of Depressed Anonymous and reading Higher Thoughts for Down Days gives me reassurance that we are not alone. I now appreciate what I do have when I work through the program.

Through prayer and appreciation, I realize that there’s more to life than alcohol and that I kissed a chunk of my life away because of it.

Now I’m gaining much more through life than ever before. Being sober, I see my life as a gift and not as a heavy burden.” Rheatha

Click on to Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore for more literature dealing with depression and the Twelve Step Program of Recovery.

Depressed Anonymous,3rd ed., Depressed Anonymous Publications. (Personal Stories). Pages 110-152.

Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 Daily Thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step Fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications

DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Faith, Fellowship, Hope, Mutual Aid

Sharing your story is to save your life!

September 20, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has at least one book inside of them that needs to be written. In her award winning book, Depression: The way out of your prison, Dr. Dorothy Rowe tells us how getting our story told can be life- changing, and for some life-saving. Below are her thoughts on the importance of sharing one’s story with that person who is willing to listen.

Help comes in two ways -from yourself and from other people. But help cannot come from other people unless you are prepared to find it and accept it. You have to find the people to confide in and you have to overcome your habit of keeping things to yourself. Perhaps you are ready to confide in someone, but there is no one available. Your family will not listen, and your doctor prefers to write you a prescription rather than give you his listening attention.

So you need to find someone who will listen. Someone outside the family and, possibly, outside work, is usually best—someone who has no vested interest in keeping you as you are or who has no reason to feel guilty about what you might disclose. It need not necessarily be just one person. On your journey out of your prison of depression you will meet many different gurus, people who throw light on your darkness. A nurse might listen to your fears about your health and the drugs you take, and may find the words to calm your fears. A friend may share with you the burden of family responsibilities. A pastor or priest might listen and acknowledge your religious doubts and fears and impart the courage and trust which enables you to deal with these. Of course, not everyone you hope to confide in will respond in a helpful way. ..”

And then Rowe continues to say that “you might like to consult a professional listener of some sort. You may find someone in the Health Service, or you might go to a private therapist. Talking to people who have been depressed and are now coping is tremendously helpful.” Pages 199-200. (Copyright) Depression:The Way out of your prison. (1996) Routledge. 2nd ed. London.

Our Twelve Step program tries to ensure that everyone who attends our program of recovery and who shares their story will be given a sponsor, a listener if you will, who too has experienced the pain and anxiety of depression. They are sponsors because they too have been able to share their stories. They know that powerful freedom that comes when someone really listens to us and our story. People often say to me “Doesn’t listening to all these depressed people get you depressed? ” And I can honestly say that it does not get me depressed. In fact, I know that by listening to someone else’s story, I find many areas which are similar to my own. Besides the fact that I myself experienced the chaos and pain of depression, I know how difficult it is to come out and share one’s own struggle. But it can be done!

If you are looking for someone or others to listen to your story with compassion and without a judgmental attitude, our group Depressed Anonymous is the right place to come. We are all storytellers. We all have been heard. We all continue to tell our story. Not only the personal account of our own depression but also the story of how we have recovered from depression. In our program there is always the “before ” and “after” story that we share. The ” after’ story of all of us is that important account of what we did to recover, how we did it and with whom we did it, made all the difference in the world. Out of the darkness into the light.

You can read the stories in Depressed Anonymous, which contain heart warming stories of how persons young and old, have come to our fellowship, shared their story and who now listen to those new members who share their own story. They want to share that hope, so that others depressed may know that there is a way out and a life to be lived without depression. They are no longer alone!

It takes trust to share our story. Finding the right person or the right group of persons is what we are looking for. There are persons waiting to hear your story. There are those persons who have recovered from depression and who are now sponsoring other people and forming other groups. If there is no group in your area, know that we have a long distance group learning program, called the Home Study Recovery program. This program can be done at home and all it requires is the willingness to work the Steps with a sponsor through emails. All one needs is the Depressed Anonymous manual and The Depressed Anonymous Workbook. There are no fees or dues for this Home Study Program. As in all our groups, sponsors can accompany new members as long as they like. In time, attending the DA groups our new member can choose their own sponsor.

Please go to The Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore at this site and examine the material that is used for this program. Again, in the event that you would yourself want to start a Depressed Anonymous group in your locality, these two books are our main resources used in all groups, here in the USA and internationally. If the purchase of the books is a hardship, contact the DA Publisher and they will make it possible for you to receive the books regardless of payment.

Depressed Anonymous, 3rd ed., Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

The Depressed Anonymous Email address is Depanon @Netpenny.net.

DA Literature, Fellowship, Spirituality, The 12 Steps

I Am Not Broken

September 17, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

More than 30 years ago I felt that I was a broken human being. We all have heard the old saying that “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Looking back over the time I spent dealing with the darkness within, I now can see my recovery time did make me stronger. That recovery forced me to use tools that I had never realized existed and fit for what I needed to raise myself up. These tools gave me strength for survival. The saying was true: move the body and the mind will follow. Instead of my mind and life spiraling further down into the pit of hopelessness I began spiraling upward with hope. In the beginning of my descent into nothingness I believed that the inner war that was going on in my body was going to kill me. I did believe that I was coming apart, unglued and a danger to myself. I was like a nomad in a wasteland where all the guideposts for directions had disappeared. My life had lost all meaning. My mind resisted thinking about hope and the future. I felt that I was in a state of limbo–no moving forward–only backward and down. My personal pain and anxiety kept me tied down in my own desperation.

Many have found my own story to be a positive statement in which almost on a daily basis I am able to share some of my thoughts about this journey which I am on and which you too can be on. Our own story of recovery is really a tool that others can put to use for their own lives,

My depression experience has provided me with a life purpose and given me meaning which I never dreamt would be my own recovery gift for others “still suffering” to use for their own recovery; the repair of their own personal brokenness. My own life and the Twelve Steps has provided a key which helped me unlock the prison of my depression. The Steps provide ample guidance and direction for those of us who continue the spiral upward, living out in our own lives the hope and purpose which have been promised to those of us who desire a life after depression.

Hugh

You can read the author’s story in the Depressed Anonymous book, plus 30 more personal accounts of those who have also used the recovery tools for their own freedom from depression.

Click on to The Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore for more literature which deals effectively with depression and recovery. Orders can be made online.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship

The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk got it right!!

September 14, 2018 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“It’s an addiction if you find yourself continually bashing yourself for past mistakes and /or failures. It is this constant rumination that puts us in the negative spiral which leads to more isolation, withdrawal and psychic pain. The familiar feeling of sadness and the continual inner hollowness that make our life so miserable becomes our security.”

But, where do we go from here? I myself got caught up in the spiraling downward descent into the darkness and hell of depression. I felt trapped and helpless.

My spiraling upward came when I felt the hope in the stories of those like myself, who no longer felt hopeless and helpless. I became proactive in my own recovery and survival. Some had already attempted to commit suicide. Once I discovered others just like myself, I was fascinated by the fact that others were really telling my story as well. There were differences in some of the details, but basically their stories rang true with my own. It was from that moment on that I was hooked.

Was the group my own Higher Power? Who was the God that was greater than myself? How did I contact this Power? It was listening to others that I came to believe that there is someone, somebody that I could believe in, to free me from my prison of depression.

It was just like the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina who believed that humans could fly. They had their ups and downs, (no pun intended) but their faith in what they were doing got them in the air and off the ground.

The way to get up and get moving toward recovery is to get moving and start working the Steps, one by one. You too will begin to live in hope one day at a time. You will now have a flight plan that will take you where you want to go.

Hugh

The second Step of the Twelve Steps promotes the belief that we “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

For more information on the Steps and Depression click onto the Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore for your own flight plan! It’s a journey you will never regret.

Hope is just a few steps away!