Category Archives: DA Literature

12 Step Meeting, Anger, Attachment, Blame, Choice, Depressed Anonymous

Valuing yourself is risky business

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MY PERSONAL  AFFFIRMATION FOR TODAY

I choose again to read my 12 Step Manual (Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition) on a daily basis and from it find the courage to make decisions that promote my well being and my joy.

“There  are two problems about deciding things for myself. First, it means that you can’t blame anyone else when things turn out badly. (But you can take credit when things turn out well). Second, other people can get very angry with you for not doing what they want. Valuing your self is a risky business. What risk is preferable?  The risk of making your own decisions or the risk of not valuing yourself? ”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
I  see myself as part of the solution to recovering from my attachment to sadness. I was a sadness addict. Now I am attached to the joy of risking myself so that I can live. That is what I value most now — the desire to live with uncertainty  and be unafraid.

I blame when I no longer want to look inside of myself. I feel that when I admit my former need to sad myself, I no longer blame anyone, but instead, I am putting my energies into sharing how I feel with others.

MEDITATION

God, we trust in you. We commit ourselves to you. We know that you are ready to act in our behalf the more we commit ourselves to you and your will. Give us the courage to keep in contact with you daily. Our time with you is our daily bread. (Personal comments)

Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of  12 Step fellowship groups.  Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Choice, DA Literature, Focus

I am beginning to feel a change stirring in my relationships with others because I am changing. It’s all positive!

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A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY TODAY

AFFIRMATION

“The journey out of the prison is not just a matter of changing yourself, for in changing yourself, you change your relationship with other people.”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

 As I look around me I begin to see others like myself talking the language of hope and experiencing the sometimes occasional lightening of  their mood. I know that it is in the wealth of individual interactions among members of the group that I am beginning to withdraw from my need to sad myself. I am seeing that any change in myself has a direct bearing on others and the relationship that we have with each other.

I came  to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity, and in fact, it already has. My addiction to my sadness has come more to be my habitual response to the stressful, day in and out thoughts that say that I am worthless. I am now changing these negative thoughts remembered from childhood into a new personal language that speaks to me and about me in positive ways.

I know that when I am depressed I don’t want to be around people because I felt so tired and sad. But now, the more I attempt to make new relationships and get  involved with other people, the more I desire to grow and become what I want to be. Progress is our aim and we tend to grow in little spurts, day by day.”

MEDITATION

God, we pray that our relationship with you will grow stronger day by day. (Personal thoughts)

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SOURCES:  Copyright  (c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 75.

Copyright(c)      Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

 

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship

Your emotional wellness starts today!

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A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY

AFFIRMATION

I am going to treat myself with the same respect that I afford others.

“The pain that other people inflict on us can be very great, but the pain that we inflict on ourselves can be even greater. While many of the people who get depressed, despite the temptaition, do not kill themselves, and many inflict on themselves the long, drawn out pain of taking pride in keeping yourself to yourself.” D.Rowe.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

When I continue to isolate myself and keep to myself, I am continuing to serve myself nothing but a life of emptiness. I am living a life that is so predicatable that it is like being frozen in time and left there all alone.

No person is an island. The more that the belief that I am no good, bad, worthless, unacceptable to myself and others, grows in my consciousness. the more that belief crowds out the hope that possibly there is a way out of this awful isolation – this self imposed hell.

Keeping to ourselves perseveres the predictableness of our small universe. It is steady, never changes and it is a prison. Isolation, aloneness and being unsupported is what my depression is all about. Now my new words are fellowship, togetherness, support.

I can move out to those like myself who are in the pain and the throes of depressison. I can learn how I can work my step program and assume a new relationship in my expanded world. I need not worry about the depression coming back. I just try and live one day at a time. Survive the now and I will survive the tomorrow.

MINDFUL of THE HIGHER POWER

God, you have created a universe full of cousins, namely the beetles, lots of them, butterflies, snails, fish and all sorts of lions, tigers and bears. We are not alone now and intend no longer to keep ourselves to ourselves. We want to get connected again. We never really were connected to anyone, or anything. It was all too frightening. But, we know, we believe, we feel your presence hovering over our hearts and we feel strong and willing to risk ourselves with others. (Personal comments)

SOURCES: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of Twelve Step fellowship groups. Dperessed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. April 12

Copyright (c) Depressed Aninymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

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

Depressed Anonymous, Higher Thoughts for Down Days

“The teacher arrives when the student is ready.”

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My thought for today

AFFIRMATION

I believe more and more that my Higher Power will  help me trust in it’s daily direction for my life.

“If you want to give up being depressed,  give up your  belief in a Grand design of rewards and punishments.”

This is not to say that you should give up your belief in God. You simply give up your beliefs  of God as the great accountant and judge in the sky, and see him, instead as the mystics of all religions have seen GOD –as a great power beyond, above and inside us, a Power of which we are part and which we take on trust.” D. Rowe.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

The myth from my childhood is that if I am good, then I will be happy. I want to learn how to believe that my universe is under the guidance of God who wants the very best for me. This God of my understanding is a God who, if I let it, will lead me out of my misery and provide me with the understanding and direction that I need to live out my life, if I but let it. This is not to say that my journey will be an easy one, but I must start somewhere and at sometime in my life. I am convinced that it is my involvement with the group and my time of daily prayer and meditation that can provide me with the strength to live one day at a time and in the present moment.

As I become familiar with the Twelve Step program  I can be assured that some power greater than myself is gradually providing my life with a balance and serenity.

Step Two of Depressed Anonymous tells us that we “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

MEDITATION

It is only when we know and believe that some Higher Power in our lives can restore us to sanity will  we be able to let the God of our understanding lead us.”

(Personal comments).

SOURCES:  Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of Twelve Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. March 10.

Copyright(c)  Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

DA Literature, Fellowship

I’m depressed. How can a group of other depressed persons help me?

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Good question. Let me tell you this. The people best able to tell you about leaving the prison of depression are people like us who are or were depressed at one time, or even many times before. In fact, some of us in our fellowship tried to end our lives because of the pain of depression. We do have a solution to the problem. We speak the language of depression, which means our isolation, our continued and oppressing negative thinking and our constant thoughts on how bad life is for us. But the good point here is, because we are feeling better, we share our hope and new found recovery with all those who will listen.

We are not the people with the silver bullet or the magic wand that mysteriously and magically takes away the pain that we feel 24/7. But in our group meetings and by reading literature written by people like ourselves–done that, and been there — we begin to have hope that maybe something good can happen for me too. Now if you want to believe what I just told you, then please read on.

It’s said that it takes one to know one. And if you are depressed and you want to feel at home with people like yourself, then you need to look into our fellowship Depressed Anonymous. Click onto a search engine like Google and go to our website Depressed Anonymous and discover for yourself who we are and what we do. You can even subscribe (free) to our Newsletter. (See Newsletter Archives at the site menu). You might also want to scroll down the Blogs written by those of us who are getting the message out that there is hope for those of you want to try our way.

And for those of you who do not have a meeting in their own community, we have a HOME STUDY PROGRAM in which you can learn all about our program of recovery at your own leisure and find how there is a real hope that you can feel better like the rest of us in the program of Depressed Anonymous.

Please take a look at VISIT OUR DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS BOOKSTORE and discover the helpful literature that will inspire you and provide you with the tools to overcome your own depression.

Higher Thoughts for Down Days, I'll Do It When I Feel Better

I felt envious of those who were happy and optimistic

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This is your Higher Thought for today

AFFIRMATION

The more active I become in working my program, the better and healthier I feel about myself

“If you want to get better you have to act on your own behalf…”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I know this might go against the grain of all of us who felt there was absolutely nothing we could do to help ourselves out of the prison of depression. Now I know that if I want to start feeling  better I have to be active in my own healing.  How does it work? First of all I admit I am powerless over my depression ; secondly, I put my trust in a Higher Power and believe that it can restore me to some sanity. I commit myself to understanding its will for my life.

I begin to believe that by getting active and involved in my own recovery, I will begin to be free of the interminable sadness that I have lived with for most of my life. In my depression, I was jealous of others who I figured had it better than I did. I envied those who felt happy and optimistic.  Now I know that I can feel better, too.

MEDITATION

We want to live with the belief that we can get better. We are recovering by means of our belief in a Power greater than ourselves.”  (You may want to write out your own personal responses to this Higher Thought   here for today.)

SOURCE: Copyright (c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. March 24. Pages 60-61.

Copyright(c) I’ll do it when I feel better. (2017) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.     

NOTE: You can order Higher Thoughts for Down Days online by going to our website at Depressed Anonymous (www.depressedanon.com ). Click onto the drop down Menu  at VISIT THE STORE and  click onto The Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore, where any one of 12 different publications can be purchased.

Higher Thoughts can be purchased as a KINDLE eBook.  The Depressed Anonymous manual, 3rd edition and the Depressed Anonymous Workbook can likewise be ordered as eBooks.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship

I saw the light! The light of hope. The light on the path to freedom and sanity!

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AFFIRMATION

Spring can only start in my mind and, today, the first day of Spring, I want to be a beautiful flower. I will visualize myself growing tall and bright and filled with God’s most beautiful colors.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

“One of the reasons I am depressed is because I have made this an absolute belief of mine, namely the  belief  ‘Only bad things happened to me in the past and only bad things will happen to me in the future.’ (3) Dorothy Rowe, Ph.D

Now that I am working on myself and admitting that I have to do some housekeeping on myself. I am beginning  to hope and see a light at the end of the tunnel. I also believe that I will begin to feel better, the more I go to my DA meetings and listen to how other people are working the Twelve Step Program.

The future is where I live right now. The future now is the yesterday’s  tomorrow. I am making my future now.

I no longer believe that only bad things will happen to me in the future, because now I hear how people who once were ready to give up on life speak of how they have found hope in the fellowship of Depressed  Anonymous  and are getting, better one day at a time.

MEDITATION

God , please help us live up to our belie that each day we will get better as we live only in today and not in the fears and anxious moment of a tomorrow that may never come.”

(Your personal comments, please)

“MADE A SEARCHING AND FEARLESS MORAL INVENTORY OF OURSELVES. (Step four of Depressed Anonymous).

“Step four is a critical step if we want to begin the journey toward wholeness, peace and having good feelings about ourselves again. But if we want to stay in the pit of sadness then the belief that we are worthless and not quite  good enough will definitely limit our awareness of what we can become and what we can do for ourselves.   I believe a lot of our difficulties have their roots in our need to be perfect and to do things the way others expect. It’s as if we have to take care of their needs before our own. ”

Copyright(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous  Publications. Louisville. Page 54.

This work, the flagship  manual of our fellowship group, can be ordered online at depressedanon.com at VISIT THE STORE the Depressed Anonymous  Publications Bookstore.

NOTE: Copyright (c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 daily thoughts and daily meditations for members of 12 Step Fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. March 21, pages 58-59.

To Order online, Higher Thoughts for Down Days (either in KINDLE edition or paper book edition) at our Bookstore —VISIT THE STORE–at (Depressed Anonymous Publications at depressedanon.com. Discover other great literature about depression and the 12 Steps.

12 Step Meeting, Acceptance, DA Literature, Fellowship, Spirituality, The 12 Steps

“I can make the hard changes.”

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Your HIGHER THOUGHT  for today

Affirmation

I am gaining, day by day, a new and hopeful attitude about my life and my relationship with others.

“Strangely, I feel as if I’ve been incredibly lucky. Logically, I don’t believe in  luck. I believe the people make their own lives when they are what they  are, but still I feel so lucky to have been involved in a group which gave me the opportunity, and incentive, to start to make changes in my life: to understand why I am sometimes so angry, why I have been so  self-critical and self-destructing. Understanding why you feel as you do opens the gates for the even harder struggle of changing what you do.”

Making changes is part of making a life.  If I choose to stay mired in the deep pit of depression, I can choose that. I have that as an option. But, if I want to choose and risk changing  myself, I have the option of working to construct a different way of looking at my world. Just by changing my attitude about my life in the direction where I want it to go, I can make the hard changes. I want to change my attitude. I will now want  to listen to those who have been in recovery for months and/or years and listen to their hopeful attitude and how they are feeling better now that they are living one day at a time. They are no longer fearful that the old nemesis, the sadness, will sneak up and change everything back to the way it was.

I can only change myself. I will always try and keep the focus on how I need to change, not how others around me  need to change.

Meditation

God, we are always heartened  and  healed by the group. Please guide us and let us be led  to that healing community of persons who are  struggling to find the serenity that you promised to those who do you will. “Fear not, for I am always with you.”

SOURCE:   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 43. (2/27/18.)

In order to get started on your own recovery, at your pace, and in the amount of time that you feel you need, we offer a HOME STUDY KIT. Please click onto the Depressed Anonymous Bookstore menu for information on ordering these materials of recovery.

Anger, DA Literature, The 12 Steps

All progress takes place outside the comfort zone. – Michael John Bobak

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How many times have we said “I’ll do it when I feel better(2016). ”  We all know that any new endeavor or activity in our behalf would definitely put us outside our “comfort zone.”  Any movement toward  walking out of our isolation is still too much of a risk. Depressed people do not want to take risks, especially as it involves change of    one’s lifestyle or behaviors.  We feel most comfortable staying parked in neutral! It’s better to know what we have than to  not know and get something for worse. We now know that to make progress in our lives and to live without depression we have to move courageously out of our comfort zone.

The following statement, How Depressed Anonymous Works,  is read at every Depressed Anonymous meeting and we quote it in full.

“You are about to witness the miracle of the group. You are joining a group of people who are in a journey of hope and who mutually care about each other. You will hear how hope, light and energy have been regained by those who were hopeless and in a black hole and tired of living.

By our own involvement in the group we are feeling that there is hope – there is a chance for me too -I can get better. But we are not the people with the magic pills and the easy formulas for success.  We believe that to get out of the prison  of depression takes time and work.

We have all been  wounded in different degrees by the experience of depression.  We also know that there is a method to regain control over our lives that is practical and workable. It is successful for all those who want to change their lives. Some of us believed that there was no hope and that suicide was the only way out.

In this natural world one of the first laws is that all growth is gradual -that belief is the bottom line for all of us who are depressed and who want to get better. The  more  we attend meetings the more we will learn and see the various ways to escape from depression. We also learn how important it is  to not give up on ourselves.” (Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Page 182. Appendix A.)

 JIM MOVES OUT  OF THE COMFORT ZONE

“…The group members all expressed to Jim ( a new member to  DA) how they each had made a  mental decision to turn their lives and their depression over to the Higher Power because they had no place to go but up. It was this  to the Higher Power or God as we understood God that was the beginning of the overcoming of some people’s addiction to the comfort of their depression. They are now ready and willing to live with some hope. In time Jim got in touch with his anger and shared it with people who accepted it, and so was able gradually to move out of the shell that kept him from the hope that life would ever be different for him. The depressed person just believed and takes on faith that he/she will always be depressed and sad. Now that negative belief of being depressed forever has  to be reframed and we have to tell ourselves that if we have a positive faith our life will be better and we will begin to see changes. Many times we get what we choose when it comes to our personal feelings.”

Depressed Anonymous. Pages 57-58.

In the Chapter Eleven we read more about  the COMFORT ZONE

” Every so often we come into contact with a person, place or circumstance that causes some uncomfortableness and we start to withdraw into the comfort of our depression. It is here that we have dumped our trust  of the Higher Power and choose the comfort of our sadness  instead.” DA. Page 112.

“…For us who find sadness our second nature we at times continue to revert to the comfort of old familiar negative thinking and are in actuality returning to self destructive activity. Sadness is overcome by hope.” DA. Page 124.

For the 31 Personal Stories of those persons who no long find depression a comfort and have since left the prison of their own depression, please click onto our Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore and read for yourself the amazing stories of these 31 people in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011)  Depressed Anonymous Publications, Louisville. Personal Stories, pages 128-176.

For those who would like to order any of our publications, you now can order online.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship, The 12 Steps

I Was Making Myself Miserable!

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” I know that I needed help. I had been to counselors on three other times in my life, but nothing ever seemed to work or last. This time, I have been in counseling for about two months. I was sick and tired of being like this. I wanted a life and I wanted to be happy. Every week, someone would notice a change in me at the Depressed Anonymous meeting, but I still felt the same.  Then one day while watching TV (thinking thoughts at 100mph), it occurred to me that I was making myself miserable.

I had always known that I was hard on my self. I reamed myself out every time something bad happened. “Why can’t I find someone to love me?” “Why isn’t God looking after me?” But for some reason when I realized that I was doing this to  myself  it made me realize that maybe all I would have to do is stop doing it! All of a sudden it made sense.

If I tell myself  negative thoughts, I feel negative. If I tell myself positive thoughts eventually I will have to feel positive.

Of course  I am still testing it out, but I feel better and for the first time in 14 years, I have hope. It’s not that hard to find something positive about myself or my life now. So I remind myself of something positive every day and that is what I am going to do until I don’t have to remind  myself  anymore because I’ll know.

I’m always finding out that my life is not as horrible as I have made it out to be.  I used to tell myself that since it happened before, it will happen again –and that simply is not true.  Yes, my past was horrible and it is no wonder I ended up with depression. I want out of it and the only person to get me out is me. There is not a magic wand to transport you to the life you want.   Everyone knows what they wish their life could be like – so do it!  Make the changes you have to make, trust in God and always remember that good things come to those who wait. I’ve waited over half my life. I don’t have to be a victim of my past or of my mind any more, I’m more than ready for the good things! With love and hope!

–A Depressed Anonymous member.

 

RESOURCE:  Copyright(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky. Pages 120-121. (Personal Stories).

The Home Study program of recovery is always available online with an online sponsor. See more information about the Home Study Kit at the Depressed Anonymous Bookstore here at depressedanon.com.