I like to play chess. In fact, there are some Pro basketball players who also like to play chess. I am sure that there are many others who like to play chess. I would imagine that generals on the battlefield use the skills of chess playing to rout the enemy. My brother played chess. He taught me how to lose with dignity. My grandson and I also play chess.

The great lesson that chess has taught me, and still teaches me, is how to plan ahead. When I am in a chess match my mind creates a strategy that takes me beyond my next move. There is always the inner dialogue of the chess player which forecasts what happens if this move is taken and what happens if it is not taken. Some times, my strategy to check-mate my opponent is five moves ahead of me.

Basically chess, for me, teaches me how to strategize those areas of my life that need a plan. I have to look ahead, not only for possible potholes but averting disasters. And as important, I learn what happens when I have not planned ahead.

This leads me to repeat the saying that “those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” Life is more than a chess game I grant you that, but with us (me included) our 12 Step recovery program helps us make plans to keep us from a relapse but also can prevent our sad mood from spiraling down into the abyss of depression.

At every depressed Anonymous meeting, we each set goals, we plan, what we want to accomplish this coming week, maintaining our serenity as well as continuing to strengthen our efforts at digging ourselves out of the pit of depression.

With the holidays coming up, we need to have a plan to keep us from getting isolated by our sadness. We can plan to come to a virtual (ZOOM) meeting online. (Click onto Homepage MEETINGS schedule for daily meetings). Or attend a face-to-face meeting.

Plan to keep in touch with those who are working the same plan as we are. By sticking to the recovery plan, you can be a winner and have the serenity knowing that you made the right move!

PS Learn how to play chess. If you feel you are in a check-mate situation, don’t give up hope. Please Contact us at depressedanonymous.org, and I know it will teach you a life plan as much as it taught me. Our fellowship group also helps me plan and live one day at a time, each move of the way!

Hugh, for the fellowship

How is that for a paradox? How can you get something by letting it go? Is there a problem here that we don’t understand? Most times we figure that only when we hold tightly to something WHICH we desire, it will be given to us. This does seem to be a little “off the wall” type of thinking but let’s take a deeper look into this statement.

The best way to hold a handful of sand in your hands is to just let the sand grains sit there. They are just there – much at peace with each other. But when you start to squeeze your hands and tighten your grip on the sand-what happens? You guessed it. The sand begins to move out through the fingers with pressure forcing them out through and off the hand.

Here is my take on this matter. In the real world of thinking, feeling, and behaving my own reflections tell me that the more you persist in doing something your way, the more resistance may begin to counteract your choice. It’s much like tightening a bolt just one more turn and guess what? The bolt breaks. Too tight.

In the spiritual world, so I have learned, is that when I let go, let God work out its will in my life, that what I want begins to be released for me. As it is said in the Promises of Depressed Anonymous that this new me, waiting instead of rushing, I find what I release eventually comes to me.

We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. “Are these extravagant promises?” We think not. They will always materialize if we work for them.

Resource

Depressed Anonymous 3rd Edition, © 2011, Depressed Anonymous Publications, Louisville KY.

Powered up can mean a countless number of things to a lot of different people. It means that by involving myself in certain activities, I benefit from moving on to what I know is vital for me. Necessary in the sense of staying fit and healthy (walking, weight training), I get myself powered up to do what I want to do. For the athlete, or musician, writer, songwriter, and others, we all get powered up by doing whatever is needed to be the best we can be. When this happens, we feel powered up.

As a member of the Depressed Anonymous Fellowship, I am powered up when I involve myself in positive and healthy daily activities. This means that I am open and willing to do all that it takes to get myself undepressed, maintaining a daily regimen for my recovery.

Here is a formula for getting yourself powered up.

1. I do positive self-talk. I no longer fall into the trap of self-bashing. I produce “sunspots (memories, pictures) in my mind” that keep me positive.
2. I walk as often as I can when I can. Usually, three times a week.
3. I pray and meditate daily and keep in touch with my Higher Power – having conscious contact with my God.
4. Social engagement. I keep going to my Depressed Anonymous meetings, whether online or face to face. This is a must! Meetings energize me and motivate me always to want to come back.
5. Exercise keeps me powered up. I feel energized, and I feel in harmony when I am in nature. Go green!!! Nature has a calming effect on me.
6. Staying in the NOW. Practice mindfulness.
7. Serve as a co-sponsor for a member of our fellowship. Call a friend when in need. Meet with members between meetings.
8. Read Depressed Anonymous literature.
9. Eat a healthy plant-based diet.
10. Play. Have fun.

Hugh, for the fellowship

Sigmund Freud was once asked what people needed to be happy. The questioner no doubt expected a long, complicated answer reflecting Freud’s years of deep reflection on the matter. His simple response, however, was “arbeiten und lieben”, – work and love. Happy people feel connected to others at work and through their intimate relationships. When those connections are threatened and diminished or broken, people suffer. others at work and through their intimate relationships. When these connections are threatened and diminished, or broken, people suffer. Today, millions of Americans are Americans are suffering from what my colleague Charles Derber calls “double trouble.” Those in double trouble have neither meaningful work nor sustaining intimate ties. The withering community life in both domains fosters a rootlessness and social disintegration that unquestionably contributes to the growth of emotional disorders.
David Karp. Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness. (1996) Oxford University Press. New York. Page 178

It has been my personal experience that for as many years that I have been involved with Depressed Anonymous and other 12 Step fellowships how vital community is for us who seek healing, help, and hope. It is such a strength that those of us who use the program and attend the meetings find we are part of a loving community. We are part of a community where others care about us and share with us, and then we become the “miracle of the group” for others.

Today in our world, our global depression is of pandemic proportions. There is no vaccination for depression, of which I am aware. But what we do have is each other. There we can form relationships with others just like ourselves. We can have a sponsor who can listen and share their own experiences with depression giving us hope. Indeed, and speaking metaphorically a shot in the arm. So, what the world needs now is for each of us, by our WORK and LOVE of each other, to thrive – not close ourselves off in isolation and despair. Our “home” group where we go every week, virtually or face-to-face, is in this context of fellowship that we are “rooted” and become a family of friends–not acquaintances.

I have friends that I first met in DA that go back thirty years or more. Depressed Anonymous means growth, community, and serenity.
Please join our fellowship and be part of an ever-growing and loving community worldwide. We are not alone!