The following excerpts are from “The Promises of Depressed Anonymous”
# 3. We do not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

Many of us have lived with guilt, shame and regret from our past. Until we got down to business – that is, taken a fearless moral inventory – did we desire that the god of our understanding help us see what we needed to do to forgive ourselves and get on with our lives.

As the Promises state in so simple a manner, this does not mean that “oh well, we made some mistakes, so let’s just forget about everything that happened in the past – after all it’s in the past.”

We can spend a lot of time wallowing in the self-pity that occupies any addiction. We also might regret all the tine we wasted staring at the blank wall, alone and trying to figure out in the circling of our thoughts the whys of our immobility, passivity and pain.

It is in Steps Four and Five where our past regrets are played out and dealt with. Once we have made a list of all our resentments and fears and spoke of them to a trusted friend you can begin to feel a new sense of freedom. It’s as a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders.”

The second half of Promise # 3 will be provided tomorrow.

The following is a continuing excerpt from The Promises #2 of 13.

“A pill might make you feel differently 0but it will never take away the circumstances that brought you down in the first place.
The Promises here tell us that we will find a new freedom of happiness -but first work has to be done.
To be happy doesn’t mean that we are to be entirely free from problems and disquieting moments. Since we are all human we experience the pain of discouragement, remorse, anger and other assorted emotions.
Happiness is an elusive feeling -and for each of us happiness can mean something very different when I say to myself “life doesn’t get any better than this,” then I know that life is indeed good and that all is well with my soul.
What can keep us in the prison of depression is the construction that we place on events and situations that occur in the world.
To be free means to act with a degree of spontaneity. This after all is the opposite of depression.
Events of themselves are not the cause of our depression – similar events are in the lives of many folks but there are some folks that don’t experience depression because of them. So, it must be the way we think about these events and the meaning we place on these situations. Our lives and the way we look at life is composed of past and present events.

Our past life is the way we predict the future. “Since bad things happened to me in the past-bad things are bound to happen to me in the future.” How true this is.
Our prison is composed of blocks of times and situations which at one time were fluid – like a flowing river. But since these events affect our sense of self we caused the river to stop flowing and instead our painful thoughts and feelings – are the blocks that make up the walls of our personal prison. We need to restore the fluidity of our lives. Once when our self has been restored – namely our spontaneity, we will experience freedom and happiness. By having that spiritual experience and by being an active member of Depressed Anonymous is what can restore us to sanity. Happiness comes from finding loving support, and acceptance. ”

RESOURCE

(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pages 4-7.

The following is an excerpt from The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. Page 4.

“Once the Steps begin to play an active role in our lives we begin to feel a shift in how we look at ourselves, our relationships and others. There is that small sprout of hope moving through our minds and spirit. We feel that our involvement in our fellowship group of Depressed Anonymous is a definite plus in how we look at life and our recovery. There is a certain tranquility that was never part of our lives before. Our sadness, pushed us down to the ground day after day. The more we dwell upon how bad we felt, the worse we felt, isolating us that much more.

The new happiness actually happens. We become living hope that in Depressed Anonymous a promise made is a promise delivered. There is no doubt in our minds that there is a Higher Power guiding us through each day of our lives. And to have this power, greater than ourselves, as stated in Step Two telling us that we “came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” No longer do we have to beat ourselves up because we aren’t perfect as others in our lives tried to make us believe. Many of our lives were made miserable by all the expectations that others had for us growing up.

As it says in our Depressed Anonymous manual that we won’t change until we have some assurance that when we do change we will be completely happy. They want to have someone promise them that if they decide to change they will have no more problems and will be happy.

Dorothy Rowe tells us that ” this request is based on two assumptions, namely; 1) They who haven’t got my problems has no problems at all (therefore when my present problems disappear I shall have no problems); 2) Happiness is total certainty (therefore unless I know exactly what is going to happen I cannot be happy).”

To be happy we must seek out and live as God wills. We make a decision.

More on The Promises #2 tomorrow.

Resources

(c) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous,(2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.
(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition(2011). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY Page 110.
(c) Dorothy Rowe.(1991) Fount Paperbacks Foreword. Great Britain. In Forward to Second Edition of Depressed? Here is a way out! which was published in 1991 by Fount Paperbacks, a division of Harper Collins Publishing Group, Ltd., located in London, England.

The following is an excerpt from the Promises as presented in The Promises of Depressed Anonymous: Planting a seedbed of Hope. (2002). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.

# 1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through.

“Working the Twelve Steps is like the person who heads toward the light at the end of the tunnel. The closer one gets to the light – the more one discovers the way out.
The light in this case is symbolized by the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous. The expression of light, health and recovery of its members helps each of us to stay focused on recovery. Work has to be done if we are to find not only the light – but a life free from the symptoms of depression. Change is painful! The 1st step is really the beginning of the end of our pain. By admitting that we are in pain is that which paradoxically begins the release of our pain. This is the paradox of letting go and holding on as we learned from Step Three. What we hold onto holds onto us. What we seek- seeks us.
It is difficult for any of us to admit that our lives are out of control.
People sometimes speak of their depression as a comfort. I can identify with that, because if they were top feel anything else, they might end up in the hole of the doughnut.
The pain of depression begins to dissolve as a result of doing something we have never done before.
It happens to be true that the more we get in touch with and remove our resentments, fear, guilt and self-pity from our lives, the lighter we feel emotionally. The less need we have to rely on our defense mechanisms which shielded our fragile egos from pain, hurt or remorse, the freer we become.”

RESOURCES

COPYRIGHT(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pgs. 1-2.
COPYRIGHT (C) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition(2011. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY. Page 109.