Category Archives: Helpful Thinking

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Hope, Mutual Aid, Spirituality, The 12 Steps

Getting into action! To get out of the hole we have to stop digging!

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Getting into action comprises one of the chapters of the Alcoholic Anonymous Big Book.  It was last nite that a person in our weekly phone meeting told us a way that she was “getting into action.”  She mentioned how  saying STOP to herself when certain thoughts spiraled her down into deeper ruminations that this enabled her  to change her thoughts into a physical hope filled action.

There is also another positive mantra that I personally like to use  is MOTIVATION FOLLOWS ACTION! Get the body moving and the body will follow. And finally I know that to get out of the hole of my depression is in fact to stop digging. How often have I continued to depress myself with all these unpleasant ruminations.

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Hope, I'll Do It When I Feel Better, Mutual Aid, The 12 Steps

SNAP OUT OF IT!

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 THE PROMISES  #6   The feelings of uselessness and self pity disappear.

In the Promises of Depressed Anonymous we see that “One of the major areas in our lives that change quickly by our attendance at the group meetings is that we pity ourselves less and less. We begin to be grateful for all that we have and all that we are.  We begin to see that once we start getting connected to others like ourselves on a regular basis, through our Depressed Anonymous meetings, we now are listened to by others and we are validated. We don’t hear “snap out of it” at our meetings. Suddenly our years of self pity, isolation and desolation have been cashed in for a currency that buys us a new competency, a new identity, autonomy and a burgeoning interrelatedness with others. We know we are not alone.

We now can speak about our experience with depression in the past tense. We can now show how we have the tools of self-care whereby we can dig out and begin to construct an edifice of hope that will last the rest of our lives. As long as we continue to use the tools of the program we are bound to feel different as well as think differently.”

COMMENTS, PLEASE.

SOURCES: Depressed Anonymous (2011) 3rd edition; The Promises of Depressed Anonymous (2002); I’ll Do it when I feel better (.2013) Page 41.

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Higher Thoughts for Down Days, Mutual Aid, Spirituality, The 12 Steps

A SAFE HAVEN: THE DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS GROUP.

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Higher Thoughts for down days for September 27.

AFFIRMATION

I am not going to have any expectations about any person, place or situation.

” The great attraction  of telling ourselves that we know how other people see things without making the effort to check whether we are right is that we can claim that other people will reject us, we do not have to make the effort to meet people and get to know them. If we tell ourselves that other people will find us boring , we do not have to make the effort to talk to people.” (3)

I am less prone to read people’s minds, but I am beginning to check other peoples feelings instead of trying to read their minds. I am finding that the more I am in tune and in touch with my own feelings, the more able I am to feel comfortable around other people. I am less concerned about their opinions of me as I am concerned about the feelings that I have about myself. I am no longer going to operate out of the belief that I am worthless or unacceptable. Gradually, the fellowship of the Twelve Step program has made me aware that I am acceptable, especially now that I am part of a group that talks of being wounded and in need of repair. I am no longer alone.

In the fellowship, we are all equal. When I first came into the program, I found it a safe haven and I felt strengthened by the support of the other members of the group.  The people who are like me understand me. They never tell me to snap out of something that has been going on in me for many years.

MEDITATION

The words that give us the most hope, are the words that by experiencing a spiritual awakening, we can find the serenity and life that we have been wanting to find all these years.

SOURCE: Higher Thoughts for Down Days:365 daily thoughts and meditations for 12 Step fellowship groups.. Page 193-194.

Faith, Hope

The way out of the prison of depression takes work, time and a belief in a power greater than ourselves

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Higher Thoughts for Down Days: September 23rd, 2014

AFFIRMATION

“My God is a God of mercy not of vengeance and punishment.”

“Indeed, the greater the misery , the more I believed God was putting me on trial.”

REFLECTION

One of the steps that I decided to take to get out of my prison of was to get myself involved in this Twelve Step spiritual program. It was hard at first to get involved with the program because I didn’t and wasn’t able to have immediate relief from my sadness. I wanted the program to work right now. I wanted someone to say hang on and in a day or two, it will start to work. Instead, I hear that the more meetings I attend, the more I listen and share at my meetings, the more my attitudes about God will start to change and I will understand how God is truly walking with me out of this prison of sadness, one day at a time.

I do believe that my depression was one of the greatest miseries that I have ever experienced in my life. I know that if I didn’t have a hope that it would be a temporary misery, I would have given up hope of ever feeling better. It is now my experience and my personal truth that I can feel better and that I am feeling better, thanks to the fact that I have admitted my powerlessness over depression. By doing just that, I have learned the rest of the ways I have to live and think to be free from the anguish. My greatest addiction was to the belief that I would never feel happy ever again.

MEDITATION

“But I will always hope and praise you forever more and more.” Psalm 71:24

We know that the more our thoughts go to a larger field, namely the consciousness of God’s presence, the more we get beyond the narrow focus of our own little world of pain and isolation. By letting our minds be open to God’s energy and direction, we are open to a new life lived with hope and healing.”

Hugh

The Promises

#3rd PROMISE OF DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS

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The 3rd Promise of Depressed Anonymous

WE DO NOT REGRET THE PAST  NOR WISH TO SHUT THE DOOR ON IT

How do we know that this particular Promise will come true for us?  The only thing that we can rely on is our own experiences. Our experience tells us that the more we live in the solution of the Promises of Depressed Anonymous the more serenity and peace is ours for the moment.

We have discovered that it  is when we begin to live in the solution that our solution focused program leads us past the fear of what might happen to the serenity of the present moment.  Our freedom begins when we start to reflect consciously on what is happening now at this very moment. I have noticed that it is when I become conscious on what is happening now at this very moment. I have noticed that it is when I became conscious about what I am feeling–the direct result of my thinking–it is at this moment that I make the conscious decision to bring myself back to the present.”

SOURCE:  Copyright(c) The Promises (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY  Page 8.

The Promises

THE GOOD HUMOR FAIRY?

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“Our happiness is now dependent on how we look at ourselves, our world and the understanding that we have of our God. I now know that when I first came into the fellowship, I felt like a stranger in a foreign country. My thoughts and feelings were all confused as I began the journey into myself with a deepening desire to discover the engine that drives my sadness. The battle raged inside of me–a battle that was fought in the shadow of past events and relationships.  It was a personal triumph for me to finally see that there was a way out of this despair and emotional atrophy.  I feel that my life got better by my doing something. I now follow a practical plan as outlined by our suggested 12 step program of recovery. I make sure that everyday that I get into action and do something. I used to think that the “good humor fairy” would tap me on the shoulder and I would be well. This is exactly the opposite of what our program of recovery promotes. Our position is that you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work.”

Quote Source:   The Depressed Anonymous Publication: I’ll do it when I feel better.”  (2013)  #2 OF 13  of  Promises of Depressed Anonymous  WE REALIZE A NEW WAY TO LIVE. Page 13.

The Promises

The light at the end of the tunnel

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“Working the 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 Promises. DAP, Page 1.

How true this is.  But like any journey, it involves preparation, looking at maps and following the right roads to get to one’s destination.  It was only when my life was filled with the darkness of despair, and I could no longer see the light of hope, did I force myself to surrender to that Power greater than myself. That Power was the fellowship of a 12 Step group. It was there that I found kindred spirits who were traveling the same road as I was. We were fellow travelers following a road with markers pointing out the way to sobriety, serenity and a dynamic and loving fellowship.

Do you want to follow our road? If so, please let us know. For more information on how to get on this road, go to our website at DepressedAnonymous.org. Hope to meet you there.

The Promises

The “WE” program of the 12 Steps of Recovery

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“…we let God demonstrate through us, what God can do.  We ask God to remove our fear and direct our attention to what God would have us be.  At once, we  commence to outgrow fear,”  Bill W., co-founder of AA.

How often have I felt the healing presence of God in the midst of a 12 Step group meeting. I have heard others comment on how God is speaking to them through other members of the group. Because WE are all part of the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous and united in our firm belief of a power greater than ourselves WE  made a decision to turn our wills and lives over to the care of God as WE understood God to be.  WE trust in the Promise that because we live the way of the Steps that WE will find the serenity that comes to those who believe in these Promises.

The Promises

Peace of Mind

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  When we join a Depressed Anonymous group we soon realize that members of the group speak the same language as do we. This is the language of hope and a belief that I can get better. I hear this at every meeting from those who actually live out the Promises of the Steps.

The Depressed Anonymous group provides us with a “toolbox” if you will of those actions that help us stay on a path that can provide a peace of mind for our daily living. In fact, as soon as we begin to involve ourselves in the fellowship we discover “peace of mind.”

    In our work” I’ll do it when I feel better”  we see  what can result from  our own peace of mind.

“1) A clear conscience; 2) Living in the present; 3) Gratitude every day; 4) Belief that the God of my understanding will get me through the problems of my life; 5) Forgiveness of myself and amends to all persons I have harmed; 6) Hope; 7) Doing God’s will means letting go.

    I am firmly convinced that in order to continue any semblance of peace and serenity I will have to structure a daily quiet period into my life. This is an essential part of the prescription for getting well and staying well.”  Page 37 in I’ll Do It when I feel better.”