Category Archives: Powerlessness

Addiction, Choice, Ego Deflation, Fear, Focus, Powerlessness

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

August 14, 2020 Bill R Leave a comment

Periodically I will share pearls of wisdom that I’ve heard or read. I will try to include attributions to the original author/speaker.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
I.
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
II.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I still don’t see it. I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
It isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there, I still fall in.
It’s habit. It’s my fault. I know where I am.
I get out immediately.
IV.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V.
I walk down a different street.

© 1977 Portia Nelson

Yours in recovery, Bill R

Acceptance, Powerlessness

My best thinking got me to where I am today

December 30, 2017 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Most persons, once they sober up, get on the path of sobriety and start the hard work of recovery, realizing that all their excuses and delays of finding help, illustrate the insanity of their thinking. How often did I say to myself (my best thinking?) that “I don’t need help, I can beat this demon on my own.”

In our Depressed Anonymous Manual for recovery from depression, I was told on a number of occasions by some very suicidal and depressed people, “No, I’m alright, I can handle this.” The tragedy here is that two weeks later, my friend killed himself. Of course, he was thinking that he surely could quit this drug that had him paralyzed and helpless. He was in a dark pit of hopelessness. He wasn’t paralyzed because he had shackles around his legs, but he was immobilized because of his denial that he needed help.

My situation was pretty much the same as my friends. But thank goodness because of my being cited for driving while intoxicated that I was forced by my boss to go get help (AA) or check myself in at an in patient treatment facility. I was given a choice: choose one or the other or lose my job. I chose the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and was given the tools to live a life filled with hope.

What works for any addiction and compulsive behavior/thinking also works for someone depressed and suicidal. I know, been there and done that. Try it. Happy New year! Have a happy new life.

Hugh

Acceptance, Blame, DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Focus, Powerlessness, The 12 Steps

Myth #1: Depression Floats In Like A Dark Cloud Over Which We Have No Control!

June 9, 2015 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

An excerpt from Depressed Anonymous (3rd edition)

“The depression is so bad at times that we feel no one would ever understand how we feel unless of course they have been there. We just have about given up on God, church, family and friends as allies on our behalf. We feel resentments and anger toward people for not feeling more sympathetic toward our never ending sadness. We feel that people aren’t kind and don’t treat us with the same respect that they do other people such as a diabetic, insomniac or arthritic person. Most people don’t want anything to do with us because they get tired of our moaning, groaning and pessimistic way of looking at life. Why shouldn’t they? Life is tough enough without having to be subjected to another’s gloom and doom. But this is the place where we recognize the difference between ourselves and others, and of course we think our lot is always the worst of all. The self-pity never brings us into any personal sense of peace, but has just the opposite effect in that it helps perpetuate the myth that depression floats in like a dark cloud over which we have no control. We need to tell our spouse, family and friends that we want to start again and begin to take charge of our lives and start to chip away at our sadness. We won’t blame our need to sadden ourselves on what my wife/husband did or did not do for us, or what a friend said or didn’t say. We finally have to take the bull by the horns much like the recovering alcoholic, overeater, gambler or smoker, and admit that it is “I” that has the problem, and that it no longer does any good to blame others for my problem. Once I admit that I am addicted to depressing myself, then I can begin to walk through the door of the prison that binds me. I must realize the fact that my depression will only get worse unless I put a stop to all the ill-thinking, feeling and acting out behavior that keeps me perpetually locked into my sadness.”

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SOURCE: DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS (3rd edition). 2011. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 86.

Powerlessness

A QUESTION

February 9, 2015 Hugh Smith 1 Comment

A QUESTION

How would you describe the way you usually relate to other people —controlling them or being dependent on them, or varying between the two? Or some other way? THE DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS WORKBOOK (P.17)

So many times we want people to like us and by this we let others control how we feel. We lose our selves the more our self and our behavior and the way we look at ourselves is dictated by whether they approve of us or don’t approve of us.

Fellowship, Mutual Aid, Negativity, Powerlessness, Purpose

THE GOOD AND BAD IMPLICATIONS OF DEPRESSION

December 3, 2014 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

If you believe that you had nothing to do with your depression, then the good implication is that you didn’t cause it. The bad implication is if you didn’t cause it then you could get it again, like the flu or the cold. But since depression isn’t a cold or a flu virus or germ we will try taking responsibility for our depression and its symptoms and go from there. The quickest answer to that is that it may lead me to take full responsibility for anyway that I can to overcome depression –this may mean taking the medication to reduce the negative symptoms, seek talk therapy, and then be part of a beloved community –a self help group where they know us by name. It is here that people like us will take the time to guide us toward the light where we can find safety, security and people like ourselves who will not tell us to “snap out of it.”

It is now the time to ask yourselves how you can best take responsibility for yourself. Formulating a daily plan, an activity, a pleasant activity, a feeling of finally getting control over your life which you felt that you never had. Also, planning one or more pleasant activities everyday into your life is a good way to plan your day instead of your day planning you.

To examine the good and the bad implications of depression as outlined briefly above is just another way to continue clarifying our thoughts on how well we are taking responsibility for our lives.

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Hope is just a few steps away!