Category Archives: Fellowship

Fellowship

Today I met some good people doing good things

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Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.

Today was another good day for me.  I was inspired.  I happened to find a group of people, like me, who were sharing feelings   about depression and how it is affecting their lives.. And if you are depressed, so many of us are, you might want to check into this discussion group–all centered on the Twelve Steps and recovery. We can’t do ourselves any good  by living our lives in isolation away from others. Our DNA makes us seek others. We are  social creatures.

A strange thing happens,  when we are depressed. We want to isolate. Our energy level is nil. Our hope is no longer an option. Everything looks bleak and hopeless. We gradually end up missing in action.  Our thinking, feelings, motivation, psychosocial life and behaviors each and everyone   becomes  a symptom  of our sadness. Together they become a syndrome.  Many symptoms  together form  a cyclical  interconnectedness, which being of a negative nature, can cause our whole being  to spiral  downward and  stay helpless.

This group today,  Depressed Anonymous were sharing positives as well as negatives about their individual lives. And by doing so, found  others like themselves who were  feeling animated and energized by sharing parts of their life story with others. It’s a freeing moment. This is what makes it work.  Members of this  fellowship found  themselves a home. It’s  secure and stable home base,  giving each of  us courage to   tell our stories, These good people are doing good things for themselves and the fellow members of this peer led group.

If you are wondering where to find this group, the same one that I attended today, sign in at https://join.skype.com at 12:30 pm CST and or 1:30 EST. A member of the fellowship will invite you in to be part of the group. This group meets everyday of the week. No fees or dues. All one needs is that desire to stop saddening themselves. Simple enough!

If you have questions you can contact us by email at depanon@netpenny.net. I hope that you will be a good person doing good things for those who are still suffering from depression. We need each other. We are no longer alone.

Hugh

Fellowship, Purpose

Spoon feeding is no use to you. You have to feed yourself. – D. Rowe

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AFFIRMATION

I  will build up my self-esteem and self-respect by learning a hobby or skill that will bring me pleasure. “Dorothy Rowe says that “Spoon feeding is no use to you. You have to feed yourself.”

REFLECTION

I believe that feeding oneself is really the idea that grabs hold of most people who have a genuine desire to stop  saddening themselves. It appears to me that once I make a commitment to myself to begin to learn how to feel better, I really do begin feeling much better. I imagine that even though my passive depressed behavior had some benefits – like not having to risk changing the  way I lived my life.   I believe that since there is a way out of my depression that I do want to move  into a different way of  living my life. I want to live with hope and I am going to do something about it to make it happen.

I feed myself junk thoughts when I think that there is no hope for me in my life. This is  the stuff that depression is made of. If I want  to get well  and out of the prison that I call depression, I need to begin feeding myself with such hopeful thoughts, that my sadness won’t last forever, whatever I believe and expect to happen, just the way I want it to happen.

MEDITATION

We are thankful that we can feed ourselves healthy thoughts and that we can change our diet by discovering what has been junk food in our past life, substituting healthy food (thoughts) for the present.  God will show us a way to live in a healthy and serene way. (Personal  comment).

SOURCE: (C)  Higher Thoughts for down days: 365  daily thoughts and meditations for  members of 12 step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Kentucky.  Page 89. May 29.

Visit the Store  to order this book online.

Fellowship, Journaling, Purpose, The 12 Steps

Recovery people delight in how they are becoming more assertive

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“Responsibility is the name of the game in recovery and it is here that we need to focus our attention. As we get into a discussion with other people who are depressed – much like ourselves – we see that they talk about feeling better while at the same time acting on their own behalf. These people who are doing better are also taking responsibility on their own behalf. Those   who are doing better are also talking about taking charge of their lives and doing things for  themselves   instead of constantly trying to please others.  In fact at DA meetings the  recovering people often delight at how assertive they are becoming now that they have gained a sense of recovery  over their lives. They are now committed to their own recovery.  People who want to change begin to swallow their pride and ask for help. They begin to   get in touch with their feelings and feel!  This is truth and this is getting in touch with one’s own best self.”

COPYRIGHT(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY 40241. (Page 91. Step Ten)

Belief, DA Literature, Fellowship, Meditation

Depression gradually dies in the light of day….

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The best way to live TODAY is to be fully conscious of the present moment and create that strong desire to be part of it. Let’s not live in yesterday -the rent can kill you.

How often do I spend time in tomorrow and so miss the joy of today? I think one of the more serious occupations (aren’t they all serious?) of the depressed is just to sit and think , and think some more about how bad life is and what awful people they are. The self-bashing makes one’s ability to change even more difficult, as  continued depressive ruminations promote a great sense of unworthiness and confusion. We feel that we have no control over what happens in our life. Actually, we are not so sure   that we should care.  Everything seems hopeless. Living in yesterday is to pay some high price rent – and when you are done paying the rent, you still have nothing to show for it.

I want to be responsible  though I feel it’s difficult to face the fact that one of the ways of getting out of my prison is to stay and feel the pain of my sadness. I have to live in the here and now – I can’t run and hide in the unknown of tomorrow or disappear into the gloomy fog of yesterday. We begin to get mentally healthy when we take it upon ourselves to admit 1) I have a problem, and 2) secondly, I need to change the way I think about myself and my world.  Again, no one need to blame us for that that we got ourselves depressed – but once we know and believe that we are depressed – we learn that we need to take full responsibility for our recovery.  And one of the best ways to break our dependency on our sadness is to share and admit our depression to members of our Depressed Anonymous group. We know how depression flourishes and grows in the privacy and solitude of our minds.

Depression gradually dies in the light of open sharing and frank discussion. We are only as weak as the secrets we keep and strong as the secrets we share.”

Copyright(c)  Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2020) Hugh Smith.  Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pgs. 39-40.

Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Journaling

All it takes is one good person to restore hope – Pope Francis

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This statement is so true. All it takes is one good person to restore hope. This is a reality that I personally experience each day of my life. I find these individuals every day – carrying the message of hope to those others who are looking for a way out of their pain and suffering. These good people who lead are sharing their own hope, strength and experience with those who still suffer alone, and without hope. These good people take it upon themselves to communicate to others how they found hope and now want to share their recovery with others. They are using the fellowship of hope by the electronic systems such as ZOOM, SKYPE, FACEBOOK and the many face to face groups outside of the virtual world. These various communication tools enable us to reach around the world bringing fellowship to those seeking hope.

Recently, individuals in Poland decided to set up their own SKYPE meetings. Just recently in America two ZOOM group are operating, with one more about to get up and running. There is also a phone – in meeting operating. in America.

We are here at depressedanon.com (Depressed Anonymous) offering hope to those who come to our website. A Blog is offered a number of times a week. There are those good people who are not members of Depressed Anonymous who use their resources and talents to keep our websites, our ZOOM and SKYPE online programs operating with a myriad of technical skills. All in all, good persons continue to find hope and share what they have with others. so that they too can experience the hope that is real and offered freely to them.

Depressed Anonymous website at depressedanon.com will lead you to the places where you can go and join up with others at a 12 Step Depressed Anonymous meeting.

Like Francis tells us “All it takes is for one good person to restore hope.”

Won’t you be the next “one good person?” Will you join with us on this great journey where we all discover the hope of recovery and personal serenity?

The Fellowship of Depressed Anonymous

Courage, Fellowship, Isolation, Kindness, Mutual Aid, Purpose

I’m having cabin fever during this pandemic self-isolation. How are you doing?

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Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.

Getting a daily rhythm during this time of self-isolation is getting to be a must for me. How about you? After a month of isolating myself this isolation getting old. And, it appears that it isn’t going to be over for a spell. We are all created as human beings to be close to others. We love the fellowship of groups. Ironically, this is what will kill us or make us very sick at the very least. Physical/social distancing is a must now.

I am getting my stride. Athletes talk about getting into their rhythm. I am much aware that I can’t fiddle my time away – getting myself depressed, or just staring out the window, watching TV , streaming on my computer or just sleeping through it.

So, I have developed a schedule. I make sure that I eat every day and at the same time. I use my 12 Step literature for prayer and reflection in the morning. I also do some writing on my online WordPress blog . Because I have gone through self-isolating when I was depressed – I definitely do not let it happen again. In my schedule I go to the park and exercise everyday and at the same time. I spend a part of the afternoon catching up with friends and members of the Depressed Anonymous fellowship. At these times I connect with member s of the large DA fellowship in Iran and other DA members outside US. (Everyone with whom I have contact are going through the same pandemic as we are.)

The Depressed Anonymous fellowship have an International daily DA SKYPE online meeting. I am able to contact and participate in this group in early afternoon. Then there is a new ZOOM online fellowship that has just been formed. You can find times and places at our Depressed Anonymous website. Or on Facebook. Please try and attend these meetings. Great resource for keeping in touch and helping to maintain our recovery – one day at a time. In the late afternoon I follow our Governor’s daily TV meeting(Kentucky) where he keeps us up to date on things that we have to do to keep each other safe and out of harms way. Then evening news and then other news sources. So by night time I am saturated with news – mostly sad news about how there is so much suffering and isolation among all of us who need each other so much.

I am especially grateful for our 12 step fellowship where we can see each other f2f and maintain our sanity and sobriety. Please check out our recent blogs at www.depressedanon.com or FB Depressed Anonymous. Today is the first day where we are offering our eBooks for $1.00 a piece. These are the 3rd edition of Depressed Anonymous and The Depressed Anonymous Workbook. Both of these eBooks can be downloaded on the computer or printed out on your printer. These are the books which we use at our Online group meetings. If you want these books today, they are yours for downloading. We felt that now is the time to make these books available to as many people as possible. We wanted to make them available on line free – but somehow that was not possible. So we went for $1 buck apiece. I do hope others take advantage of this opportunity – especially most of us who might be hard pressed to come up with any money now when food and shelter is our most critical need. Depressed Anonymous Publications is a very small business operation and all our work is done by volunteers – including me.

My suggestion is to do the same thing everyday, have a schedule for each day and now that the children are home, and with the kids out of school, they will always need some help with their eLearning classes.

Do some fun things for yourself – I personally liked the old Three stooges, Jim Carey’s movies and older comedies keep me laughing. It sure helps lift my mood.

Plan to call at least one older person who is alone. Maybe a neighbor who needs food. My wife and I are now trying to make some strategic decisions in our food purchases and TP. Trying to make do with what we have, sharing what we have with others.

Call your sponsor everyday or a fellow member of our 12 Step fellowship group.

Finally, get into your own rhythm – take it one day at a time-make a schedule and as a family get together and decide how we all can decide how we want to spend our day.

Thank you and may all of us remain safe and secure. This too shall pass. We are all in this together. We are going to get through it. We are going to get through it together.

Love and peace to you all.

Hugh, for the fellowship

Fellowship

Depressed Anonymous ZOOM meetings

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Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.

Dear Depressed Anonymous Fellowship,

The following is an email where you can gain information on gaining access to the ZOOM Depressed Anonymous Meetings which gather twice a week.

The admin advised me that persons wanting to join the meeting can contact her at this address to get the ID Code and the Password Code. We are doing this to protect the participants and the site from being hacked. We thank you for your understanding.

Contact: rebeccairene8@gmail.com

Fellowship

Here is a Higher Thought for you today!! ONLINE DA MEETS EVERYDAY!

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NOTICE: Whenever a blog post mentions an online meeting be sure to consult the page Online Depressed Anonymous Meetings for the most up to date and correct information. If the blog post is more than a few days old there is a chance it could be incorrect.

Website: www.depressedanon.com

ONLINE DA GROUP MEETINGS

REMINDER:  Everyday there is  a scheduled  Depressed Anonymous International  SKYPE meeting Online  at  12:30PM Central Standard time, and 1:30 Eastern Standard time.   Go to your browser and type in: https://join.skype.com/

There  please sign up  or log into SKYPE. You will see something  that says “join meeting.” You will be sent a link that will enter you into the meeting. Great meeting with those who are working their DA program of recovery. Don’t miss it.

A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY!

Today I will do one thing, just for myself.

“Treating yourself kindly means looking after yourself and accepting yourself in all your humanness. You are not the most  perfect, wonderful person that has ever  walked on this earth. Neither are you the worst, most imperfect, wicked person that has dared to draw breath.”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

This “treating ourselves kindly ” might not fit into one of our personal beliefs. I think this is particularly true when so often we want to compare ourselves to others who are more beautiful, more popular, wealthier.  And because of this, we might  have a strong impulse to want to please others. Remember the book, “Looking for love in all the wrong places” this leads to a dead-end of disappointment and sadness.  Is this not true for most of us as we keep searching for the fountain of youth, that lucky lottery number giving us millions?

Let me tell you that more often than not  it makes everything worse because these “pie in the sky” wishes never materialize. Obviously these thoughts do more harm than good. We ruminate how bad we are and life is and how we think that  things never work out for me.

But now that I am in recovery, working the powerful  12 steps of recovery, I am guided by a different standard.

I am beginning to realize, thanks  to my program of recovery and my Higher Power(the God of my understanding) that I am not as bad as I thought I was.  I am beginning to see that the more I live in the present, and live out my in today, the more I become myself and learn to love who I am.

My way of looking at the world prevents me from seeing the world, all creation as a wonderful manifestation of a Power which by its diverse and marvelous creations sends me a personal message of hope.   Like the great poem Desiderata tells us, we have every right to be here–depressed, unhappy, happy or whatever.  Also as it says in the 12 step programs, we are all equal in our fellowship. I am not ashamed to admit that I am or was depressed. I now have a way to free  myself from the bonds of depression. The lockdown–the mental bars of my imprisonment are gone. I now believe that my own depression has made it possible for me to help others. “It takes one to know one.” I believe with all my heart that this is my purpose–this is what gives me meaning–this purpose and meaning leads me to the next person seeking freedom and release of the shackles that  bind us and keep us unmotivated and helpless.

And so “to be kind to ourselves” reminds us that we are to treat others as  kindly as we would like to be treated.

Send  email to us at :Depanon@netpenny.net if you would like to talk with a member. Thanks. Hugh

(C) Higher thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts for members of 12 step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY.  March 23.

Order online at The Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore.

Choice, Fellowship, Higher Power, Mutual Aid

I can make it through the next 24 hours. We will show you how

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AFFIRMATION

My best chance of surviving and living through this sadness that is worse than death is to hold on to the conviction that it will not last forever.

REFLECTION

I now can see how the Depressed Anonymous group program changes people from week to week. The longer a person attends DA meetings, online or face to face, I can see  a change in their physical features as they seem  not so brooding and preoccupied. The people who work the 12 Step Program of recovery begin  placing  their trust in their Higher Power which gives them the courage to resist falling back into that old  familiar and comfortable pattern of saddening themselves. Each new day brings with it a stronger sense of hope as living becomes less restrictive and harsh.

My sadness began so long ago that the interminable feelings of hopelessness and despair seems to me so much of being human that is, until others tell me that this sadness is not their own experience. Then I knew I was different but that with  time and help, I would be feeling better about myself as I discovered some of the ways I got the way I am. The more I hear the stories of  others recovering members of Depressed Anonymous  groups (See Depressed Anonymous book/Personal stories section)  , the more hope I have. I now believe  that  in time I will begin to feel better.

MEDITATION

Seeds with proper nourishment grow strong and healthy. Some plants grow well at night and in a cooler environment. Some in daylight. We pray that God will let us go through our present darkness   completely turning  our will and life over to its purpose.

RESOURCES:

(C) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville,. KY.

(C) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.KY

Fellowship, Journaling, Love

The 12 Step program of recovery is helping me learn how to love myself

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AFFIRMATION

I have hope that I can accept myself today and just let fly  by all the old messages from old tapes of childhood.

“You desperately wanted people to love you, but you became very wary of giving your love to others. You reasoned  that the less you loved another person, the less it would hurt when the inevitable rejection came.” Dorothy Rowe

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I have been so holed up in my own little world of feeling hurt and rejected that to attempt to love someone else seems the greatest challenge of my life. I desire so badly to be loved by someone else,  that this lack of another’s love makes my isolation from others so hurtful.

After witnessing the miracle of the group of Depressed Anonymous, where depressed people come with their feelings of being hurt and rejected, I find that other’s love and nurture challenges me to hope once again. I can share with the group the fact that I haven’t measured up, that I am angry and that I want to just lay down and die.

I am open now to let the light of love from others, who like myself, realize that I am not alone and that I am beginning to  affiliate and give of myself fro someone else’s good. In the program  of recovery I am starting to love myself.

MEDITATION

We are going to make a mental decision right now to let God, as we understand God, guide us and instruct us on how to love ourselves.

(c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365  daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.KY.  Pg. 38. March 3rd.