Category Archives: Fellowship

12 Step Meeting, Belief, DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Focus, Higher Power, Spiritual Heroes, Spirituality

Our basic antidote for fear is a spiritual awakening!

May 10, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

Antidote: “A remedy to counteract a poison.” This is the definition as given by Webster’s dictionary. Fear is truly a poison in some ways and in others it is a gift. We need to fear only that which will keep us locked in the prison of depression. Sometimes our fears are of what tomorrow might bring or might be the fears from the past. One of the better antidotes to fear is trying to live, just for today. Today is all I have.

So often I hear others say that they have been depressed all their lives until – let me repeat- until they hear other stories as to how with work, time and belief in a power greater than themselves that they did and are feeling better now. I need to trust that once I have made my conscious decision to turn my life and will over to the care of God as I understand him, that my life will indeed begin to change.

“I am no longer alone in my suffering depression. I believe that by getting more active in my recovery that my life will begin to brighten up.”

“We of (AA) and Depressed Anonymous find that our basic antidote for fear is a spiritual awakening.” Bill W.

SOURCES:
Copyright (c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. May 10. Page 95.
Copyright (c) Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2015 ) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.
Copyright (c) I’ll do it when I feel better. (2013) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

I realized that I was addicted to the self

May 5, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

“As a person that has suffered depression since childhood, I can say that until you start to open up, share your hurts and feelings, listen to the members of the group, watch them as they grow from the support of the group, you will not be able to get out of the prison of your depression. I have been going to Depressed Anonymous for four years and only until recently have I realized that I was addicted to the self. Only then did I start to take a good look at myself and start to ask God for his help and truly mean it. I am learning to trust in God and do His will and not mine. I feel better about myself. I can tell you it is a lot easier to be depressed than it is to work on yourself and admit to yourself that there is a problem. It is God’s will for us to live each day to the fullest because of our time on earth is limited. Live each day, not yesterday or tomorrow. Share with the group and your friends and you will be surprised who will be glad to listen if you would give them a chance. Accept the fact that all of us at Depressed Anonymous are here to listen to you and not make judgments on you or give advice. Even if you don’t want to share, come to the meetings because you can always get something out of them. Eventually, you will want to share and the group will listen.

In conclusion, trust in your Higher Power – God as you understand God. Support groups are the way out of our addictions. We may have given up on God, but God hasn’t given up on us. Start your day out by asking God: God I pray for the knowledge of your will and the power to carry it out. ”

-Starr writing about her experience with depression and the healing support that she receives in the Depressed Anonymous 12 Step mutual aid group.

Read Starr’s whole story in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. (Personal Stories section/Pages 129-130 ).

Fellowship, Mutual Aid

We need to tell our story

May 4, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

“Newcomers also remind us of ourselves when we stepped into the group for the first time. They struggle to keep back tears and hurt as they speak possibly for the first time trusting that they are with people who have been where they are. This is what provides the beginning of hope and healing. People of the group speak their language of hope and possibility. They hear how recovery is possible. They want these tools to use in their own recovery. We need also to air our hurts…and let others hear our story.”

“We have less concern about self and gain interest in others“. THE SEVENTH PROMISE OF DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS.

DA Literature, Fellowship

Spirituality spurs recovery from depression!

April 16, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

From: The National Institute for Healthcare Research., as quoted in the quarterly The Antidepressant Tablet, Volume 10.Number 2.

“A recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry identified this often overlooked resource patients draw upon to help fend off depression–a deep religious commitment – that significantly reduced recovery times. Thus study focused on 85 patients hospitalized with serious medical illnesses who also became depressed. Among their battery of tests, patients took the Hoge Intrinsic Religiousness Scale which measures how deeply a person has internalized their religious values and faith.

Surprisingly, patients recovered from their depression 70 % faster for every 10 point increase on the Hoge Scale, which ranged from 10 to 50. This link held even when taking into account other factors that could speed up recovery including physical health…”

Comment

No surprise here. I have always believed that one’s belief in something or someone bigger than themselves has a powerful influence on the outcome of whatever one hopes for. And in this case, I have personally discovered how the 12 Step spiritual principles of recovery have helped me find a way out of my depression. It was the key that unlocked the prison door that held me captive.

For more information on this subject please see some of the following resources which will be helpful for your own recovery.

3. (c) Depressed Once-Not Twice: The spiritual autobiographical journey of the Founder of Depressed Anonymous out of depression. (2002)

And for more resources please VISIT THE STORE here at www.depressedanon.com

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship

No longer am I alone in my depression

March 29, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

The FOURTH WAY to leave the prison of depression: An excerpt.

No longer am I alone in my depression. I can now see that it is up to me to form new friendships with others in the fellowship of the Depressed Anonymous group. I have found persons who understand me and my problems. I also learn coping skills and new positive behaviors from my fellow group members.

One of the best things about belonging to a Depressed Anonymous group is that a person will find support and acceptance there. Frequently those persons who begin to work the 12 step program begin to realize that instead of wanting to stay isolated and sad, it’s the acceptance that they receive in the Depressed Anonymous group that keeps them coming back to the meetings. Another reason people keep coming back to the group is that members of the group place no conditions on you or judgments when you join the group.

They love you and accept you just the way you are,. That’s pretty neat I’d say.

For more on the FOURTH WAY to leave the prison of depression is to read further (Pages 21-28) in BELIEVING IS SEEING: 15 WAYS TO LEAVE THE PRISON OF DEPRESSION. DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. LOUISVILLE.

Belief, Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Faith, Fellowship, Higher Power, Journaling, Mutual Aid, The 12 Steps

We Trust Our Newfound Beliefs

March 28, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

THE THIRD WAY TO LEAVE THE PRISON OF DEPRESSION : AN EXCERPT

“We trust others by sharing our recent episodes of loss/sadness while at the same time sharing our hopes and strengths. We trust our newfound positive beliefs for getting ourselves out of the prison of depression.

Many of us won’t allow ourselves to trust anyone. We are so distrustful of ourselves that we cannot trust ourselves to feel. The painful hollowness of depression is such that we can’t allow it to be felt. It is only among our brothers and sisters in the 12 step group that we can share our hurts and deep pain of being isolated. When we hear other members share their stories of hurt and isolation we know that we are not alone. We gradually begin to trust ourselves to touch our own nerves of pain and hurts. We trust the nurturing and accepting atmosphere of the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous to take part of our hurt and help carry us along. Every time we share a hurt from our own past we remove one more brick out of our prison wall of depression. The more we find that our trust is validated by the continual acceptance from the group, the more energy we muster up for ourselves to continue trusting our deepest thought and feelings to others. No longer do we take refuge in the numbed comfort of our isolating sadness. Now we walk upright and begin making choices on how we want to feel, think an believe. We no longer live our lives in isolation and disconnected from others. Now we join in the mutual fray of battling depression with all our new friends on the broad road of healing.”

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SOURCES: Copyright(c) Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Pages 15-16.

VISIT THE STORE for more literature on the subjects of depression and the 12 steps of recovery.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Fellowship, Step 01, The 12 Steps

Just Get On Base!

March 25, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

These few words are ones that all base ball players hear when they go to bat. “Just get on base.” If a team is to win the game they must get on base. They have to be able to score at home plate and rack up points needed to win the game.

In our world, we know that to recover from any problem, disaster or misfortune, we have to get back on our feet and get to work. The longer we wait to get the help we need the longer will we suffer with whatever ails us. In my own life, I know that this to be true. When I started to slide slowly down that slippery slope of sadness, I could feel, in an analogous way, my feet slipping out from under me. I was losing control. It was when I finally lost all control and could no longer get up the energy to do anything-except force myself to go to work- that I got on base. If I was to win this battle then I had to do something. It was when I admitted to myself that I was losing it that I did something to help myself.

Because of my involvement in another 12 Step program of recovery I now knew that I had to admit that I was in trouble, physically, emotionally and every other way. So, with the urgency that my situation demanded, I got on base and started to walk miles every day I had to shake off this inner hollowness and jitteriness that had my whole existence in its teeth. By remembering the 1st Step of the program, that “We admitted that we were powerless over depression and that our lives had become unmanageable.” Yes, my life was more than just unmanageable-I was totally frozen in place. I could only think about me-what was happening to me? It was a brand new experience and totally foreign to me. I always was “in control” and now I was totally “out of control.” Something else was running my life. I felt like the proverbial prisoner locked down in the small confining cell of my despair.

To cut to the chase here, I finally got back to a feeling of lightness in my spirit, after having walked miles for weeks. By admitting that I couldn’t go on the way I was, I made the choice to do something.- get on base (work the Steps of the program of recovery). With the help of my belief in a Higher Power, God as I understand God, I finally got moving and got better. It was slow process of recovery but it worked.

I want everyone to know who is reading this now and feeling alone that there is hope for you too. It does take time and it takes work-there are no magic wands waved over our head and presto! we are back on the playing field of life again. No, it takes time, work and a day by day, Step by Step program of taking care of ourselves coupled with the belief that I too can get better. With that attitude you will not only get on base but you can win the game.

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NOTE: If you would like to start your own program of recovery having a roadmap out of your own prison of depression it would do you well to read the Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition Manual and the Depressed Anonymous Workbook. These two excellent sources of self help are published by Depressed Anonymous Publications and titled the HOME STUDY KIT.

To learn more about the helpful publications offered please VISIT THE STORE at this website, DEPRESSEDANON.COM. You will be glad that you did.

12 Step Meeting, Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship

I hope that I can accept myself today…

March 14, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

AFFIRMATION

I have hope that I can accept myself today and just let go of all the old messages from the old tapes of childhood that told me that I was bad and worthless.

“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 holed up for so long in my own little world of feeling hurt and rejection that to attempt to love someone else seems like 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 another so hurtful.

After having witnessed the miracle of the group in DA, where depressed people came with their feelings of being hurt and rejected, I find that other’s love and nurture challenge me to hope once again. I can share with my Depressed Anonymous group the fact that I haven’t measured up, that I am angry and that I just want to lie down and die.

I am open enough now to let the light of love from others, who like myself, realize that I am not alone and that I am beginning to feel better already now that I no longer need to be perfect.

This means to be willing to affiliate and give of myself for someone else’s good. In the program I am starting to love-myself.”

MEDITATION

We are going to make a mental decision right now to let God, as we understand God to be, to guide us and instruct us on how best to love ourselves. Wait, listen and follow the promptings of the Spirit.

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SOURCES: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of the Twelve Step Fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Depressed Anonymous Manual and Workbook ( HOME STUDY KIT). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Depressed Once-Not Twice.(2002). Depressed Anonymous Publications Louisville.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Depressed Anonymous, Ego Deflation, Fellowship, Isolation, Mindfulness, Mutual Aid, Purpose, Spiritual Heroes, The 12 Steps

I said to myself, “if I ignore it maybe it(depression)will go away.”

March 7, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

“There was a time when we ignored trouble, hoping it would go away. Or, in fear and in depression, we ran from it, but found it was still with us. Often, full of unreason, bitterness, and blame, we fought back. These mistaken attitudes, powered by alcohol, guaranteed our destruction, unless they were altered.

Then came AA (and DA. OA, NA, Al-Anon etc). Here we learned that trouble was really a fact of life for everybody – a fact that had to be understood and dealt with. Surprisingly, we found that our troubles could, under God’s grace, be converted into unimagined blessings.

“Indeed, that was the essence of A.A. itself: trouble accepted, trouble squarely faced with calm courage, trouble lessened and often transcended. This was the A.A. story, and we became a part of it. Such demonstrations became our stock in trade for the next sufferer.”

COMMENT: It was with my own experience with depression that I tried to deny that it was anything that could keep me from a life lived with hope and joy. I thought that if I just ignored it, like Bill W., stated so well above, it would just evaporate like the morning midst. Of course this just didn’t happen.

As I commented on this denial factor which is a big part of all addictions, I also came to believe that, “well, what I am going through will surely pass. It isn’t so bad, really. I can put up with a little discomfort.” Sorry. It didn’t work that way. And as I pointed out in I’ll Do It when I feel Better I said ” we also learn that our depression is a defense and predictable and for some, depression is even come to be a comfort and as has been said before, at least one knows what they have with depression. And to change and risk removing this numbness is better not to be undertaken because it’s better to know what one has than to risk getting something worse. Much like the example cited before of the debate within ourselves to go to the dentist for the toothache or just tough it out and hope for the best. We call this denial.” Page 17.

To examine more literature about depression and using the Twelve Steps in your personal recovery , please taker a look at VISIT THE STORE here at our website.

______________________________________

SOURCES:

1) As Bill sees it. Page 110.

2) I’ll do it when I feel better. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

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

Ego Deflation, Fellowship, Higher Thoughts for Down Days, Miracle Thinking, Mutual Aid, People Pleasing

It’s the miracle of the group where I can start loving myself!

March 3, 2016 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

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

“You desperately wanted people to love you, but you became 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 holed up for so long in my own little world of feeling hurt and rejection that to attempt to love someone else like 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 having witnessed the miracle of the group in DA, where depressed persons come together with their feelings of being hurt and rejected, I find that other’s love and nurture challenge 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 just want to lay down and die.

I am open enough now to let the light of love from others , who like myself, realize that I am not alone and that I am beginning to feel better already now that I no longer need to be perfect.

This means to be willing to affiliate and give of myself for someone else’s good. In the program 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 best to love ourselves .”

____________________________

Source: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. March 3rd. Page 47.

Hope is just a few steps away!