Category Archives: Supportive Actions

12 Step Meeting, Community building, Mutual Aid

Journeys of Hope Depressed Anonymous meeting moving to Zoom

July 2, 2021 Bill R 1 Comment

The Journeys of Hope Depressed Anonymous meeting is moving to Zoom given some technical challenges we’ve been encountering. Effective Monday 5 July 2021 both the daily meeting and the evening meetings are moving to Zoom. For more information please see the page: Online Depressed Anonymous Meetings for further information.

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.

12 Step Meeting, Community building, Mutual Aid

A Pressing Concern

June 30, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

My pressing concern over these many years as a practicing mental health therapist is to do more to help family members be part of the conversation with medical and mental health professionals when dealing with a depressed loved one. I continue to help setting up Depressed Anonymous groups, while encouraging Dep-Anon Twelve Step groups for those who have a depressed member in their family.

Dep-Anon, a 12 Step Recovery program for Families and Friends of the Depressed, was published on June the 24th, 2021, by Depressed Anonymous Publications. This 117-page book includes Chapter topics that can promote an understanding of the nature of depression, dismissing those negative beliefs that not only are incorrect, and damaging they continue to cast a stigma upon those who are depressed. These attitudes will do nothing but further isolate the depressed. NOT HELPFUL AT ALL!

The Dep-Anon Family group can be that healthy connection between the depressed and the family. The family members will learn to help the depressed; they must and not the depressed. Each of the book’s 12 Chapters will present useful information on the nature of depression while including a commentary for each of the 12 spiritual principles (Steps) of Dep-Anon. In addition, each Chapter will provide the family groups with discussion questions that will enrich the Dep-Anon fellowship. Finally, the groups will help each other cope with their own emotions and provide an ongoing pathway for their emotional growth and balance.

The depressed loved one has their own fellowship of Depressed Anonymous, which helps them focus on their own recovery, and their family has Dep-Anon, which helps family focus on what needs a focus in their own lives.

The Dep-Anon family group might end up being the best advocate/friend for the depressed, fostering understanding and acceptance instead of the negative beliefs that had once made the situation seem hopeless.

Hugh, for the fellowships

12 Step Meeting, Community building, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

DA Virtual Conference 2021 recordings available

June 19, 2021 Bill R Leave a comment

The conference ran successfully! The five sessions were recorded, but I have not yet received one of the recordings. I have posted the ones I have available and I will post the missing one when I receive it.

There is a link found under the Tools for Recovery menu item that reads Depressed Anonymous Conference Recordings.

Enjoy.

Yours in recovery, Bill R.

12 Step Meeting, Mutual Aid

New additional meeting – Wednesday 7:30pm ET

May 18, 2021 Bill R Leave a comment

Same link as the daily 12:30pm ET and Tuesday 7:30pm ET meeting – https://join.skype.com/pKMshxPoV9nb

Prayer

Prayer for serenity

April 27, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

Lord grant me the serenity to trust you with the things you would have me be true to you.
Courage to take the next step you’d have me take.
And wisdom to know the difference.

Joe V., member of Depressed Anonymous

12 Step Meeting, Avoidance, Believing Is Seeing, Depressed Anonymous, Hope, Indecision, Isolation, Positivity, Purpose, Relapse Prevention, Serenity

To keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity

April 17, 2021 Hugh Smith 1 Comment

Maybe and maybe not! We use this slogan many times in our recovery groups, thinking the statement to be true. For example, to keep missing our recovery meetings week after week may result in a possible relapse. I believe this to be true! Insane? It is definitely not helpful when one is trying to find sobriety or a way out of their depression

For the depressed to isolate oneself from family, friends and the world, is to gradually move self into a deepened mood of sadness and ultimately depression. The isolation is not going to defend the individual from depression but is only going to make it worse.

To look at the slogan from another angle is to find that the statement is false. In fact, to keep going to meetings week after week or more often is doing the same thing – expecting different results. By doing the same thing over and over again, in this case, the different results are a strengthened recovery with hopefulness coupled with serenity.

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

ZOOM EASTER MEETING SUNDAY AT 4-5PM / MOUNTAIN TIME

April 4, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

INTERNATIONAL ZOOM MEETING
12 Step Depressed Anonymous Meeting
HOPE FOR TODAY

Zoom ID: 828-7881-3776 9 (No Password is needed).
EASTER SUNDAY – MEETING TIME 4-5PM Mountain time–every Sunday

contacts Randy & Mike phone: 720.771.8414 E-mail: rev77@live.com

Website for all Depressed Anonymous meetings
depressedanonymous.org

12 Step Meeting, Community building, Fellowship, Mutual Aid, Supportive Actions

New DA Meeting (Hope for Today) On Zoom 3/28/2021

March 27, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

“HOPE FOR TODAY” DA MEETING ON ZOOM EVERY SUNDAY 4-5PM (MOUNTAIN TIME)
Depressed Anonymous 12 Step Meeting

CONTACT INFO: Randy R

720.772.8414 MT

rev77@live.com

Origination location: Denver, Colorado
Founding members: Randy R, and Mike B
ZOOM MEETING: Please contact rev77@live.com for ZOOM ID. No Password required.

Thank you Randy and Mike for making this meeting possible today and every Sunday. Welcome to all.
Hugh

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship, Mutual Aid

A new Depressed Anonymous meeting is scheduled for Denver, Colorado this Sunday 3/28/2021

March 23, 2021 Hugh Smith 4 Comments

Updated 29 March 2021, new Zoom meeting info for Sunday 4:00pm Mountain Time meeting

Good news for Denver, Colorado, as a new 12 Step Depressed Anonymous mutual aid group is hosting its first meeting this coming Sunday, 3/28/2120.

Group Name	Hope for Today, Depressed Anonymous meeting
Group Type	Depressed Anonymous 12 Step meeting
Day & Time	Sunday at 4:00-5:00 pm Mountain Time
Frequency	Weekly
Online Venue	Zoom.us
ZOOM ID	828 7881 3776 (No password needed) Updated 29 March 2021, new Zoom meeting info for Sunday 4:00pm Mountain Time meeting
Founding Members	Randy R and Mike B
Contact Information	720-771-8414 rev77@live.com
Origination Location	Denver, Colorado
First meeting Date	Sunday, March 28, 2021

12 Step Meeting

I was beginning to feel better, my sad mood was lifting and then my mind’s critic whispered, “Yea, but it won’t last!”

March 16, 2021 Hugh Smith Leave a comment

The mind’s inner critic has it all figured out. It had always been this way, especially the past year and a half. Always the negative verdict. No clemency here. I felt that I was doomed, never able to climb out of the hole that swallowed me alive.

When I felt the lightness in my mood it came as a total surprise. I had been walking for over a year and then suddenly I felt that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I had paid my dues to whatever it was that had me immobilized in fear and fatigue.

The inner critic in my mind made sure to let me know that this short spell of an upward positive mood was to be short-lived. “It isn’t going to last” was a thought like all the other negative thoughts that continually filled my mind. In fact it wasn’t until a few days later, that the positive mood took over completely and has stayed with me to this day.

My life changed from night to day. I could not believe that I was feeling like my old self, hopeful and filed with plans for the future. Instead of every thought spiraling me downward into the abyss, I was looking toward each new day with hope. My positive mood was deepening.

One final word. Then I became a member of Depressed Anonymous where I could share my story of hope and recovery. In fact, many times when I shared my story with the group, some of our members would tell me that it felt like I was telling “THEIR” story.

And now when reading a piece of my own story, I do hope that you join us online where we meet everyday and hear how our program of recovery is filled with solutions – it is a solution focused program – where group members gradually find a way out of depression. Depressed Anonymous has provided me with a key -the 12 Steps- for turning my life around and provided me with a plan. This plan not only works for me, but provides healing for those countless other lives who learn how to make the positive choices to live with hope and be part of a fellowship.

Please click onto our website at https://depressedanonymous.org where you will not only find answers for some of your own life’s challenges, but also be part of a community with those persons who live out recovery in their own daily lives.

For more information please check out the literature offered for our friends at The Depressed Anonymous Publications site. Our manual, Depressed Anonymous, the 3rd edition, is the book that is our guide for personal reflections as well a group discussion recovery guide.
Also, please join an online daily DA group at https://join.skype.com/EfjQ2rGUOEPv Depressed Anonymous Journey of Hope. We hope to see you there.

Hope is just a few steps away!