Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.
Hello,
Here are ZOOM days and times schedule.
SUNDAY MEETINGS : 4-5 PM EST
TUESDAY MEETINGS: 3-4 PM EST
PLEASE CONTACT REBECCAIRENE8@GMAIL.COM
FOR ENTERING GROUP and receiving id and passwords for MTGS
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
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.
“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)
Am I a people pleaser? What would happen if we didn’t please them? Let’s take a look in our Depressed Anonymous Workbook and see what it suggests as an answer.
Has depression distorted us from the truth of life, namely, that life is to be lived with hope and serenity. Nursing along a good habit can in time wean us from old and debilitating habits of thought and behavior. We want to daily fill our day with the gratitude that we are indeed getting better and that the trust we have is indeed placed in the Higher Power.
In order for us to escape depression we need to begin to be aware of the process of how people change. That process for change is of the nature of a spiral instead of a straight line. In other words, now that we are willing to risk feeling differently we have been gearing up to improve our situation. In other words, we are making a very important decision right now about our lives.
Tomorrow we will see how changes are made, and a process that will make this happen. In time we will discover that making any decision in our lives , is doing something that we have never done before, like breaking our habit of trying to please people. There is always a risk. It feels very uncomfortable changing a behavior that we have always done before. But, there is a way to change. The support that you need is to be found here in the Depressed Anonymous online groups, the Home Study Program, and F2F meetings.
Choose support – not isolation, especially now when we all need someone to talk with, helping us get through these tough times. You will be happy that you did. Find help, love and acceptance. YOU ARE NEVER ALONE.
– Hugh
The Depressed Anonymous Workbook, © Depressed Anonymous Publications, Louisville KY. (Page 41. Fourth Step Question 4.51.)
You can download this Workbook for $1.00 at https://depressedanonymous.org. (Visit the Store). The Basic Text is also $1.00. Get moving forward in hope and serenity – and fellowship worldwide.
For those of us participating in Depressed Anonymous online group meetings, here is a wonderful prayer that inspires us to bring hope to those still suffering.
“God I offer myself to You – to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may I bear witness to those I would help of your Power, Your Love and Your Way of life. May I do Your will always.”
AA
“There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related an interwoven, the result is an unshakeable foundation for life.” The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions.
In Step Four of the Depressed Anonymous program of recovery, we read from The Depressed Anonymous Workbook the following encouraging statement:
“By our daily conscious contact with God as we under stand God, I believe that my daily efforts at listening to my Higher Power’s word will help me focus in on where I need to change. I hope that my depression will always be examined the moment I feel down and blue for no apparent reason. If I slow down, take a pencil and write down what I have been thinking of lately, I do believe that my sadness will slowly evaporate – slowly like the early morning fog.
I will cast away my fears, guilt and resentments by getting them down on paper in front of me. On black and white.
Copyright(c) The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2009) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Page 27. STEP FOUR
This Workbook can now be downloaded as an Ebook for $1.00 from the Depressed Anonymous Bookstore at www.depressedanon.com.
Offer lasts until the end of May. After that it will resume its price of $12.00.
Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.
…I had the conviction that a person depressed could find the same strength and serenity as did those who, sick and tired of being sick and tired, had found when they stumbled into their first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It (Depressed Anonymous) began as a pilot project at the university where depressed people gathered as a mutual aid group. I discovered that people of all ages, beliefs, and occupations could gradually get out of the prison of depression if they were part of a support group, especially if the group followed the suggested Twelve Steps of the group now known as Depressed Anonymous. I saw that a Twelve Step program centered specifically around the subject of depression could help people escape isolation and the painful sense of hopelessness. They would no longer feel alone.
Copyright(c) Depressed Anonymous., 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Ky. Page 22.
NOTE: If you are tired of looking at the four walls during this time of Covid-19, we have help. If you are depressed and seeking relief, there are a number of places where you can go online for help. Depressed Anonymous now has a meeting everyday from 12:30PM (EST). This group is peer led, which means they have been depressed or using these Steps of recovery today to help maintain hope and healing in their lives today! These are excellent groups to attend to find help and hope. You can join and share your story or you can listen to the stories of others. Either way you will find the power at work in your own life.
There are now five scheduled DA ZOOM groups operating in the US and being made available to the Depressed around the world. These ZOOM groups with the SKYPE groups are ensuring that the message of HOPE continues to spread with it’s powerful message. Please join us if you are looking to free yourself from isolation.
We thank all of those who chair these meetings with such dedication and faithfulness. They are true witnesses to the “miracle of the group(s).”
Hugh
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.
Updated 29 Dec 2020: The US based ZOOM meetings are no longer being held.
In our basic text, Depressed Anonymous, one of the words that show up most frequently are the words, Isolation, trust and surrender. It is not surprising that the word isolation is at the top of the list. Isolation is one of those behaviors that can keep us in depression, alone, and deepening a mood of feeling hopeless.
With the corona virus causing death, terror among all people of the earth, it has also forced us to quarantine ourselves from everyone else. Our isolation, in this case, can save our life and keep us from getting infected and suffer a painful death.
Let’s say I am depressed already and isolating because of my need to withdraw from, family and friends and suffer with my pain alone. What do I do now? Who and what can help me? I am feeling desperate. I used to go to the market, the park and at least get out of my apartment. I could feel part of the world and the life around me. At least I had the knowledge that I could go out and be with others, without having to talk or even say hello. Now I feel like I’m all alone on a deserted island.
If you are depressed and reading this now, you can find help online at the Depressed Anonymous website www.depressedanon.com. There are also daily meetings of the group International Online Depressed Anonymous which hosts the meeting via SKYPE meeting at 12:30 pm (EST).
We hope that you can take advantage of these peer led 12 step meetings. I recommend them to you. Please come and join our fellowship. We are people with hope.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
For the fellowship.
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.