Category Archives: Supportive Actions

12 Step Meeting, Mutual Aid

A red thread, a beautiful tapestry, patterns and God’s will.

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Some of us, in groups and individually, work the Steps according to the month. What this means is when April 1st (4th month) arrives, we start spending quality time studying our Step #4. This Step states that we “Made a fearless moral and searching inventory of ourselves.” For many of our members, myself included, we use our Depressed Anonymous Workbook in conjunction with our Depressed Anonymous book to discover the patterns of our lives that keep us from being our best selves. The patterns have formed habits and these habits can end up becoming addictions. Could it be that these patterns of our thinking, feeling and behavior keep us imprisoned in our depression? Is it now that we feel we are continually circling around in that morass of hopelessness and helplessness? Like any addiction, we feel there is no way out.

It is here I want to quote from Maria von Trappe (Maria of musical The Sound of Music) who shared this thought:

“It will be very interesting one day to follow the pattern of our life as it is spread out like a beautiful tapestry …. in looking back we can discover how a red thread goes through the pattern of our life: the will of God. ” Quoted in the Publication: Give us this day. Liturgical Press. Collegeville, MN. March 26,

As I examine my life, attempting to discover that red thread, I have found that there actually is a red thread moving through my life tapestry. The red thread is there for me and it is like looking into a rear view mirror showing me where I have been on this life journey. There are these life patterns consistently appearing during the good times and the tough times of our lives. Even a pattern in which I see life as difficult and the world a dangerous place. Many of these negative patterns and fearful thoughts may start in our childhood and gradually become even more pronounced as patterns. But that red thread continues its weaving through our life tapestry into our adult lives. For some the red thread moves forward along with a pattern of pessimism, while providing us at the same time with hope. And as I look over my own past life, I see that my negativity, always following me into most of my relationships. Now as I look at the whole life tapestry as part of my fourth step inventory, stretching as it does from birth to this day, I am able to see patterns which have formed over time, crippling and making feel less than. But even during the painful times I can still see that that red thread, the will of God, has always been there operating in my life, accompanying me on my life journey, invisible, but still there like the silent whisper of the wind, providing me with hope. Now I can see that the red thread hasn’t just formed, it has been there as for long as I can remember. My present belief in a power greater than my depression is gradually setting me free. Today. Everyday.

I know how some Depressed Anonymous groups work this Fourth Step Study on an ongoing basis. For example, there are International Depressed Anonymous Skype Group meetings who come together everyday of the week on the Internet. You can access these group meeting by going to https://join.skype.com and then signing in at 2019depanon@hotmail.com. The leader for the meeting that day will sign you up and you can join the group. Meetings start at 12:30 PM Eastern Standard PM time.

Look back on your life up to today and see if you can recognize how that red thread weaving through your own life, no matter how difficult, how despairing, it is the fact that God has always been there with us and we gradually come to believe that He will always be there with us. And as a member of Depressed Anonymous I want to share with others how that red thread never abandoned me or deserted me, no matter how bad things became. And so when you do your inventory you too will discern that it has always been God’s will that the hope he provides will free you.

Hugh

12 Step Meeting, Higher Thoughts for Down Days

My frequent contact with friends in recovery…

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AFFIRMATION  FOR TODAY

“My frequent contact with friends in recovery enables me to speak the language of hope to myself and to others.”

“We have shared our problems and experiences, our thoughts, feelings and sorrows, our hopes and fears, our laughter and tears. Being in a group has offered us security. It has given us a sense of belonging and the feelings of a new beginning. It is comforting to know that the journey will never have to be traveled alone. Someone will always be there, if you are ever set to fall,  to encourage and support you along the way.

CLARIFICATION OF OUR THINKING

My depression thickens in the darkness of solitude; it  withers gradually in the light of open and frank discussion. By my ongoing and frequent participation in Depressed Anonymous (face to face or Online DA Skype Groups) and the other Twelve Step programs of recovery, I feel that I am no longer alone and vulnerable. I know now that there are other persons out there who understand what I am feeling. I won’t hear any “snap out of  it” nonsense. Usually said to us by folks who have never experienced the pain  of depression. I know  that the progress out of the desert of  depression  is slow and methodical. One Step at a time. I am willing to work on myself and I will be able to win over my depression!

But as I have been wounded by a group or individual ,  or my own family of origin, and those who comprised it, can now find a “surrogate” family and make a decision to choose new members of my family.

MEDITATION

God, help us to learn how to gradually express ourselves with other members of our group. We know that in helping others, we always help ourselves.”

RESOURCES

Depressed Anonymous Daily Online Skype meetings.

(c)Higher Thoughts for down days. 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of Twelve Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications,. Louisville, KY. Pages 51-52.  March 27.

12 Step Meeting

***ONLINE DA GROUP MEETINGS EVERYDAY***

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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/ Download and sign into Skype. Search  depanon@hotmail.com and send a message asking to be added to the group.

You can join  with  a great group of folks who are working the Depressed Anonymous program of recovery. Don’t miss it!!

Thank you.

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.

12 Step Meeting

Daily Skype Depressed Anonymous meeting every day

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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.

https://join.skype.com

Greetings!  To access the daily Depressed Anonymous Meeting  @ 12:30 Eastern Standard Time.  To join the meeting, simply log onto Skype and sign up either @ 12:30 EST.   You should see something that says “join meeting.”

If there is a problem with the signing up, you can email the address given and we will send them a link directly.

At the meeting you can turn on your mic to talk and video if you wish.

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

12 Step Meeting

Depression is more than being sad

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Georgina, from the newly formed  Depression Anonymous group in Sydney, Australia sent us her reflection.

Depression doesn’t really feel like sadness to me….it feels like

exhaustion,

irritability,

no motivation,

no desire to do the things I love doing.

Being depressed is more than being “sad.”

Thank you Georgina E., for this powerful quote which you are sharing with us. We are  always happy to get contributions from Depressed Anonymous members. It is a gratitude of ours that the Depressed Anonymous groups are sprouting up around the world. Please go to the depressedanon.com  homepage menu  and see the International SKYPE groups meetings listed.  Please join up.  Check time zones so that you can go online live .

Please feel free to access our website at depressedanon.com and check out our BLOG and share your  own thoughts with our international fellowship…We want to hear from you.  We are not alone.

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.

Belief, Choice, Fellowship, Focus, Meditation, Spirituality

Discover the patterns of behavior from your own life. Example: How you think about yourself.

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AFFIRMATION

I want to believe that my God, as I understand him, will continually make a path for me through life. I want today to listen to its leading.

“Our patterns are more successful than the fortune telling arts,  since we expect our patterns  to prove true, and expecting this, we usually find that they do. Edmund Carpenter once wrote,
“We say, ‘If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it, but the phrase should be, ‘If I hadn’t believed it with all my heart, I wouldn’t have seen it.'”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I  usually expected bad things to happen to me because bad things usually did happen to me, as Dorothy Rowe points out in her six immutable beliefs that make up the prison of our depression. I used to believe that God punished me for all the bad things I did in my life and for my being the bad person that I believe that I am. But now, I am changing my beliefs about my depression and that I am only a passive victim. I believe that I will survive this time of depression.

It’s as if  my depression is like a rotted tooth, a thing that can be extracted. I am slowly believing that it is important what I believe about myself and how I have a responsibility to extract myself from my own lifestyle of sadness. I do know this, that if I continue to think the way that I have over the last couple of years, I will stay stuck in the deep pit of depression.   If  we do  something over and over again, day after day,  we can say that we have created a pattern of thinking and behaving. Some say that our life is on auto-pilot.

I now believing with all my heart that I will get better with the help of my own resources and through the help of others and the Twelve Step program of recovery.

MEDITATION

God, you can make all things new but you never infringe your will upon any of us. But the more peace we receive from turning our will over to yours, the more I can predict that my future will be more according to your design.”

RESOURCES

(C) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 Daily Thoughts and Meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Louisville, Ky.

(C) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky. Pg.29.

(C) Believing is Seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression (2017) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville Ky.

Order Online from The Depressed Anonymous Bookstore here at our website www. depressedanon.com.

Fellowship

Skype meeting for the Association of Depressed Anonymous groups of Iran

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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.

Today  we were able to hold a conference meeting for 50 members of the Association of Depressed Anonymous in Iran this morning. They provided an interpreter for the 1 hour 1/2 meeting and had submitted 12 questions for us to  consider and respond.  Because  of distance and time,  their group, using the DA book Manual and Workbook (translated into Farsi) made a very informative meeting for the participants,.

This program  has been used in Russia and other locales, as they too have our DA book translated in Cyrillic . The event was a  Depressed Anonymous conference via Skype for  members of a treatment Center in Siberia. This event had a director of the program who spoke  English and translated my English into Cyrillic.  It was a very wonderful event  to experience.

Anyone , who has access to the Russian DA book, 3rd  edition , or the Farsi  copy of the DA 3rd edition, can set up a SKYPE conference.  Now  we have the DA  3rd edition in Spanish   and the Dutch editions in paperback  format. A person who is fluent in English would be able to communicate with a  member of a group conference members will have their questions, comments passed back to us in English

There are two EBooks presently available and which can be downloaded on your computer for a group conversation in your own home region and language. You will provide a translator.

Attention: Depressed Anonymous groups in USA and beyond: If you would like to set up a conference call via SKYPE, please Email us at our office :

Depanon@netpenny.net.  Put the word SKYPE in the subject space.

We can visit together about what might be the best way for  us to start a group in your area where there is no Depressed Anonymous recovery program available.

NOTE: The least expensive way to purchase these two EBooks is to use the download process.   There is a saving of $9.00 USD.  There is no charge for postage. Please go to our Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore and find information that would explain more about our literature.

Our website is : depressedanon.com. Type the URL into your browser and learn more about who we are and what we are about.

Thank you

Hugh