Has depression distorted us from the truths 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 in deed getting better and that the trust that we have is indeed placed in our Higher Power.
In order for us to change and In order for us to escape depression, we need to begin to be aware of the process of how people change. This 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.
1. Awareness stage: We become conscious that we can’t go on feeling the way we do. Something has to give.
2. Motivating stage: I am going to prepare myself for needed changes in my thinking, acting and feeling.
3. Doing stage: I am going to take charge and be responsible for positive changes that have to be made by me if I am going to feel better and differently.
4. Maintaining stage: I will continue to seek out and sustain my recovery with people, concepts and my personal working the 12 Step program of recovery.
I believe that it is when we begin to understand the process of the 12 steps begin the important process of enlarging our awareness of our own depression experience and slowly learn how to apply them to our daily lives. This awareness will place us directly in a recovery program, using the formula for success in overcoming depression.
We highly recommend that anyone who wants to escape depression begin to study our program of recovery as outlined in our Manual DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS and begin to question oneself as to how, when and what began the spiraling downward into despair of our own depression. Our Workbook, is the greatest tool in unearthing the ways that put us in the place that we are today. We do this by gradually working our way out of this maze of problems and situations that shackled and immobilized us day after day.
The more attention that we give to how we got where we are today, the more we will be motivated to continue our quest to use the tools provided by Depressed Anonymous. Once we get busy with the work of understanding how depression works, the more we will find ourselves motivated to get free of our life of hopelessness.
SOURCE: The Depressed Anonymous Workbook, (2001, 2017) . DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. Louisville. PAGE 41.