HOME STUDY PROGRAM
Today we want to continue to share more about how the Home Study Program, using the Depressed Anonymous Manual and the Depressed Anonymous Workbook can gradually facilitate a better understanding of the nature of depression and our response to it, using the spiritual principles of the 12 steps of Depressed Anonymous
The reason most people use the Home Study Program is that it is a simple and straightforward way to begin to walk on the path that leads out of depression.
So, I admit that I’m depressed. Now what do I do? The next thing we do is to ask ourselves how much can I dare admit to myself how out-of-control I really am? How much do I dare tell myself that I have really hit bottom and that I have nowhere to go but to ask for help? I have been afflicted with this tendency all my life to run and hide whenever I was challenged by a task, a relationship or old unpleasant memories that frightened me. I would run and hide. I would be willing to barely admit to myself that what I was feeling wasn’t really me. I also came to believe that the sea of gloom that I swam in day after day would one day drown me – the exact day and time just happened to be unknown at the time.
One of the things that keeps giving me hope at the Depressed Anonymous fellowship meetings or here on our website (Depressed Anonymous) is where we can continue to read about how others have been successful in leaving their own prison of depression. We see a real challenge that can open a new Vista – a new way to live out our lives and open up hope before us. One man said that the God of his understanding uses him and his depression for helping others who are likewise depressed. In other words, God will use your depression to help others.
You will learn that you have the choice as to whether you want to stay depressed or choose to learn the ways to get out of your depression. In fact you will also learn that you have the opportunity to feel differently, if you so choose.
SOURCE: The Depressed Anonymous Workbook. Page 5.
One of the most powerful experiences and benefits of being a member of the Depressed Anonymous fellowship is at that you will learn that you have the choice as to whether you want to stay depressed or choose to learn the ways to get out of your depression. In fact you will also learn that you also have the opportunity to feel differently, if you so choose.
“We” is the first word of step one. It is a very important word to remember because it sets up immediately sets up a group fellowship with people who are having the same difficulty. It also makes us feel that we too are not alone, but that there is someone else out there that is experiencing the same difficulty as you and me.
One the best part of being a member of Depressed Anonymous is that we don’t have to be alone if we don’t want to be. That might sound strange to some of us but we have to admit that what keeps us depressed is our need to keep apart from other. To remain disconnected and isolated. We have a need to be by ourselves and to stay apart from human contact. For to be in contact with others like me is that we will have to take some risks and to make some choices. But when I am depressed and alone I don’t have to make as many choices or take any action except to keep isolating myself and staying apart. This Home Study Program will help you see that it is in being part of a bigger group, with people like yourselves, which will gradually give you the desire to be part, share and stay involved in your own active recovery using the 12 steps of Depressed Anonymous. ”
Source: Home Study Program: (c)The Depressed Anonymous Workbook, pages 4 and 5.
“One of the more constant behaviors of the individual depressing is to engage in fewer and fewer pleasant activities. The person depressed just can’t bring himself or herself to do anything that might cause a sense of elation or pleasure. If you feel that you are bad, worthless and without any value, then you can’t get yourself to do something that might make you have a good feeling about yourself. An individual depressing can make him or herself feel anxious, sick and even faint. With the support of a group like Depressed Anonymous and the fellowship here on the web one can begin to see that life doesn’t have to be lived alone and in misery. And that is precisely the miracle of the group. You begin to see that you can stay parked in neutral in your misery and feel hopeless or you can step out in faith as most members of our group do, and admit that you’ve had it with the sadness and begin to choose life. I do believe and know a renewed sense of hope is in our hands – we can choose to be sad or by our inaction could choose to live without purpose and joy. It’s a risk we choose to take. ”
SOURCE: HOME STUDY PROGRAM: (c)Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 37.
NOTE: The Home Study Program/Kit includes both the Depressed Anonymous Manual and the Depressed Anonymous Workbook. This Program is available for purchase online here at the Depressed Anonymous Website. Other literature, which applies to the 12 Steps and to the experience of depression are likewise available. Check it out.