How many times have we said “I’ll do it when I feel better(2016). ” We all know that any new endeavor or activity in our behalf would definitely put us outside our “comfort zone.” Any movement toward walking out of our isolation is still too much of a risk. Depressed people do not want to take risks, especially as it involves change of one’s lifestyle or behaviors. We feel most comfortable staying parked in neutral! It’s better to know what we have than to not know and get something for worse. We now know that to make progress in our lives and to live without depression we have to move courageously out of our comfort zone.
The following statement, How Depressed Anonymous Works, is read at every Depressed Anonymous meeting and we quote it in full.
“You are about to witness the miracle of the group. You are joining a group of people who are in a journey of hope and who mutually care about each other. You will hear how hope, light and energy have been regained by those who were hopeless and in a black hole and tired of living.
By our own involvement in the group we are feeling that there is hope – there is a chance for me too -I can get better. But we are not the people with the magic pills and the easy formulas for success. We believe that to get out of the prison of depression takes time and work.
We have all been wounded in different degrees by the experience of depression. We also know that there is a method to regain control over our lives that is practical and workable. It is successful for all those who want to change their lives. Some of us believed that there was no hope and that suicide was the only way out.
In this natural world one of the first laws is that all growth is gradual -that belief is the bottom line for all of us who are depressed and who want to get better. The more we attend meetings the more we will learn and see the various ways to escape from depression. We also learn how important it is to not give up on ourselves.” (Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Page 182. Appendix A.)
JIM MOVES OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE
“…The group members all expressed to Jim ( a new member to DA) how they each had made a mental decision to turn their lives and their depression over to the Higher Power because they had no place to go but up. It was this to the Higher Power or God as we understood God that was the beginning of the overcoming of some people’s addiction to the comfort of their depression. They are now ready and willing to live with some hope. In time Jim got in touch with his anger and shared it with people who accepted it, and so was able gradually to move out of the shell that kept him from the hope that life would ever be different for him. The depressed person just believed and takes on faith that he/she will always be depressed and sad. Now that negative belief of being depressed forever has to be reframed and we have to tell ourselves that if we have a positive faith our life will be better and we will begin to see changes. Many times we get what we choose when it comes to our personal feelings.”
Depressed Anonymous. Pages 57-58.
In the Chapter Eleven we read more about the COMFORT ZONE
” Every so often we come into contact with a person, place or circumstance that causes some uncomfortableness and we start to withdraw into the comfort of our depression. It is here that we have dumped our trust of the Higher Power and choose the comfort of our sadness instead.” DA. Page 112.
“…For us who find sadness our second nature we at times continue to revert to the comfort of old familiar negative thinking and are in actuality returning to self destructive activity. Sadness is overcome by hope.” DA. Page 124.
For the 31 Personal Stories of those persons who no long find depression a comfort and have since left the prison of their own depression, please click onto our Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore and read for yourself the amazing stories of these 31 people in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications, Louisville. Personal Stories, pages 128-176.
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