What is the Depressed Anonymous spirit? To me the word Anonymous means that it most probably is a group centered on  the 12 step principles of recovery and living these principles out in their daily lives.

The word “depressed” indicates to me that painful isolating experience that continues to keep me from friends, family and everything else that gave me a sense of  personal fulfillment and hope.

So what is the “spirit of Depressed Anonymous? ” The spirit is that feeling and fellowship which provides  a solution for that  gradual release from  isolation and hopelessness.

Please continue to read and think about the various insights about depression and recovery that our site provides to anyone looking for a solution and hope for everyday of their life.

Click onto depressedanon.com  and it is there you can find out how the “spirit of Depressed Anonymous” can become a vital part of your everyday life.

Hugh

PS. You can also visit with me at [email protected]. Hoping to hear from you.

I found a way out of my prison of depression and  so are the  many   others who are using the  “tools” of recovery. And what are the “tools” of recovery but the 12 Steps of Depressed Anonymous. And how did I discover these great “tools?” I found them because I was feeling hopeless and completely out of control. My life was unmanageable. I was on a spiraling downspin.  I was trapped. I was trapped until I discovered a group of people back in 1982 who said, “hey, we can help.”  That group was the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. And yes, they DID help.  So it wasn’t long after that that we founded our own group to help the depressed. Yep, we call it Depressed Anonymous. Now, let’s fast forward. Today there are groups around the globe. We are not many in total numbers, but we are where those who need us are doing all they can to form groups.

Yesterday I got a message from a person from Belarus (formerly of the Soviet Union) who told me that she was interested in getting  a group started in her country where she  is a member of another 12 step program. Because her country is adjacent to the Ukraine, and finding groups in Ukraine listed on our website www.depressedanon.com  she was able to get a published Russian translation of our Depressed Anonymous manual and Workbook. With these books she will   begin working with others who speak Russian as they form a Depressed Anonymous Fellowship.

Step Twelve of Depressed Anonymous reminds us that “Having a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to the depressed, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.”

About the potentially life threatening experience of depression we  have learned   much from those who have recovered and now continue in the recovery program living out their lives based on the powerful  spiritual principles of the 12 steps.

In our Big Book we read about a very important issue which affects all of us who have been depressed,  who are in recovery  and symptom free, and who want to continue feeling better–everyday. One day at a time. It’s possible.

”  We all know that any addiction and compulsive type of behavior gradually removes you from the regular activities of persons around you, including family, friends and co-workers until you are established in the narrow confines of pain  and isolation. We are always going to be just a little more isolated the more we try to think our addiction through in the circle of our own thoughts. Most of us need the fellowship of the group to keep ourselves honest and in recovery and our dark thoughts out in the open.”  DA, Pages 105-106.

And that’s the power of the group –you are NEVER ALONE. There is always someone who is there for you. All of us are advised to have a sponsor so that when a need does arise someone is there to help get you through the rough times. I have a sponsor and I have not been depressed since 1985.  And how have I been able to stay sane and sober all these years. First,  by living one day at a time, walking almost everyday, talking with my sponsor once a week if possible, reading DA literature, and helping people who phone or email ([email protected])  me for help. I also write a BLOG at www.derpessedaon,com. almost  everyday.

HOME STUDY KIT

Many persons who ask for help cannot find a group  in their locality and so we have developed a Depressed Anonymous Workbook that is coordinated by page reference and Step # with our Big Book. I have helped many who have no face to face group in their community and who now use the Home Study Kit to help begin their own program at home and so have a good idea about depression, their own unique experience, and are provided with a way out with HOPE.  Many times a person who uses the Home Study shares their answers with another person in the family, a therapist or through emails or SKYPE or many other assorted ways that they can connect with that person (s) who also want to learn how to live without depression. For a fact I know that even though you are not part of a local group you are always a part of the fellowship worldwide.  Anytime you want to share your thoughts and work you  can contact anyone of us online, via email, SKYPE or telephone. Don’t stay isolated. Get connected today! It will be life changing.

All the best to you!

SOURCES:  Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition.  (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

Depressed Anonymous Workbook  (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

IMPORTANT:     THESE TWO WORKS COMPRISE THE HOME STUDY KIT AND CAN BE ORDERED TOGETHER. 

VISIT THE STORE ON PLACING AN ORDER FOR YOUR OWN HOME STUDY KIT! GET YOUR NEW YEAR STARTED OFF ON THE RIGHT STEP!

A quote from Chapter Eleven of  Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (DA Big Book).

“One remembers the prayer of St. Francis where he prays to be a channel of God’s grace. This is where we come in. Those of us in the recovery program of Depressed Anonymous want to be a force for good in the world, and what greater good can you do for the world than to tell people depressed how being open to the will of God has helped free you of depressed thoughts and feelings?  Also by choosing to re-kin ourselves by developing new friendships with others in the Depressed Anonymous group, we gradually get in touch with the frightened small child within us. We can begin to get in touch with childhood hurts and quit looking forever for mother and father figures to approve of us and affirm us.  Our addiction to getting other’s approval begins to waiver as we share our story with our new family, the Twelve Step group, dedicated to  helping us leave the prison of depression. We begin to re-parent our child inside and gradually we work through our feelings of shame and sadness. Remember, we don’t want to tell God how to run our life. We just want to pray  that God will do with us  as God wills.”

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SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. (Personal stories section) Page 100.

VISIT OUR LITERATURE STORE

We can give people the gift of their dignity. We can help others just by the way we listen to them and speak with them. We can show them by our own trust that what they have to say is important and good.  Community is caring for people, but of course as soon as we start caring for people, we know that there are some  people who will just drive us up a wall. Some we will really like, because they think like us. Then we risk falling into a world of mutual flattery. We are all so much in need of affection that when somebody gives it to us we want to hold onto it. Then we say to the other  person, “You’re wonderful! Keep at it! Keep flattering me! You know, it’s nice.”   We’re like little cats who need to be caressed. We then begin to purr.”

But flattery doesn’t help anyone grow. It doesn’t bring freedom but rather closes people up in themselves,. We are attracted to certain people, and others put us off. We don’t get on well with them. They trigger off our anguish. Perhaps they remind us of our fathers and mothers who were to authoritarian or possessive.  Some people threaten us, others flatter us.  Some meetings are joyful, and others are painful.  When we talk about caring for people, then we  begin to see how difficult it can be. In community we are called to care for each member of the community. We can choose our friends but we do not choose our brothers and sisters; they are given to us whether in family or in community.”

-Jean Vanier : (Copyright) FROM BROKENNES TO COMMUNITY. (1992) Published by  Paulist Press. Page 38.

Comment

One of the great situations that arise in a Depressed Anonymous meeting is how we find ourselves reacting to fellow members in the fellowship. Vanier is right when he tells us that  sometimes certain people remind us of  people in our lives, past and present who irritate us no end  and make us want to scream. But there are those in the group that are attractive to us for reasons of being like us.   They are kind and loving like ourselves (we say to ourselves,  regardless if true or not).

The group process is one of discovering more about ourselves than learning about the others in the fellowship. If there is someone in the group that especially irritates could it be that they have struck a nerve in your own character and personality. Usually this is the case. Is it that we are looking in a mirror?

Well, you get the drift.  Read our Depressed Anonymous book and there you will find various avenues which can and will lead you to your best self. You will soon realize that somehow, you and I have been the cause of our depression. Now wait! Don’t get all shook up about what I just told you. We are not blaming myself or yourself for being depressed. But by living certain  ways, thinking certain ways, and  by unconsciously acting certain ways thought out our lives that we have set ourselves up for what we are feeling today. Life situations come along and gradually life’s  losses push us over the precipice, spiraling us down and into an abyss such that we have never suffered before. None of us chose to be depressed. All I could do to release me from the grip of sadness was to begin to find out how I got where I did and then how to get out of where I am now. I began to have a life makeover.  I began to take  responsibility in the way I made choices. No more was I the blamer, the complainer, the victim of circumstances. And  now that I am in a fellowship, and people listen to me and believe in me I am free. I have been given tools to use to unlock my prison of isolation  and negativity and slowly find a purpose and meaning for my daily life. You can find out how to do it( makeover) for yourself. Read  on!

Hugh

Read (c)  DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

So often we depend on others liking us to have an identity. I believe they call it “people pleasing.” As long as people smile at us, greet us warmly, we are thinking we are  OK. So much in our lives, and who we think we are or who we are not, is dependent upon  others opinions of ourselves.

In our  program of recovery, it usually is our sponsor (do you have one?) who tells us the truth about ourselves. But also our DA group discussions  have those members who by sharing their strength, hope and experiences  and struggles with depression point us in  a right direction.

I remember a few years back when a member told another member that he was always saying the same thing week after week but never facing the challenge of changing his behavior. She told him that either he do some work on himself or join some other group. Ouch!  I believe that he was one of those DA cats who came to be caressed. They come but never change the way they live their lives. And yes, it’s risky to change. We never know what a change in our behavior will bring–chaos or healing.  We love to live in the predictable. The unpredictable is too frightening. But the Promises of the Twelve Steps (see Chapter 12 in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition) give us the definite hope that if we follow the path of our spiritual program of recovery, healing with replace fear, anxiety, chaos  and isolation.

Please don’t flatter me.  Tell me the truth. I am not a cat that needs to be caressed.

Hugh

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SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.KY