“What do we consider to be the Higher Power or the God that is larger and more powerful than our personal depression? In our prayers we believe that God or the Higher Power can free us from the burden of our joylessness, and that the why of our depression is not as important as the fact that we are depressed. What is it about our complete dependence on this obsession with sadness, our chronic fatigue and feelings of worthlessness that won’t let go of us? Granted, sometimes we feel depression is a comfort, and we’re afraid to let go of it because we don’t as yet know what will replace it. Hope tends to be unpredictable whereas the pain of depression is constant and predictable. We can depend on it.
We have given ourselves over to the belief that this growing feeling of helplessness is what must govern our lives, moods and behavior. We have given it license to run roughshod over every part of our life and over our relationships. Most people can’t see inside us and discover the pain that makes up our every waking moment. For the most part, we are able to hide how miserable we feel.”
Comment
In Step Two of our Twelve Step recovery program, we begin to see the light and walk into the arena of freedom, and can now profess that we “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, and that this simple belief gets us closer to the promise of serenity and hopefulness.
As we look at our Depressed Anonymous Workbook and those questions dealing with the Second Step we are asked to comment on this question:
#2.15 Describe how your Higher Power might be your depression or your attachment to a person, substance, place, thing or behavior? The Workbook commentary continues on with the following thought: For the depressed person giving up old ways of thinking and acting is much like giving up any other addiction -at first letting go of the old behavior makes us feel uncomfortable. The old behavior wants to cling to our spirit like swamp mud hangs onto knee-high boots. Before you participate in DA you would go home from work, get by yourself and ruminate on how bad you felt. This new behavior will help you think differently about yourself. You will find that this Higher Power, or God as you understand it, is not the same God that you might have met when you were young. When you were a child you came to believe that God was watching you, ready to punish you if you were not perfect. You will begin to develop an adult and new way of being related to God as you understand God. With time, persistence and patience, you will gradually trust your life to this Higher Power.” ( See Page 48 in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition, page 48., for a full description of these thoughts.)
SOURCES: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. (Home study kit-Book One)
The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. (Home study kit -Book Two)
Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.
NOTE VISIT THE STORE at this site for more information on using the Twelve Steps of Recovery for overcoming one’s depression.