To admit that there is a problem is the first step which can move us into recovery. The First Step of the Twelve Steps begins with the word WE. This is a WE program–a program about us as a group of hurting people. Since we have tried to tackle our problems alone and in the confines of our own mind we soon discovered that for most of us this was not enough. We still were saddled with a life destroying and unmanageable situation. There must be a solution we thought. Yes, there is a solution. For many of us who have traveled this path of recovery, living out the spiritual principles of the Twelve Steps and being part of the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous we have found peace and a new way of living,
Category Archives: Helpful Thinking
A Most Effective Strategy
AFFIRMATION
I will be a better person today than the person I was yesterday.
“The first step to change is to see it is as possible in our scheme of things. The next step is to accept and cope with the anger and frustration that change bring ..coping with anxiety involves accepting it into awareness and permitting its full expression. This may not lead to a comfortable stare in the short run, but in the long turn it is a most effective strategy.(6)
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
I believe that all growth is gradual and that each day I have only twenty-four hours in which to live out my life. In these twenty four hours I can get a lot accomplished in my efforts to surrender my need to be dependent upon my depression. My depression will no longer be an excuse that keeps me from starting my recovery program.
I know from personal experience that my life is very different from the way that it was before I turned my life over to my Higher Power. (Step 2 of Depressed Anonymous) Now I can live with the belief that this power is going to walk with me. I can now be assured that life is going to get better for me. It is better already. Since this program of Depressed Anonymous is spiritual, I know that my healing of my depression is accomplished by my desire to let God, as I understand him, direct my life. (Step 3 of Depressed Anonymous).
The program of the Twelve Steps has no pat answers and it will not allow you to be comfortable where you are–in fact it will cause you to want to move out of the prison of your depression and into the light of daily efforts to change.
MEDITATION
God, we are aware that this day and this day alone we are going to trust in you and we will commit ourselves to you so that we might commit ourselves to a positive change in our attitudes.
SOURCE: Copyright: HIGHER THOUGHTS FOR DOWN DAYS. Depressed Anonymous Publications Louisville Page 90. May 3rd.
My Inner Most Thoughts Are Stepping Stones
A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY
AFFIRMATION
I am going to think of my inner most thoughts as stepping stones to a better and more positive way to live my life.
“In the ancient secret Gnostic Gospels Jesus is reported as saying, ‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is in you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.'”(6)
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
My sad thoughts which I continually run around in my mind keep me enslaved to inaction and a feeling of being trapped. I want to let these thoughts out so that I will be able to look at them and see them for what they are — the empty fears that have no power when placed out in the light of day. I believe that the more I express my fears to another, the less powerful they are and the less control they have over my life.
I am going to accept the fact that I have every right to be part of this universe and I am going to do everything in my power to achieve a sense of security and happiness for myself. The first step where “We admitted that we were powerless over depression and that our lives had become unmanageable” is what will free me in time from the prison of my depression.
When we get in touch with what we fear, we can get in touch with ourselves. By doing this, we find a way out of the cold and lifeless sadness that we call depression.
MEDITATION
God, please come to us and dwell within us that you might create in us the strength that we need to bring us forth what is within us. This means both those pleasant and unpleasant thoughts.”
SOURCE: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 Daily Thoughts and Meditations for 12 Step Fellowship Groups. (1993, 1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 89. May 1.
LIVE TODAY AS IF IT IS THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR LIFE!
A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY!
I can do most anything to feel better and more alive. All I need to do is believe that I can do it. I want to believe.
” Through this Twelve Step program, I have been on a journey of transformation from the familiar life of drudgery, gloom and desperation to discovering a new freedom and a new happiness -something I didn’t know existed.” (8)
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
This is the real world -The Twelve Steps program for healing and a gradual abstinence from hiding the pressure that builds from inside and pushes me to want to withdraw. I am more sure today than I was yesterday that the more I work my Twelve Step program, I know that like others who work this program, I will begin to feel better. I also believe that the more I begin to take charge of some areas of my life, like exercising, getting a hobby and moving about, the speedier will be my recovery.
From childhood, I had a sparse amount of love and nurturing. I know that I can find the freedom to live and feel differently than I did in the past. Today presents me with a clean slate, a new beginning, if you will. Granted my yesterdays are always there but my today is what really counts. This is the exciting part of living with hope. Life is a challenge and I need to forgive myself for all my yesterdays and live right now as if it is the first day of my life.
MEDITATION
God, make peace and serenity the by-word of our lives and efforts. We know that you are here — closer to us than the light that is in our eyes. We again trust you to live this unpredictable life with your hope and trust in us now.
___________
SOURCE: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for Down days. Pages 87-88.
DEPRESSION ALMOST COST ME MY LIFE
A HIGHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY
I am able to beat loneliness by repeatedly being with other people in recovery.
“I’m sure many sufferer’s could find a lot of comfort and support by coming into a group as I have done, to help beat the terrible loneliness which is felt by many of us and who find lasting friendship with lovely people.”
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
In the group, I established myself and I got some positive feedback from others who watched me grow and who have seen the genuine changes I make personally. I am gradually throwing off my personal war with sadness. The real support comes when I begin to learn that members of the group have the same problems that I have. That helps me trust others with the story of my life. These people are the ones who want to hear my story of how depression almost cost me my life. Now, my life is freeing me from my need to sad myself.
I feel I am able to attach myself to the group now that I know that they are struggling with the same depression that I struggle with. I no longer have to fight this battle on my own.
MEDITATION
God, you are our rock and our refuge, on you I place all my trust. We know and believe, easier now than before, that God has something good in store for us today.”
SOURCE: Copyright(c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 Daily Thoughts and Meditations for 12 Step Fellowship Groups. (1993, 1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville Pages 84-85.
Getting A Grip!
AN AFFIRMATION FOR TODAY
Just for today, I intend to believe and hope that my relaxing my hold on life will give me, paradoxically, a better grasp (grip) on where I need to be in life.
“I still get scared, I don’t know where I am going or what I want anymore, or what life will throw up at me next, but, for the first time in my life, there is no rigid life-plan, and I have been forced to take, and enjoy, one day at a time.”
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
After admitting that I am depressed I can very truthfully say that I now need to get on with my life and work. I want to admit as well that the Higher Power will not let me travel down any roads that I need not travel. Even though there are always a few bends in the road along the way, I will still trust in my God to get me where I need to get. I also know that by attaching myself to my God’s leading I cannot go wrong.
By the time I was almost a year old, I already knew who I wanted to attach myself to as well as I knew who I wanted to withdraw from. Is it possible that early on childhood frights are still unconsciously scaring the wits out of me today. I need to live in the solution and attach myself to what has worked for me in the past when I got myself out of depression.
MEDITATION
Just our surrendering our will to you, our God, gives us the liberty to attach ourselves to new and hopeful ways of reflecting about our lives.
SOURCE: (c) Higher Thoughts for Down days: 365 Daily Thoughts and Meditations for 12 Step fellowship groups. (1993, 1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY 40217. Pages 83-84. April 25.
“HOPE IS A HARD HABIT TO BREAK”
Brad Cohen, the main character in the powerfully moving film FRONT OF THE CLASS, makes this statement about his own efforts to change his life.
The following instructions, HOW DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS WORKS, is read at every Depressed Anonymous meeting.
“You are about to witness the miracle of the group. You are joining a group of people who are on a journey of hope and who mutually care for 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 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 formula for success. We believe that to get out of the prison of our depression takes time and work.
And so at every Depressed Anonymous meeting the group listens as we hear what it will take to escape from the prison of depression.
Also at every meeting of the fellowship we hear how by using the spiritual tools, our Twelve Steps, we can gradually find the path that will and can lead us out into the light of freedom. We come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity…”
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SOURCE: (c) I’ll do it when I feel better. (2011) Hugh Smith. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 65.
ACCEPTANCE
ACCEPTANCE
Is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation—some fact of my life unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely, nothing happens in God’s world by mistake;
Unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.
–by Kristone
PROMISE #11 OF DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS: INTUITIVELY KNOW HOW TO HANDLE SITUATIONS WHICH USED TO BAFFLE US
“As my mind began to heal and my thoughts became more lucid it became apparent that something inside me is changing. Depression, when you begin to examine the various symptoms up close, and deal with them, the experience becomes less threatening. Some say that depression is a collection of behaviors that are brought into play to defend us against things that are too painful to to face. Also, depression results when a love object is lost through death or that one feels abandoned. We have become so at one with our lost love, that we mourn the death of part of us. The love object and ourselves has become one. I believe we use the word codependence today.
At first I was frightened by my various symptoms of depression. The symptoms proved to be baffling. I was not able to get out of bed as well as being unable to concentrate or manage a complex thought. I began to worry that I was losing my mind and I often asked myself if I was going to survive. But now my ability to handle situations in a meaningful way is due to my frequent attendance at meetings, and by making a daily time of prayer and meditation and a feeling that my life has purpose and meaning. The more I am physically active, that is, going to meetings even when I don’t feel like it. Working in my Depressed Anonymous Workbook, reading my 12 Step literature.
This behavior is where my freedom begins. And yes, I do feel lousy at times but I know that nothing can stand in my way to make choices in my own behalf. Previous to my involvement with the group I had no idea that my depression was not so powerful as to prevent me from even thinking that I could choose to feel differently.”
SOURCE: (C) I’LL DO IT WHEN I FEEL BETTER. (1986, 2013) 2nd Edition DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY Pages 50-51.
This Promise really does work. I know from my own personal experience that once I had begun my recovery and began to deal with those things I refused to face that things lightened up. When I was in the pit of my own melancholia I couldn’t even begin to think that there was a way out — I just didn’t consider that as a possibility. But the more I read–the more I listened to others who had or were presently climbing out of their own pit of melancholia I felt hopeful that I too could choose to think differently and so feel different. With time, work and prayer plus having a sponsor I intuitively knew how to handle situations that at one time confused me. Things in my life became clearer and I began to examine those past patterns of behavior and thinking that put me in the pit. It was by living out the Twelve Steps and practicing these principles in all of my affairs that eventually gave me the freedom of making the choice to either choose to stay depressed or to choose to live life and find the path to free me from the bonds of my own depression.
Hugh
WRITING IN MY JOURNAL OR DA WORKBOOK HELPS CLARIFY MY THINKING, FEELINGS, AND BEHAVIORS ONE DAY AT A TIME!
AFFIRMATION
I see myself better when I write down who I feel I am today.
“The simple act of writing something down is tremendously helpful because to do so we have to bring something clearly to mind. Instead of having half-formed thoughts and confused emotions crashing and fumbling around inside of us, we crystalize these thoughts and feelings into sentences. Once we put these sentences down on paper we have taken something from inside and put it outside. Now we can look at it, judge it, and master it.
CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT
I am making every effort to get in touch with who I am and I am taking the opportunity now to focus on what gets me down and what keeps me up. I am seeing too, that the more I associate with people like myself who are following and working their program, the better I feel. I intend to journal and keep a diary of my good progress.
I know that the more I stay in my head the greater the confusion. It is only when I begin to see on paper my expressions of hope and confusion that I can begin to change some of my thoughts which I find I am compulsively repeating to myself, day after day. I now can write down a new positive thought about myself. I can choose to feel whatever I choose.”
MEDITATION
Our guiding love, our God as we understand God, is dong for us all that it desires to lavish on us today. I am hopeful that I can find my new path and grow stronger in learning the various ways to hear our Higher Power’s promptings.
SOURCE: (c) HIGHER THOUGHTS FOR DOWN DAYS: 365 DAILY THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS FOR 12 STEP FELLOWSHIP GROUPS. (1993, 1999) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS, LOUISVILLE. Pages 78-79.