Category Archives: Supportive Actions

Prayer

THE SERENITY PRAYER (complete version)

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THE SERENITY PRAYER

God, grant me the serenity to accept  the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will,
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you in the next. Amen.

Reinhold  Neihbuhr

Fellowship

Rugged individualism

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” Trapped in our traditional rugged individualism, we are an extraordinarily lonely people.  So lonely, in fact, that many cannot even acknowledge their loneliness  to themselves, much less to others. Look at the sad, frozen faces all around you and search in vain for the souls hidden behind masks of makeup, masks of pretense, masks of composure. It does not have to be that way.  Yet many  — most — know no other way. We are desperately in need of a new ethic of “soft individualism” an understanding of individualism which teaches that we cannot be truly ourselves until we are able to share freely the things we most have in common: our weakness, our incompleteness our imperfection, our inadequacy, our sins, our lack of wholeness and self sufficiency. It is the understanding expressed by those in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous when they say ” I’m not OK and your not OK, but that’s OK.”  It is a kind of softness that allows those necessary barriers, our outlines of our individual selves to be permeable membranes, permitting ourselves to seep out and the selves of others to seep in. It is the kind of individualism that acknowledges our interdependence not merely in the intellectual catchwords of the day but in the very depths of our hearts. It is the kind of individualism that makes real community possible.”

Source: M. Scott Peck.The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. Touchstone. Page 58.

Fellowship, Mutual Aid

We human beings have often been referred to as social animals…

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“But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom,  equality, and love of genuine community.  It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail pareties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries.  It is our task — our essential, central, crucial task  — to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceeed. ”

M.Scott Peck: The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. (1987) TOUCHSTONE.

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The above quote presents fleshes out the realities of making community. Also, the critical need we have as social beings  to help build those forms of communities  where people not only just happen to live proximate to each other but instead see each other as brother and sister.  The question then arises how to transform ourselves into a community as Peck proposes?

Alcoholics Anonymous  and all 12 step mutual aid  groups present us with a model of recovery and the dynamic  experiences of community by each  persons effort to transform themselves. These 12 step groups have  given us a model on how to build community 1) by  first beginning the process of  transforming that individual  and 2)  by embedding   themselves as part of a caring and healing community. By  sharing our  vulnerabilities and committing  ourselves to the transformation of our live through the dynamic force of a caring community (12 step group) and  each of our lives is renewed and changed.

In the mutuality of a caring group of people we can add ourselves as one who truly has been part of building a community where trust, healing and respect take place.

Hugh

Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Fellowship, Honesty, Meditation, Prayer

To thine own self first be true. Honesty is the best policy

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“If I were asked what in my opinion was the most important factor in being successful in the program besides following the Twelve Steps, I would say  honesty. And the most important person to be honest with is yourself…(Bill W., cofounder of AA )

And now back to our Depressed Anonymous Workbook where we continue to clarify our  thinking about the individual Steps and our relationship to them,. We are presently focusing on Step Eleven. (See: The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville)

   Step  Eleven  states “Sought  through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.”

The following are some questions that you may like to ask yourselves as you continue walking on the path to freedom. In question 12. 9  We are asked  an answer for the following question:  How  has your honesty with yourself made your life more free and more fulfilled with hope?  Write down the areas of your life where you feel your honesty has paid the richest dividends? How has honesty made your life less needful of pleasing others so that  they will like you more?

  Your response here.

12.10 How does our own honesty help us carry the message to others still hurting?

Your response here.

12 Step Meeting, Fellowship

Trick or treat? Last night it was goblins, monsters and everything in between. It was Halloween.

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Halloween ( the word Halloween is from an earlier  period of time and means hallowed eve. In the Christian Church all Saints were honored the day before–thus, the ” eve”  part.)  Nowadays, this night is filled with children (and adults) dressed up   as various personages, animals and everything  in between. All of them had their little baskets and hoping to get them filled with candy, cookies and assorted sweet treats. Judging from all who came to our door last night I would say the evening turned  out to be a treat. No tricks!

When I was trying to navigate through the fog of  my depression a number of years ago, there were no treats –no special happy moments–nada! The whole  landscape of my life was filled with “emotional landmines” and  the mind with its delusions and illusions  tried to trick me into thinking I would always live in this  pit of darkness. But as soon as I began to take responsibility for my feelings and my life, I found answers to my  unending trapped feelings.  The answers were not of the treat variety, but they gradually removed the bricks/tricks that formed the prison of my depression. No more was I forced to wear the false face of the smiling, happy-go lucky person.  No more was I the people pleaser, subservient to all who were part of my daily struggle. No, I now filled my futile days with practical ways which I learned how  to leave the sadness behind. I found the way out through the Twelve Steps of Depressed Anonymous, and my newly discovered support group. No more tricks. No more days begun in a fog and ending in a fog. I Came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. I Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understood God to be.

Everyday I treat myself to doing God’s will and believing that something good will happen for me this day What’s it going to be for you today? Trick or treat?

Source: (C) Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the  prison of depression. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

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

Fellowship, I'll Do It When I Feel Better

PROMISE # 5 of Depressed Anonymous: “No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we see how our experience can benefit others.”

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Some of us have attempted suicide. A few of us more than a few times.  We had despaired of ever finding peace or hope.  We believed that we had no future and that our yesterdays were as hopeless as our today’s. It was hard to attend our  first Depressed Anonymous meeting.  We felt horribly alone. We just know that no one in the group has been through what we had been through. But as we listened and watched the older members of the group speak we saw ourselves in their stories.

Personally, I believe that whatever you give out to others is the amount that comes back to you. Our experience can usually help someone else.  As the experience of depression is so isolating, so predictable in its misery  that it is bound to have made such impression upon us that it changed out life and the way we think about our life. And then when our life is changed for the better —thanks to the fellowship of DA, this precious gift  of hope needs to be with those still suffering. Ironically, it appears that the farther we have gone down in mood and up again in our recovery the more powerful can this experience be.

The new members of the our fellowship see the “after” of our lives lived in recovery and so they themselves get involved in our fellowship. The fact that we have recovered so completely is in itself a message of tremendous hope for those who are newcomers to the group. Isn’t it amazing that those who can do the most for those still suffering are those who have worked themselves out of the pit of isolation and begin sharing their story of hope and personal empowerment.”

SOURCE: I’LL DO IT WHEN I FEEL BETTER. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Pages 39-40.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, I'll Do It When I Feel Better, The 12 Steps

Promise # 11. “Intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.”

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As my mind began to heal and my thoughts became more lucid it became apparent  that something inside of myself was 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 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 love object, that we mourn the death of part of us.  The love object and ourselves has become one. I believe we use the word co-dependence 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 for prayer and meditation and feeling that my life has purpose and meaning.  The more I am physically active  and going to meetings even when I don’t feel like it. Working on my Depressed Anonymous Workbook, reading my Twelve Step literature. The behavior is where my freedom begins. And yes, I do feel lousy at times, but I also 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 depression was not so powerful now as to prevent me from even thinking that I could choose to feel differently.”  (Read more tomorrow on Promise # 11.

SOURCE: Copyright(c) I’LL DO  IT  WHEN I FEEL BETTER.  (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Pages 50-51.

DA Literature, Fellowship, The Promises

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through

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Today, we would like to initiate a series on the Promises of Depressed Anonymous. We will consider some thoughts  about the First Promise of Depressed Anonymous.  The following piece illustrates  some important areas for you, the reader,  to consider.

” Working the 12 Steps is like the person who heads toward the light at the end of the tunnel.  The closer one gets to the light  –the more one discovers the way out.

The light in this case is symbolized by the Fellowship of Depressed Anonymous. The expression of light, health and recovery of its members helps each of us to stay focused on recovery. Work has to be done if we are to find  not only the light  — but a life free from the symptoms of depression. Change is painful.   The first step is really the beginning of the end of our pain.  By admitting that we are in pain is that which paradoxically begins the release of our pain.  This is the paradox of letting go and holding on as we learned from our Step Three. What we hold onto holds onto us.  What we seek –seeks us.

It is difficult for any of us to admit that our lives are out of control.”

–  To be continued

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SOURCES: Copyright (c) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Copyright (c) I’ll do  it when I feel better. (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications,. Louisville.

Copyright (c)  Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

       For more information on literature available, visit the store.

12 Step Meeting, DA Literature, Fellowship, Purpose, The 12 Steps

Great Ideas Give Energy Of Purpose And Great Wings To The Soul!

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“A great object to awaken resolute choice, must be seen to be within our reach.  The truth, that progress is the very end of our being, must not be received as a tradition, but comprehended and felt as a reality.  Our minds are apt to pine  and starve, by being imprisoned within what we have already attained. . A true faith , looking up to something better, catching  glimpses of distance perfection, prophesying to ourselves improvements proportional to our conscientious labors, gives energy of purpose, gives wings to the soul; and this faith will continually grow, by acquainting ourselves with our own nature, and with the promise of divine help and immortal life which abound in revelation… A great idea…if seized on clearly and vigorously, burns like a living coal in the soul.” –William Ellery Channing

Know what you want,  find out how to get it, and then go get it!

Within each of us is that soul spirit which urges us on to do what we know we must do. So often, almost  by a strange set of circumstances or coincidence we are presented with a person, an idea, or a situation by which we can fulfill the need which we search for.  Do not pass up this prompting, this nudge, but take it upon yourself to investigate and then to take it as your own if it appears to fulfill your need.

Did this fulfilled need just  “happen”  that I ran into an old friend?  Did it just “happen”  that I  picked up a book where my greatest need and solutions were outlined neatly? It was as if they were there all the time.

If you are reading this piece today, and feeling crushed down and alone, could it be that this message for you just didn’t happen but fulfills your own needs for healing and complete recovery from a depressed spirit?

Like all of us who  look for that nudge, that prompting which will push us to make an investment  in ourselves that can last a lifetime, and what I have done, these many years ago, and still use today, is the solution focused Twelve Steps of Depressed Anonymous for my everyday use and continued recovery. Was it the coincidence of a friend giving me a book on depression while I was searching for a way out of my depression  –did it just “happen” or did I see in this coincidence, that something, which had always been in plain sight, and knowing if I pursued this “happening” with vigor and tenacity I could be the serene person that I always wanted to be.

Here are the books that gave me the nudge to fulfill the Promises of the Twelve Steps. These two books, combined in use together are the source of my strength and the “idea”  that fulfilled my need. Follow your nudge! And if you have decided that you are reading this BLOG today, and that it’s message applies to your situation today then take a look at the HOME STUDY KIT and make something great “happen” for your life today!

HOME STUDY KIT (Visit the store)

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

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook, (201) Depresses Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Belief, Choice, Fellowship, Focus, Higher Thoughts for Down Days, Hope

I am choosing to live in the security of my hope rather than in the fear of life’s possible pain

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“…Haven’t our sadness and thoughts of unworthiness been our last refuge from having to face ourselves, take charge and accept responsibility for our own lives? For many, just knowing that they might have a choice and be able to choose to feel differently can be a startling revelation. I can choose to be happy or I can choose to stay feeling miserable.”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

Life is one that provides me with many areas of choice. I can choose to live with the uncertainty of  hope or I can stay mired in the despair of having to always have everything predictable.  The latter is the hell of my depression.

MEDITATION

We choose to place our trust in you, our God, and to believe that all we can ever have is to be provided with your love and protection in our daily struggles to free ourselves from this continued depression.

SOURCE:   Copyright (c) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.