Category Archives: Supportive Actions

Choice, Fellowship, Higher Thoughts for Down Days, The 12 Steps

The little part in me that says I am OK, is the part that I am going to concentrate on today.

October 17, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

AFFIRMATION

“Now that small voice, that little part of you that wants to have light and some hope is getting up the courage to ask more for itself.” (8)

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I am finding that the more I seek out a solution to my depression and begin to look for signs of sadness lifting, the more my focus stretches from despair to hope. I am making the courageous move to speak kinder thoughts to myself and gradually replace those harmful negative thoughts to newer and more hopeful thoughts.

The only voice that I want to listen to today is the voice that says that the mistakes of yesterday or the various views I held about myself in the past do not matter. The voice that I am going to listen to today says that I can make a choice to feel better right now.

MEDITATION

God, help us to take what we can that’s positive about ourselves and leave behind the awful negatives that always seemed to take center stage in our mind.”

SOURCE: Copyright (c) Higher Thoughts for down days:365 daily thoughts and meditations for 12 Step fellowship groups.(1999). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Mutual Aid

“I want to carry the message of hope to those others who are depressed.”

October 15, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

” I said what I so often said, that the best way depressed people can help themselves is to help one another. Form a group, get to know one another, support one another.” Source: Dr. Dorothy Rowe.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

They who have never been depressed think that all I have to do is just be cheerful and my mind will automatically change. It’s like telling someone to stop their diarrhea as if they have control over it. My depression took time to develop and so it will take time and work to remove. The people who are the most support are those who have been depressed themselves, they won’t tell you to snap out of it!

I best support myself when I find other people like myself and try to help them.

MEDITATION

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

SOURCE: (Copyright) Higher Thoughts for down days:365 daily thoughts and meditations for 12 step fellowships. (1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

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++ VISIT THE STORE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ITEMS LISTED BELOW.++

Believing is seeing: 15 ways to leave the prison of depression (2015) Depressed Anonymous Publications.

I’ll do it when I feel better (2015) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

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

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2001) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

Belief, Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, The 12 Steps

When the pain gets bad enough, you will seek the cure

October 14, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

“…Recovery is a gradual and pains taking process for both the person addicted to alcohol (depressive feelings) and the person addicted to the addict…I had journeyed to counselor after counselor and program after program seeking to get my husband well. But as the saying goes, “when the pain gets bad enough, you will seek the cure.” Recovery, however is looking for more than relief from the pain. In my case the cure involved a counselor, Al-Anon meetings, Al-Anon Adult children meetings, daily readings, meditations and new supportive friends. It also involved a constant struggle to be honest with myself, and to stop denying the feelings I had refused to recognize for so long. Recovery for me is a miracle. I still remember the craziness, but today my life no longer resembles a jigsaw puzzle of a thousand pieces that someone has dropped on the floor…Painful though recovery may be, it is well worth the effort and is definitely not as painful as no recovery at all.” The Forum, May 1991, Vol.39.No.5. p.11.

Comment: I know that recovery does take time and it does take work. Could this possibly be the worst thing a depressed person hears who wants to leave the prison of depression. Time and work? They tell us that they can’t even get out of bed in the morning. They have no desire to do anything, nothing, zilch! I know what that is all about. When I was depressed I too felt the pain of living like a zombie. No energy. No motivation. Stuck in my own juices of nothingness. But like the person said, quoted above, I knew that I had to do something because the pain became unbearable. That is when the 12 Steps of recovery pushed me toward a cure. They provided me a way out of my own homemade emotional prison. I had to quit denying my painful feelings and get started to work on myself. It was here at the Depressed Anonymous meeting that I was given my “toolkit” of recovery. There was no rush to get cured. There was only the desire to find a way to relieve myself from the pain of isolation and the lack of motivation to do anything for myself. My first job was to quit saddening myself. With my “toolkit” and the 12 Steps I gradually, and with time, dismantled all that was keeping me prisoner. I found the key that unlocked my prison door.

My life today is good. My feelings are no longer painful and crippling. The Depressed Anonymous Promises are true. ” …a power greater than myself restored me to sanity.”

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

Please VISIT the STORE for literature resources. also, PRINT OUT MENU items from website for more detailed information about who we are and what we offer.

Fellowship, Hope

Stepping up to hope.

October 12, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

“I want to get well so badly…”

These words were spoken by Helen, who as an active member of Depressed Anonymous found that she was no longer alone. She tells us that when a person wants relief from the pain and isolation of their depression that they will go to any lengths to find help.

She writes in the Personal Stories section of Depressed Anonymous the following testimony:

” I finally knew after two years or more of sleepless nights that someone had to help me. I found a card saying “Depressed Anonymous” in the back of the phone book. It had a phone number and that was all. I talked to the man on the other end of the phone. I said to myself, this man is too busy to talk with me, but anyway I made the first appointment myself. I made myself go. I thank God that I did. I thank God that I went for help. It was a whole new beginning for me. I wanted to get well so badly. I think people do have to want to change. I went in with the attitude that I have to get well. I heard things about counselors that scared me, but this was just all the old negative feelings that caught up with me and boxed me in.

I got better and started to think differently. I started to get rid of some of my negative thoughts. I began to feel better and I continued to see my counselor. I started in Depressed Anonymous some weeks later.”

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You know, sometimes it takes just that one person with their liberating story of being freed from the isolation and pain of depression that we feel that there is hope for me. If it worked for Helen, it can surely work for me as well. If you would like to read Helen’s working free of depression see the full account in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition.(2011).

Available at Depressed Anonymous Publications.

Belief, Fellowship, The 12 Steps

12 Ideas about appropriate self-help activities for use when depressed.

October 9, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

1. Attributing the depression to a cause. 2. Attempting to rectify the problem considered responsible for evoking the feeling of depression. 3. Finding social and moral support. 4. Engaging in diverting and distracting recreations. 5. Keeping busy and working. 6. Focusing one’s attention elsewhere than on the depression problems or depressed feelings. 7. Restructuring one’s cognitions so as to minimize the significance of the depressing events. 8. Engaging in self-care and maintenance activities. 9. Visiting one’s emotions. 10. Taking prescribed medication. 11. Finding compensations and boosting feelings of self-esteem/ or self sufficiency through useful, purposeful activity. 12. Taking comfort in one’s religious beliefs.

Source: Rippere, V., and Williams, Ruth. Wounded Healers. NY: John Wiley and sons. Ltd.,1985.

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I might add that one of the more therapeutic activities for a person depressed is to join a Depressed Anonymous group where you will find yourself no longer alone and isolated. The group members will speak a language which tells you that they know what you are experiencing. And when you do turn your attention to your personal experience with depression they will provide you with a solution-focused plan of recovery. We call it the Twelve Step program of recovery This plan has been tried and tested for almost a century now, and has been found to be the “real deal.”

Take a look at some of the literature offered by Depressed Anonymous, use it, then become a believer that it works.

Sources: Believing is seeing:15 ways to leave the prison of depression. (2015) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville

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

12 Step Meeting, Acceptance, Belief, Depressed Anonymous, Fellowship, Higher Power

Admit, believe, decide.

October 7, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

These three words appear in the first three Steps of Depressed Anonymous. These are the words that make us well. These are the words that start us on our journey to a life lived without fear. These are the words that will thrust us into a life filled with hope and meaningfulness. Of the 12 Steps of recovery, these are the first steps that one takes when they want to find peace and hope.

I remember so vividly when I took my first step over the threshold of despair and isolation into the bright light of awareness and hope at my first 12 step group meeting. Just by walking through the door I admitted that I needed help. My life had spiraled out of control. It was on that day, at that meeting of the fellowship, that others heard my story, that I started to believe that I could be restored to a purposeful life lived with hope and peace. It was on that day, at that meeting, that I made a decision to turn my life and my will over to the care of God as I understood God.

And here I am today, 33 years later, not only with a life filled with a purpose designed to help others depressed but by doing so, have kept myself free from isolation and self-pity.

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

Acceptance, Belief, Depressed Anonymous Workbook, Fellowship, Hope, The 12 Steps

The solution-focused journey out of depression.

October 3, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

Solution-focused is not only a description of a particular type of therapy but is likewise an apt description of the work that is done when one becomes a member of the Depressed Anonymous fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Depressed Anonymous present to those still “suffering from depression” positive solutions for the overcoming of their own feelings of worthlessness and despair.

By using the Steps you can begin to take the journey that will change your life, your feelings and your relationship with the world inside yourself as well as the world in which you live.

Step Twelve tells us that “Having had 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.”

And, that is why we do what we do. Now that we have admitted we had a problem, turned our life over to something bigger than ourselves, cleared away the rubbish of lives that kept us imprisoned (fears, guilt, isolation), we gained a freedom to live everyday in the solution of hope and serenity.

Try the solution! See if our program will work for you. It’s already restored thousands of lives and families.

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VISIT the STORE and check out the HOME STUDY PROGRAM, and order it today. The solution-focused program consists of The DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS WORKBOOK,(2001), and DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS, 3rd edition. (2011).Both books and all our literature is written by those of us who have been depressed and who now live a daily life of hope.

All we have to lose is our misery!

Fellowship, Higher Thoughts for Down Days, Honesty

The truth will set us free!

October 1, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

I will tell as much truth about myself as I am humanly capable today.

AFFFIRMATION

“Only God can fully know what absolute honesty is. Therefore, each of us has to conceive what this great ideal may be to the best of our ability.”

“Fallible as we all are, and will be in this life, it would be presumptuous that we could ever really achieve absolute honesty. The best we can do is strive for a better quality of honesty.”

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I admit that I am depressed. This honesty about the way I feel creates in me a real hope that by my being honest, I can admit other things about myself. My spiritual well being rides on how honest I am. It is this inner truth about myself that I want to share with others. I gain freedom the more I share who I am with other’s like me.

It is in talking about my attachments to depression that sets me free from my fear of getting more depressed. Indeed, the truth will set us free and enlighten us as to how our attachments to behavior such as depression and sadness have imprisoned us.

I have to be honest with myself if I am to be released from my prison of depression. In my heart, I really don’t believe all the nonsense that I keep pumping into my head about how bad I am and how hopeless everything is. In reality, I know things might be bad but never hopeless. I have just to look around me and see hope blooming, budding and growing.

MEDITATION

“He satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things.” Psalm 107. 9

SOURCE: Higher thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for 12 Step fellowships. (1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. October 1. Page 197.

Addiction, Belief, Fellowship

6 ways to help you through depression

September 30, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

1) Don’t bottle things up: if you’ve recently had some bad news, or a major upset in your life, try to tell people close to you about it and how it feels. It helps re-live the painful experience several times, to have a good cry, and talk things through. This is part of the mind’s natural healing mechanism.

2) Do something: get out of doors for some exercise, if even for only a long walk. This will enable you to keep physically fit, and you may sleep better…This will help you take your mind off those painful feelings which only make you more depressed when allowed to sweep over you.

3) Eat a good balanced diet: even though you may not feel like eating. Fresh fruits and vegetables are especially recommended. People with severe depression can lose weight and run low in vitamins, which only makes matters worse.

4) Resist the temptation to drown your sorrows. Alcohol, actually depresses mood, so while it may give you immediate relief, this is very temporary and you may end up more depressed that ever.

5) Don’t get into a state of not sleeping. Listening to the radio or watching TV (it’s on all night now!) while you’re resting your body will still help, even if you are not actually asleep, and you may find that you drop off because you’re no longer worrying about not doing so!

6) Remind yourself that you are suffering from depression –something which many other people have gone through — and that you will eventually come out of it, as they did, even though it does not feel like it at the time. Depression can even be a useful experience, in that some people emerge stronger and better able to cope than before. Situations and relationships may be seen more clearly, and you may now have the strength and the wisdom to make important decisions and changes in your life which you were unable to do before.”

Source: Depression: P.9. Pamphlet published as a service to the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

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I find these 6 ways as very helpful for anyone making a choice to change their behavior, the way they feel and the way they think. With a fellowship of like minded persons, such as Depressed Anonymous, there is a greater capacity to make better choices as well as to learn ways to gradually move out of the bondage of depression.

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

The Depressed Anonymous Workbook (2001) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

12 Step Meeting, Addiction, Belief, Fellowship, Focus, Spiritual Heroes, The 12 Steps

Is depression an addiction?

September 26, 2015 hopeservicefellowship Leave a comment

At the weekly Depressed Anonymous meetings there stirs a glimmer of hope for the saddict as he/she begins to encounter others like themselves at group meetings. It is a bigger payoff for the saddict to gradually believe that the recovering members of the Depressed Anonymous group are holding out a hope that can be theirs if only they would depend on the serenity of the members of the group rather than depend on the long time comfort of their addiction.

“Whether it is therapy or not, addicts improve when their relationships to work, family, and other aspects of their environment improve. Addicts have come to count on the regular reward they get from their addictive involvement. They can give up these rewards when they believe they will find superior gratifications from other activities such as the DA meetings in the regular fiber of their lives. Therapy helps this process by focusing on external rewards and assisting addicts in conceptualizing these rewards and obtaining them. What any rewards therapy itself produces must be regarded as intermediate and time limited, as a passage to the stable, environmental rewards that are necessary to create a non addictive equilibrium in people’s lives. Only when such everyday but potent reinforcements are firmly in place is an addiction cured. ” Source: The Meaning of Addiction: Experience and its interpretation. Stanton Peale. Lexington Books. Lexington, MA, 1988. p,55.

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SOURCE: Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. (2011) Louisville. Appendix Is depression an addiction?

We believe that what we think, what we say, and what we do impact our depression. We believe that depression can be managed by applying the principles of the 12 Steps. All are welcome!