THE EIGHT WAY.
Excerpts from BELIEVING IS SEEING: 15 WAYS TO LEAVE THE PRISON OF DEPRESSION. (See resources)
“Please treat yourself kindly! Begin to plan pleasurable activities into your life today!”
“I think one of the two things which depressed persons feel is lacking is in not having mastery over the way they feel and believe. Secondly, they seem to have lost a desire to perform a pleasant activity which might attach their interest. One of the things I recommend for people depressed is to find one pleasant activity that they once enjoyed before being immobilized by their present depression. I think it is a good learning experience to believe that my depression won’t last forever and that someday I can feel better. In other words, I can still try and do that one thing that was a pleasant activity before I got depressed. We feel that we “have no reason to treat ourselves kindly” because we can’t find anything hopeful or of interest in our lives at the moment. We also feel that because we are so bad we don’t deserve anything good.
Also, as for planning pleasurable activities, you might want to start to listen for the way that you talk to yourself. Try to speak kind words to yourself as if you were talking to a guest in your home. Talk out loud if you like–hear yourself say kind things to yourself. For once, say something good about yourself instead of listening to all those old negative tapes that always made you feel you’d be better off dead. Or else someone else. You get the idea.
When you start listing your strengths as part of your Fourth Step Inventory, list all the good things that you like about yourself. (See the Depressed Anonymous Workbook and the Depressed Anonymous manual, 3rd edition., both books comprise the Home Self Study Program of Recovery).
With every negative statement about yourself don’t allow yourself another statement about yourself until you are able to replace it with three positive statements. We call these your SUNSPOTS. I mean let’s be fair and balance this thing out! I know that you might feel a bit uncomfortable about prizing yourself, byut give it a try anyway.”
Also, plan some activities for the next day and write them on your calendar. This is especially important for the weekend days when there are so many hours that we may find hard to fill. Some of us have made plans for each of the hours of the day. We must force ourselves to get active. Our life may depend on it!
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NOTE: Another resource for personal reflection is the work titled I’ll do it when I feel better which presents some basic personal behaviors which can lead us out of our personal prison.
RESOURCES: COPYRIGHT(c) BELIEVING IS SEEING: 15 WAYS TO LEAVE THE PRISON OF DEPRESSION. Hugh Smith (2017) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. LOUISVILLE. pgs.43, 44,45,46.
COPYRIGHT(C) I’LL DO IT WHEN I FEEL BETTER. Hugh Smith (2016) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. LOUISVILLE.
HOME SELF STUDY KIT
COPYRIGHT(c) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS, 3rd edition. (2011) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. LOUISVILLE.
COPYRIGHT(c) THE DEPRESSED ANONYMOLUS WORKBOOK. (2011) DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. LOUISVILLE.
NOTE: To order online please VISIT THE STORE. There you find other excellent resources on the subject of depression and recovery.