BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM
1. Appraise yourself: Identify strengths and problem areas.
– Check out the Depressed Anonymous Workbook for a 12 Step self-study of one’s strengths and problem areas.
2. Try changing in small ways. Keeping it simple and manageable.
3. Emphasize your positive skills, talents and strengths. A sponsor will be most helpful in leading you to discover your hidden strengths. When we are depressed and in lockdown, it is hard to see the light. In the beginning, you will let the Da fellowship group serve as the key to unlock your potential.
4. Take what others say at face value- Free yourself from the burden of figuring out others motives.
5. Choose role models you respect. It’s possible that your presence at a DA meeting will discover others who are making the 12 Steps recovery program work for them, finding serenity an hope.
6. Stop activities you don’t like or have an aptitude for. Examples: People pleasing, isolating oneself from friends and family, catastrophic thinking, having negative thoughts about self, not trusting others.
7. Accepting yourself without judgment. Use the “SUNSPOTS” or the “Rule of Threes” to discipline oneself to use what works for you and leave the negatives behind. (See Pages 47-48 in DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS. 3rd EDITION. Depressed Anonymous Publications. 2011.)
Please read the story of Margie, a charter member of Depressed Anonymous, as she shares her story. Personal Stories section.#31. Page 131. Depressed Anonymous.
8. Talk to your friends. This is an avenue that leads you to finding who you are. The DA fellowship, which meets every day.(Check out Website for meeting information). Here in this group, your friends will share how their Journey of Hope gave them a most valuable gift–namely, a choice to work their way out of depression or to continue to live a life of misery and hopelessness.
9. Choose one particular task and do it. Just one task. One small baby step. Keep it simple. Stay in the now–one day at a time. Walk and get out into nature. Walk around the block. Use the TOOLS of Recovery. (See Homepage at depressedanon.com and click onto TOOLS of Recovery menu. You will find an array of ways to begin your own life journey, with a commitment for your own personal wellness and fitness.)
10. Take charge of your life and set goals. Make decisions. Take some risks. Reach out to others for help!
Depression thrives and grows strong in isolation where the depressed individual can spend time ruminating over past defects and self-alleged wrongdoing. The very worthlessness can grow in this darkened environment. But if the solitary confinement is to end, the depressed person has the right and the responsibility to examine the various ways to fight back the isolation, immersing oneself in a supportive and healing environment. If there is no environment where they feel safe and secure, one will have to buildup their courage and get one. You cannot think yourself out of depression. You hold the key that will unlock your prison of depression. We recommend that you start using it now.
Hugh S.
(C) Copyright. Shining a light on the dark night of the soul.: A personal experience for healing the darkness of depression. (1999) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY.
(c) Depressed Anonymous (2011) 3rd Edition. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pages 47-48.
(c) The Depressed Antonymous Workbook.(2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY.
Please visit the DA literature store for more information.
Nice article, Hugh. Very helpful. Thank you!
You are welcome. I Appreciate your comments.
Hugh
This really struck me this morning.
Celine Dion is suffering. She was diagnosed with stiff person sindrome.
I feel this is another example of depression.
I feel that there are a lot of these people like me, Celine Dion and you.
Are we hypersensitive people? I believe so.
The pandemic was really hard to focus on for so many of us.
https://youtu.be/TaOQG4_SuSk
Many are still suffering from the negative effects of the pandemic. For example, the isolation and the lack of face-to-face social support. And now we find that our youth have been especially hard hit emotionally by the disruption of their social life with all those activities which had kept them callose and in meaningful relationships.
We have all been set up for mourning the loss of loved ones, our jobs, our academic pursuits and so many other areas of lives once lived with hope and purpose,
And then there is the reality of those “long haulers”, who because of the covet illness, suffer a manifold assortment of physical illnesses, mental breakdowns and just a complete absence of hope and meaning for their lives.
For myself, I escaped the covit-19, but I have not escaped the untimely loss of those that I loved and cherished as family and friends. For these, I still mourn.
Thank you for your post. Always appreciative of your response to our comments.
I agree how the pandemic changed so many of our lives. I guess that in many ways and degrees we are all “long haulers.” of the life threatening situations which those days, months and years visited upon each of us.