Taking 12 Steps Away from Depression

Step One: Finding the Right Doctor

Step Two: Find the Medication

Step Three: Exercise

Researchers say that exercise acts like antidepressants in increasing the activity of serotonin and/or norepinephrine in your brain. Working out releases endorphins and other hormones that reduce pain, induce euphoria, have a calming effect and combat stress.

Step Four: Eat Well

Avoid caffeine , white flour and processed food and sugar

Eat More- protein (eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, fish, chicken, seeds, nuts)complex starches (whole grains, beans, potatoes); vegetables (broccoli, spinach, squash)
vitamins (vitamin B-complex, vitamins E and C, and a multivitamin)
minerals (magnesium, calcium, and zinc) omega-3 fatty acids

Step Five: Sleep

Step Six: Get outside in the Sun

Step Seven: Support and Friendships

Step Eight: Get Involved

Step Nine: A Gratitude Journal

Keeping a gratitude journal is one of the most effective happiness boosters.

Step Ten: Therapy (lets not do this with medication alone.

Step Eleven: Prayer and Meditation

Step Twelve: Time

Depression Recovery Groups

Do you struggle with depression? Do you feel like you are " stuck" in life? People struggling with depression often feel as if they have no choices or alternatives and can't see that there are solutions to their problems. Sometimes people suffering with depression feel like things will never be any better no matter what they or anybody else does about it. They often feel shame and blame and anger, and often feel worthless and powerless. They often conclude that everything in life is hopeless. The result is they spiral down and become more and more depressed.

All this is a lie! The truth is..... there is hope!

Celebrate Recovery offers lasting hope and healing from depression. The help offered by Celebrate Recovery is spiritual, and it starts with turning one’s life and will over to the care and control of Jesus Christ. We finally stop running from our depression and acknowledge that we have a problem that we have not been able to get under control. We come to recognize that Jesus Christ is our loving Higher Power, and He will provide all the resources needed to overcome our issues with depression.

Through attending weekly Celebrate Recovery meetings learn how to:

• identify the underlying causes of our depression
• appropriate God’s power in eliminating them
• view life in a healthy and productive way
• forgive those who have hurt us
• make amends to all the people we have hurt
• change our focus from ourselves to others.

The result? Lasting freedom and permanent victory.

Over the years many people struggling with depression have gone through Celebrate Recovery program with incredible results. Celebrate Recovery has a success rate much higher than conventional recovery programs. Why not give it a try? I AM.

Make a decision today to make a positive and everlasting change for the better.

Choice #1- Choosing reality & admitting your need

Realize I am not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

• I cannot do it all
• I cannot do any of it alone
• I am powerless to control

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.

John Baker states in Life's Healing Choices that this verse lets us know we cannot trust our human nature to lead us out of our problems. Left on its own our sin nature will tend to do wrong desire to be God and try to play God.

Paul states exactly how I feel in Romans 7:15-17:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

Romans 7:21-23

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Even David felt it too in Psalms 32:3

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long

The book illustrates this frustration very well on page 19 John Baker writes:

He speaks of the game Wacka Wacka at Chuck E Cheese's, pictured here is a similar game Whac a Mole. You use a big mallet to beat down these little moles that keep popping up. But when you whack one, 3 more pop up. you whack those 5 more pop up. The machine is a parable of life. We whack down one conflict and another pops up. It is frustrating because we cannot get them all knocked down at the same time.
We walk around pretending we are God and have it all under control, but if we were really in control why don't we just unplug the machine!

On Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase would come on and say, " Hi I'm Chevy Chase and you are not." Can you imagine God to say " Hi I am God and you are not." Life's Healing Choices agreeing with God that He is god and we are not leads us into our first healing choice.

Matthew 5:3 Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.

Admitting your need is what being "spiritually poor is all about.

Psalm 32:4-5 (TLB) My strength evaporated like water on a sunny day until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them.

Wisdom in Proverbs 28:13 (TEV)

You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and Give up; the God will show mercy to you.

We need to be honest & open about our weaknesses, faults and failures. Our problems are cured through admitting our weakness & a having a humble heart.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (MSG) I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become!

The Bible clearly passes the message that in admitting my weakness I will find strength.

• I admit that I am powerless to change my past
• I admit that I am powerless to control other people
• I admit that I am powerless to cope with my harmful habits, behaviors and actions

James 4:6

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

Having a humble heart:

• What needs changing in your life?
• What hurt hangup, or habit have you been trying to ignore?

Choosing to admit that you cannot do it alone and that you need God is the first & hardest choice.

I have a problem, I need help. I am depressed, I am full of anxiety, hurt, resentment, my anger is out of control, I am codependent and I have a lack of boundaries. God, I am tired of living this way and using the coping strategies that I am currently using. I am without the ability to forgive, let go, and be happy on my own. I am powerless to manage all this and my life on my own.

I am on the road to healing!

Life's healing choices states that admitting my hurts, habits and hang-ups is just the beginning.

To implement this choice and the other 7 choices I need to:

1. Pray about it
2. Write about it
3. Share about it

The above steps is where the change happens. These interactive steps are my pathway to healing.

I am making the choice to complete them!

God's Promises

Isaiah 57:18-19 I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and help them. I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips. May they have abundant peace, both near and far,”says the Lord, who heals them.

The 5 Promises God extends:

1. If you are hurt, God says, "I will heal you."
   
2. If you are confused or lost, God says' "I will lead you."
3. If you feel helpless, God says, "I will help you."
4. If you feel alone, God says' " I will comfort you."
   
5. If you feel anxious and afraid, God says, "I will offer peace to you."

Trusting in His promises, we find hope for a better future - a life of freedom, peace and happiness.

* This was found on page 2 of John Baker's book Life's Healing Choices

Depression

the Bible describes depression in several places:

Job 17:15 where then is my hope, Who can see any hope for me?

Psalm 61:2 From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint lead me to the rock that is higher than I

Psalm 69:1-3 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail,looking for my God.

Proverbs 25:20 Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Reading "laughing in the dark: a comedians Journey through Depression" by Chonda Pierce.





Check out Chonda Pierce in Rehab & Recovery Part One & Two below:

I can relate to how Chonda Pierce describes her morning here about feeling completely defeated before even putting your feet to the floor. I look forward to group after her explanation of how it was/is for her. I pray that this will be a great healing for me in my process of recovery.

A CR Introduction of Myself

Hi, my name is ______________ ( for blogging purposes I am not sharing this). I am a believer in Jesus Christ and I am in recovery for depression, anxiety, issues with anger, struggles with boundaries and codependency.

The Lifehouse Skit

Saddleback Church High School Ministry performs "The Lifehouse Skit"

In this video the girl finds herself overcome by all the vices made to look so attractive in life: sexual impurity, greed for money, drinking, bulimia, and cutting.

The lies that she has been told about her worthlessness and inability to measure up lead her into depression, attempted suicide, and ultimately into a desperation that motivates her to once again seek her first love.

Only after the girl hits rock bottom does she remember the true source of her joy, a relationship with Christ.

Can you relate?

I can.

1 John 4:4 - You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world

Celebrate Recovery

Are life's struggles weighing you down?
Are your past failures holding you back?
What are you running from?

Wether it is drug abuse, addiction, alcoholism, depression, unworthiness, perfectionism, people pleasing, insecurity, sexual addiction, lies, abuse, eating disorders, cancer, loss, anger, anxiety, divorce, materialism ...

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RUN OR HIDE ANYMORE!!!!

Break Free from the chains!

You Are Not Alone!



Grace, Forgiveness, Love, Mercy, Healing, Hope, Freedom, Joy, Support

Celebrate Recovery - a safe place to recover from life's Habits, Hurts and Hang- Ups through a Christ- Centered 12 step recovery program. Click here to find a group near you.

Current life's struggles are weighing me down, past failures are holding me back. I am running from depression, unworthiness, perfectionism, people pleasing, insecurity, lies, abuse, loss, anger, anxiety, divorce, materialism and various other skeletons in my closet.

But I do not want to run anymore because I am starting to fall. I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend ... I cannot fall anymore! Above all else I am a Christian. I am ready for these chains to be broken.

I am beginning my celebration of recovery. I am attending Celebrate Recovery this week for the first time. As a writer I began this blog to share my process with you. I pray that others will follow in support and I pray that others will come to find that they are ready for their chains to be broken too!

Feel free to pray, comment, subscribe and e-mail (mycelebrationofrecovery@yahoo.com)