Depression 12 step

SAMHSA’s National Helpline | SAMHSA

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SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.
Also visit the online treatment locator.

SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service), or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.

Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 (HELP4U) to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.

The service is open 24/7, 365 days a year.

English and Spanish are available if you select the option to speak with a national representative. Currently, the 435748 (HELP4U) text messaging service is only available in English.

In 2020, the Helpline received 833,598 calls. This is a 27 percent increase from 2019, when the Helpline received a total of 656,953 calls for the year.

The referral service is free of charge. If you have no insurance or are underinsured, we will refer you to your state office, which is responsible for state-funded treatment programs. In addition, we can often refer you to facilities that charge on a sliding fee scale or accept Medicare or Medicaid. If you have health insurance, you are encouraged to contact your insurer for a list of participating health care providers and facilities.

The service is confidential. We will not ask you for any personal information. We may ask for your zip code or other pertinent geographic information in order to track calls being routed to other offices or to accurately identify the local resources appropriate to your needs.

No, we do not provide counseling. Trained information specialists answer calls, transfer callers to state services or other appropriate intake centers in their states, and connect them with local assistance and support.

Suggested Resources
What Is Substance Abuse Treatment? A Booklet for Families
Created for family members of people with alcohol abuse or drug abuse problems. Answers questions about substance abuse, its symptoms, different types of treatment, and recovery. Addresses concerns of children of parents with substance use/abuse problems.
It's Not Your Fault (NACoA) (PDF | 12 KB)
Assures teens with parents who abuse alcohol or drugs that, "It's not your fault!" and that they are not alone. Encourages teens to seek emotional support from other adults, school counselors, and youth support groups such as Alateen, and provides a resource list.

After an Attempt: A Guide for Taking Care of Your Family Member After Treatment in the Emergency Department
Aids family members in coping with the aftermath of a relative's suicide attempt. Describes the emergency department treatment process, lists questions to ask about follow-up treatment, and describes how to reduce risk and ensure safety at home.
Family Therapy Can Help: For People in Recovery From Mental Illness or Addiction
Explores the role of family therapy in recovery from mental illness or substance abuse. Explains how family therapy sessions are run and who conducts them, describes a typical session, and provides information on its effectiveness in recovery.
For additional resources, please visit the SAMHSA Store.

Last Updated: 08/30/2022

SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

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Welcome to the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator, a confidential and anonymous source of information for persons seeking treatment facilities in the United States or U.S. Territories for substance use/addiction and/or mental health problems.

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The Locator is authorized by the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255, Section 9006; 42 U.S.C. 290bb-36d). SAMHSA endeavors to keep the Locator current. All information in the Locator is updated annually from facility responses to SAMHSA’s National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey (N-SUMHSS). New facilities that have completed an abbreviated survey and met all the qualifications are added monthly. Updates to facility names, addresses, telephone numbers, and services are made weekly for facilities informing SAMHSA of changes. Facilities may request additions or changes to their information by sending an e-mail to [email protected], by calling the BHSIS Project Office at 1-833-888-1553 (Mon-Fri 8-6 ET), or by electronic form submission using the Locator online application form (intended for additions of new facilities).

Depressive Anonymous 12 Step Program - Life - Yes!

Every difficult undertaking, and overcoming depression is a difficult undertaking, requires not only significant efforts from the beginner, but also certain support from the outside world and from the people around. The inner strength necessary for the initial push to recovery appears not only with the help of drug therapy, but also as a result of making a decision and starting to change the established way of thinking, which in depression is pathological: gloomy, pessimistic, fixated on self-abasement and self-blame. Forces will accumulate as we move forward.
Since our feelings and actions, as well as states and moods are mostly the result of our thoughts and beliefs, first of all, we need to change the style and way of thinking. That is why the Program of Steps for Reflection and a consistent phased recovery program is proposed. Overcoming depression goes in all areas of human life: physical, mental, emotional health, material and everyday life, all kinds of relationships, work, etc. The Program below is a 12-step program for Depressive Anonymous that has been revised to reflect our experience and knowledge. They expanded a little, deepened, universalized, got rid of religious attitudes and lined up in a more logical, in our opinion, order.
How can you work with thesis steps?
The first option: Read one a day (or even with a longer period) and for 10-30 minutes meditate, meditate on the designated topic, analyze your situation comprehensively from the proposed position, look for parallels and analogies in your life and the lives of those around you, in literary and film materials, think about the possibilities of passing this step, look for the necessary methods. Work on each step for as long as you need, until you get a clear feeling of “everything is enough, you can move on to the next”. When all the steps have been carefully worked out, return to the beginning, doing more in-depth work and adding a comparative analysis with previous experience.
Second option: Print the Steps and hang them in a visible place. At the onset of especially difficult periods and a gloomy mood, reread them like a mantra / affirmation. If there is a desire to think more carefully about any one, take a moment.
Third option: Discuss the Steps with loved ones, talk on given topics, read literature, watch movies.
In especially difficult moments, the Steps can serve as a sedative. As you move forward and restore, you can replace the pronoun I with We - new semantic facets will open.
And of course, it is not forbidden to come up with your own methods of working with the proposed materials.
12 Step Program:

As hopeless and gloomy as things seem at the moment, I make the decision to overcome my current situation and recover from my depression. Everything in a person's life determines his choice - I choose Life.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The first step on my path is the awareness of my condition and the decision to move from depressive turmoil and apathy to clarity, peace of mind and peace - to the light. I know that I am sick and that I need to overcome my illness. I have lost the ability to control my life and I want it back.
Rejection of the future and passing away from life is not a method of solving problems, but only a way of escaping from oneself, people, the World. You can correct the situation only by actively participating in it, which means continuing life. Life is given to me as a Gift, and one should be grateful and grateful to the World. I will try to use this Gift in order to create my own life and help other people in this. I trust my life to the care of a Higher Power or God as I understand Him.
I believe that the World is just, generous and merciful. My faith and the members of the group are my support and the source of the necessary strength. I am no longer alone in my state of depression. I found people who understand me, my feelings and problems. I trust other members of the group, share my experience, hope and strength. I learn from my comrades a new positive way of thinking and behaving.
I take responsibility for my feelings, thoughts, actions and my future, realizing that the salvation of a drowning person is the work of the drowning person himself. No one knows me better than myself, therefore no one can help me better than myself. But at the same time I need support and new knowledge. "God, give me the peace of mind to accept what I can't change, the strength to change what I can, and the wisdom to tell one from the other."
I acquire the skills to manage my feelings, thoughts, actions, life. I create my future today and every moment. The more constructive and positive I think and act, the happier and more joyful my life will be. Fixation on the past, on fears, doubts, regrets, resentments deprives me of hope for tomorrow. I can control my thoughts and not allow suspiciousness and negativity in them.
I know that the burden is on the shoulders, and I am free to plan my own progress in accordance with my capabilities. I set realistic goals for myself every day. I am ready to fearlessly and comprehensively examine myself and my life, including from a moral point of view, as well as admit my errors and mistakes. I am going through the process of repentance: sins must be acknowledged, debts must be repaid, mistakes must be corrected. I understand that in a few meetings and months it is impossible to fix what has been destroyed for a long time, and I stock up on patience.
I find out my strengths and focus on developing them, cultivating the necessary qualities and overcoming shortcomings. Mistakes and failures no longer scare me, they are a natural and indispensable part of becoming a person. I am not perfect and cannot avoid mistakes, but I can learn to accept them, strive to be better and improve my life.
I strive to be cheerful and fit, lead a healthy lifestyle. Walking and playing sports, proper nutrition not only normalize physical well-being, but also restore clarity of thought, self-confidence and increase self-esteem.
I don't avoid people, I learn to trust them, respect myself and them, and build relationships in a mutually safe and mutually beneficial way. I enjoy communicating with group members and with other people. Self-isolation is a sign of the resumption of the disease.
I know that by working on myself sufficiently, I will definitely overcome depression. Although I sometimes feel hopeless and overwhelmed, I am not helpless, I now have support. I made the decision to change my life for the better. The more active my efforts to think and act constructively, the more confident and better I will feel.
As I recover my strength and get out of depression, I will more and more help people around me - those who need my support and my experience.

Depressive Anonymous Classic 12 Step Program :
1. We admitted we were powerless over depression, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that only a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Have deeply and fearlessly assessed themselves and their lives from a moral point of view.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to any other person the true nature of our delusions.
6. Completely prepared ourselves for God to deliver us from our shortcomings.
7. Humbly asked Him to correct our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all those people whom we had harmed, and were filled with a desire to make amends for the damage caused to them.
9. Personally made amends for the damage caused to these people wherever possible, except in cases where it could harm them or anyone else.
10. Continued introspection and, when they made mistakes, immediately admitted it.
11. Strived through prayer and meditation to deepen contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will, which we must fulfill, and for the bestowal of strength for this.
12. Having achieved the spiritual awakening that these Steps led to, we tried to bring the meaning of our ideas to other people suffering from depression and apply these principles in all our affairs.

If nothing pleases: let's talk about depression

Depression . Surely, in the modern world, this word is known to almost everyone - both a child and an adult. It has become so popular that people often refer to any deterioration in mood as depression. Quite often, we can hear from relatives, acquaintances or colleagues: “I was depressed all evening yesterday” or “Again, the boss filled up with work, now I will be depressed all week,” etc. Against this background, the true meaning of depression is depreciated, and for many people in our time it is associated with something insignificant, ordinary, with a person’s desire to “cry” and “wine”.

At the same time, people who really suffer from depression do not admit that they are sick and do not want to voice their problems, so as not to be known as “whiners” and “weaklings”. But even if a person with depression decides to talk about his problems, as a rule, he hears in response: “Pull yourself together!”, “Look how beautiful life is! How can you be depressed?”, “You should be ashamed, others have problems, and nothing, they live!”, he is offered to “cheer up”, “shake up”, “move” and “change the scenery”. Meanwhile, such advice does not help a person suffering from depression in any way, they only make him once again feel like an “egoist” and “pessimist” and reject even the thought of visiting a doctor.

What is depression? Is it a disease? How to distinguish depression from a banal bad mood? And is it really possible to “pull yourself together” and overcome this unpleasant state on your own? Today in our article we will deal with these difficult questions. The doctor of the highest qualification category, candidate of medical sciences, psychiatrist and psychotherapist of the Clinic "SMITRA" Koridze-Datunishvili Manana Nodaryevna will help us in this.

What is depression?

Of course, this is a real disease, registered in the International Classification of Diseases. Depression belongs to the group of affective disorders, in other words, mood disorders. But, of course, this is not the mood disorder that occurs, for example, after a car breakdown or a deuce in an exam.

Depressive disorder is characterized by several factors. First, depression is a long-term, persistent (lasting more than 2 weeks) condition. Secondly, in addition to a decrease in mood, a depressed patient has a significant drop in activity and a decrease in energy. Thirdly, when a patient is depressed, the pace of thinking changes, more often in the direction of slowing down.

A person suffering from depression begins to look at the world pessimistically, loses the ability to experience joy, his judgments become negative, the future seems unpromising. To live at the usual pace, to concentrate, to be interested, to enjoy what used to please - all this becomes difficult or even impossible for a depressed patient. Often there are thoughts of one's own guilt and worthlessness. In addition, even in mild forms of depression, self-esteem and self-confidence may be reduced.

Sleep is disturbed in a depressed patient: he is either exhausted by insomnia and wakes up several hours earlier than usual, or, on the contrary, the duration of sleep can increase significantly. At the same time, in the morning, as a rule, the symptoms of depression intensify and often become almost unbearable.

In addition to the above manifestations, depression may be accompanied by changes in appetite - its increase or decrease - and corresponding changes in weight, as well as severe psychomotor retardation, increased anxiety, and a decrease in libido.

Depression diagnostics

Depression is rich in its manifestations, and against this background, the patient can independently suspect such an ailment. But only a qualified psychiatrist, psychotherapist can finally confirm or deny the presence of the disease and, accordingly, prescribe treatment. The doctor will help determine the amount of care needed by the patient, will diagnose. Sometimes a depressive state and a decrease in vital energy can be a symptom of a serious somatic disease, which is why timely diagnosis and targeted assistance are so important.

Causes of depression

A depressive disorder can occur when a person’s psyche and somatics are subjected to unbearable loads for him personally. Depression can be triggered by chronic stress, a severe physical illness, or a sudden precipitating factor such as the loss of a loved one. Scientists also talk about genetic variants of the causes of depression. In addition, it is possible that one environment of life (family, the habit of perceiving life in a depressive light) matters in the development of depression.

Does depression affect a person's overall health?

On the one hand, depression is a kind of adaptation reaction developed in the process of human evolution. Under certain conditions, it helps to maintain overall mental health and even survive. But in situations where a depressive disorder causes unbearable stress on the body, these stresses can “somatize”, i.e. cause disorders of various organs and systems of the body.

But even without somatization in such a state there is little pleasant: depression can affect the whole life, the formation of goals, the choice of a person in certain situations. The behavior of a person suffering from depression can become reckless, sometimes dangerous for himself and others.

Prevention of depression

No matter how surprising it may sound, it is necessary to start prevention of depression… from childhood. Certain methods of education will help teach the child to correctly perceive and process information coming from outside, as well as develop adequate ways to respond to various life situations.

There are also some simple rules for adults to reduce the risk of depression. All these rules are built on the banal and well-known principles of a healthy lifestyle:

Always get enough sleep! Try to go to bed at the same time, and do not forget to close the room from the light. The sleep hormone (melatonin) can only be produced in total darkness.
Eat healthy food. Foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids can help prevent mood swings and restore emotional well-being.
Lead an active lifestyle. They say movement is the best antidepressant. Physical exercise or walks in the fresh air give the body energy, maintain a good mood and maintain vitality.
Communicate more with positive and pleasant people. Good, pleasant communication will give positive emotions and energize.
Allow yourself to be "a little selfish." Take care of yourself, relax, take time for yourself. A drop of healthy selfishness will benefit any person.

Let's sum it up: how can you still distinguish depression from a bad mood?

In the event of the usual “bad mood”, you know exactly its cause: troubles in the family, problems at work, or just stepped on your foot in public transport and ruined your new shoes.

Learn more