2. Depression aided by mutual help groups

By Tom O'Connell

There's nothing new about depression. Shakespeare, describing Hamlet's state of mind, said he "fell into a sadness, then into a fast...thence into a weakness...into the madness wherein now he raves..." About 2,000 years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca stated confidently, "A man's as miserable as he thinks he is." And Abraham Lincoln, who knew depression well, said, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Unfortunately, however, people in our era who are depressed are not apt to be cheered up by quotes from other centuries. They're in an unresponsive mode. They feel isolated, alienated and sad. And they may find simplistic comments very irritating.

In addiction recovery, depression is a key factor  A recent survey of 1700 alumni of Hazelden's alcoholism rehab program in Minnesota revealed that about 1/3 of them found psychological issues, primarily depression, to be their greatest challenge in recovery.

This subject was discussed with great wisdom by Dr. John Wallace, former  clinical director for Edgehill Newport's rehab program, in his book Alcoholism: New Light on the Disease (Edgehill Publications 1985). Commenting on the need for a moral inventory, he stresses the usefulness of "intense self-examination with the purpose of developing awareness of self-destructive and self-defeating patterns of behavior."

He quotes directly from AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book: "Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their destructive drinking. We have drunk to drown feelings of fear, frustration, and depression....If temperamentally we are on the depressive side, we are apt to be swamped with guilt and self-loathing....As we morbidly pursue this melancholy activity, we may sink to such a point of despair that nothing but oblivion looks possible as a solution. Here, of course, we have lost all perspective..."

He also mentions AA's concern with "resentments, self-pity, egotism, unrealistically high expectations, frustration, stress, sexual and love relationships, self-esteem, fear, anxiety, guilt, grandiosity, self-will, melancholy, depression, security needs, envy, power over others, control and domination of others, and fear of financial failure."

The ideal recovery in AA, he says, is not "dryness" alone, although "nothing else will get better if the drinking continues." He asserts that recovery involves a major change in behavior, attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and general psychological and social functioning. Referring to people who are  "dry but not sober," he suggests that they're avoiding the   growth that's available in AA's "program for living."

Wallace describes quality sobriety as "a change of consciousness, an altered state...a heightened spiritual awareness in which elements of serenity, acceptance, contentment, gratitude and joyfulness are evident." He gives special attention to key words such as "balance," "wholeness," "fulfillment," and "spiritual transformation."

Mutual help groups such as AA provide this precious transforming support, and meetings offer a prevention tool that wards off impending depression by encouraging a balanced perspective that might have surprised even Shakespeare, Seneca, and Abraham Lincoln. Meetings are a form of depression medicine. A very inexpensive prescription.

- Back -