Pathwaytofree

I'm not sure if my posts were clear, but I highly disagree with what I was taught in AA about depression. My point was that clinical depression is a separate entity from AA, but a lot of people in AA think it's the same thing as "depression".

Unfortunately your experience with people in AA saying if you're on meds you're not sober, is a common phenomenon in many parts of the US. There are groups under Clancy I that will tell you if you take meds you're not sober. This goes against AA's official stance.

SoberCAH

All good points and observations, Pathway.

I would add that I do not personally look to AA, even to the venerable Clancy, for advice about brain chemistry matters.

They all mean well, God bless them, but I don't value their wisdom on mental health issues.

Sorry for your experiences in AA.

Thanks for sharing them.

QltyAngl7

There is no differentiating regular or alcoholic or any other kind of depression VS "clinical" depression.
Depression is depression. I think the issue is you could be judging yourself for having it instead of moving on to a solution for it. That's being stuck. I would say, don't stay there.
My suggestion would be to get out of the therapy thought and into the spiritual world.
I was in a dangerous spot before my 4th step looking for solutions in psychiatry.
If any therapist isn't threatened by me that's cause for concern.

NYCDoglvr

Great question. I'm sober 27 years and in treatment for major depression the entire time. When my depression is in check I'm fine doing the steps but when in a severe depression it's pointless. My thinking is too messed up, they make no sense. Glad you're going to meetings .... it helped a lot when times were rough. Big hug.

Pathwaytofree

I respectfully disagree and I speak from experience.

Many people in AA come in depressed, but once they give up drinking, their depression goes away. It could be because alcohol is a depressant, or because their depression was situational--meaning, once they stopped drinking their lives got better so they stopped "feeling depressed".

Clinical depression doesn't just go away because you stop drinking.

Clinical depression doesn't just go away because you worked the steps or have a Higher Power.

I think when the big book was written, Bill W and the other founders may not have had a clear understanding of this.

This isn't true for myself personally but maybe it is for someone else.

You have no business saying this. Are you a psychiatrist, psychologist, or medical doctor?

Good for you that a spiritual solution helped your "depression". But by saying that looking for solutions in psychiatry was "dangerous" is extremely opinionated and ignorant. You have no business saying that. It goes against AA's policies.

Some of us with true clinical depression need more than step work. Your way of taking what worked for you and then forcing your one-size-fits-all opinion onto others is very ignorant and potentially harmful.

You want a therapist to be threatened by you?
Who do you think you are?

MindfulMan

I've had bipolar depression for years. It was misdiagnosed for years. Mood stabilizers helped for a time once I was properly diagnosed.

My approach to depression is the same as my approach was to getting sober. Try everything, throw it all at a wall, use what sticks.

I guess that's how I approach life in general.

There's no one thing that "cures" depression, but it's a number of things that might do the trick.

Ketamine has just been FDA approved for treatment resistant depression, the reports is that for people in dense depression, the results can be nearly miraculous, and unlike antidepressant medications that can take weeks to have any significant effect, it works immediately.