Note: You do NOT need to be off your medications to join our Recovery Program.
how it works
In Mental Health Anonymous, we believe that we are Powerless over our own negative thinking patterns, false and limited beliefs, and compulsive mental health issues. We also believe that when we are not connected to ourselves, or a Higher Power, that is when our own mental health problems and issues arise.
Negative thinking patterns, limiting and false beliefs, and compulsive mental health issues are all ways to bring people down. Our thoughts are connected to our emotions, which are connected to our actions. When we have a negative thought, we have a negative emotion, and then we act out in a negative way. Our mind, body, and soul are inextricably inter-connected.
As this behavior becomes more regular, we can literally become addicted to our own negative thoughts, emotions, and actions. Usually this stems from childhood pain or grief, but it can also be a result of adulthood as well, as we take on more and more responsibilities, we can start to feel very overwhelmed.
Instead of trying on our own will to fix or change our thoughts, emotions, or actions to become better, as we tried this before and it didn’t work, we ask someone else. But not just anyone else. We ask God, our Higher Power, to take these negative thinking and emotions away from us. This is the crux of step 2.
After we admit powerlessness in step one over these emotions, then we can go on to step 2 and believe that a Higher Power can restore us to sanity. Then, in step 3, we can turn our will and life over to that Power. This is the foundation of recovery, and the introduction to a new way of life.
In the following steps, we take an inventory of our past and make amends if we need to, and then continue to maintain our mental, emotional, and physical sobriety though prayer, meditation, going to meetings, and helping others.
This is a process, not an overnight success. We take it One Day At a Time, each day turning our negative thinking patterns, emotions, and actions over to a loving Higher Power who can care for us deeply and hold us in the palm of His Hand.
We can also become our own loving SOULmate. We understand that we should be our own best friend and carry ourselves in time of need. If we need comfort, we head to a meeting, curl up under a cozy blanket, call an outreach person or friend, talk to our sponsor, make a delicious meal, go for a walk, read an educational or interesting book, sleep on time. Take care of ourselves in ways that make us feel good.
Please join us in this endeavor! It is not an easy road but I promise you it will be worth it.
the 12 steps
1. We admitted we were powerless over our negative thinking patterns, our false and limiting beliefs, and our compulsive mental health issues — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could 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. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
the 12 traditions
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon M.H.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for M.H.A. membership is a desire to stop our negative thinking patterns, our false and limited beliefs, and our compulsive mental health issues.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or M.H.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the person who still suffers.
6. An M.H.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the M.H.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every M.H.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Mental Health Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. M.H.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Mental Health Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
mhanony.com 