Eating to Be Undesirable I spent the first part of my adult life wearing sizes 7 and 9 in clothes, until the event, the incestuous encounter. What made my incestuous situation unusual? My perpetrator was my father, and I was an adult when it happened. I was in such shock after the event that for the next few days my brain (to help me … Read More
No Stone Unturned OA recovery helps me with my relationships with my Higher Power, myself, and other people. Abstinence gives me clarity to be open to my Higher Power’s messages: I listen to the wisdom of my own body and I hear my HP’s voice in my sponsor and in meetings through members’ shares. I pray to see and hear others through God’s … Read More
Applying Traditions, Accepting Others My oldest daughter in her early teens caused me a great many problems—this was in the mid-1990s. Coincidentally at that time, Lifeline featured a series of articles on various Traditions. During one of my weekly phone calls with my sponsor, I mentioned those Lifeline articles. She suggested I go through the Traditions and see how many of them applied to … Read More
From Mother to Child For many years I blamed my mother for conditions in our family that fostered my addictive nature and compulsive relationship with food. Because ours was such a confusing mixture of love and resentment, and because I never received the support and guidance I needed, I never thought I would want to bring a child into this world. Thank goodness for … Read More
Grateful for Friends in OA “Any form of service—no matter how small— that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery.” — The Tools of Recovery I was at home on February 27 when I fell and broke my right ankle. At the emergency room, they found it was broken in two places and needed surgery. I was in the … Read More
Healing Relationships With OA Traditions I was one of those people who, when first arriving at OA is interested in all aspects of OA except for ____. And I had a list of what I was interested in and willing to give my time and attention to. The Twelve Steps? Yes. Telling someone what I ate? No. Getting a sponsor? No! Then came another bottom … Read More
Friends and Family—Reframed Recovery has allowed me to enjoy the pleasures of friendship, really for the first time since childhood. Now I can truly say that I am a friend and I have friends, both in and out of the rooms. When I was in the food, I was so unhappy I couldn’t be open to the often-subtle pleasures of friendship, such as … Read More
Present and Available I’m very grateful my partner is not a compulsive overeater or a manager of my recovery. Recovery has helped me have a more genuine relationship with him. Before OA, I just wanted him to go to bed so I could binge. I realized in OA that my primary relationship really was with food. This food focus also applied to friends … Read More
With Support and Love Being in Overeaters Anonymous has changed my life for the better and given me a different lease on life. More importantly, it has broken those chains that for forty years prevented me from living the full life that God desires me to live. I did not discover the root cause of why I overate until 2005, when I had a … Read More
Home Truths Here am I thinking, now that I’m an abstinent member of OA, it automatically means I’m an outstanding citizen within my family. But eavesdropping on a conversation between my wife and son lands a bombshell of a home truth in my lap. My son asks, “Mammy, do you ever wake up grumpy?” My wife replies, “Sometimes!” Then, after a substantial pause, “And sometimes I let him sleep on!” Dumbfounded, … Read More