Having a spiritual awakening meant admitting my need for other people. Before OA, I was convinced it was up to me to stop eating compulsively. But having a group that works together potentiates any project’s effectiveness. Hearing others share about similar issues with food and feeling the group’s support have both helped my recovery. Also, by changing my relationship to …

I was sitting at my kitchen counter doing job-related work. I’d been struggling with food, and I had spent a lot of that day crying as I thought to myself, I am never going to be free. My phone rang, and I didn’t recognize the number. I contemplated not answering, but something prompted me to pick it up. I was …

I am contemplating the last workbook question of the Twelfth Step: “What is the message I am living?” (The Twelve Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, p. 107). My mind ventures back several months, when a spark inside my soul led me to put these Twelve Steps to the test. Would the promises of the Step Principles really materialize …

I have heard it said, “A meeting is a meeting,” but I don’t really think that’s true. For a meeting to be strong, it must have certain things about it to make it so: Is the meeting a welcoming place for both long timers and newcomers? Is the nature of our illness discussed? In my opinion, a strong meeting will …

It suddenly dawned on me: the problem with the strength of our nearby meetings was me. I wasn’t sitting in a chair every meeting. It had never occurred to me before that my non-attendance would make any difference. But what if a newcomer came to a meeting and no one was there? How would it affect a person who braved …

Wow! Anonymity is so important to OA, it’s part of the name of our organization. As Tradition Twelve states: “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.” The new second edition of the OA Twelve and Twelve does an excellent job of explaining the many ways we all benefit from anonymity. …

We can be intentional about strengthening our OA meetings. At your next group conscience meeting, try these conversation starters: What is a “strong meeting” for you? If someone told you their meeting was struggling, what specific suggestions would you offer? What actions might you be willing to take to help a struggling meeting or strengthen a meeting you attend? OA has …

I have been attending OA for about nine or ten months. Coming into my first meeting, I did have some idea of what to expect; a friend had told me. I have a tendency to connect deeply with the emotions of people in a room; sometimes that’s a blessing, sometimes it’s a struggle. In that first meeting, I immediately felt …

The first OA meeting I attended had all the elements of a strong meeting, and it still does seventeen years later. I continue to attend the Saturday morning Back to Basics meeting in Oakland, California, with about forty other compulsive eaters. We study one Step and its corresponding Tradition for an entire month, and each week, we read from OA-approved …

We call ourselves “The Regulars,” although there’s nothing regular about any of us, except this: we keep coming back to our 7 a.m. meetings, Monday through Friday, week after week. Many of us come every day, some only on certain days, and several core members have been showing up for many years. What, you may ask, would drive us to …