Quickly or Slowly Like many compulsive overeaters, I entered the rooms of OA only to lose weight. I’d tried dozens of weight loss programs and lost weight, only to gain it back plus more. I came for the vanity and stayed for the sanity. I really listened to the Big Book promises when they were read aloud at OA meetings, and I realized … Read More
Showing Up Imperfect I remember when I first started coming to OA meetings. I felt like people were looking at me differently, like they knew I was new and ignorant of their “OA ways.” I felt like an outsider. They spoke in a different way and had so much self-awareness. I only knew how to talk about the food, not emotions or the … Read More
My Side I’m abstinent and quite fired up this morning! I’m fired up and a bit frustrated because, at the moment, I seem to be surrounded by fellow members who are struggling with abstinence and sharing excuses for why they can’t be abstinent. I know this program teaches me to focus on my side of the street, which requires a daily cleaning … Read More
OA Is For Me OA is for me—and it has been ever since a friend brought me to program in December 1981. People of all shapes and sizes told my story. I found a place where I belong. Despite sometimes feeling like I belong in a subset of OA, due to multiple allergies, afflictions, anxiety, and depression, I belong. I am here because I’m … Read More
The Myth of Moderation My problem with food is that once I develop cravings, it’s impossible for me to moderate my eating. When cravings set in, I only get more and more extreme in my obsession with food. My body has an allergy to sugar, flour, alcohol, and highly processed foods; these trigger the mental illness of my addiction, which in turn makes me … Read More
First Meeting Back The seed of OA was planted in this compulsive person’s head in 2002 when I was 19 years old, but I was not yet ready to accept the fact that I was a compulsive overeater. Fast-forward to 2015: at 31 years old, I was at the end of my rope—I’d lost my will to fight for myself and was questioning … Read More
Liberating Service My first exposure to OA was finding a pamphlet at my doctor’s office: Before You Take That First Compulsive Bite, Remember . . . . I read the cautions against the distorted thinking that leads to compulsive eating. I remember recognizing myself in that pamphlet, and I identified completely. I remember reading the Twelve Steps, getting to the Third Step … Read More
Thanks for Sharing I haven’t written for Lifeline in a while, but today life got in my way. At least food didn’t, eh? But it tried to. Yes, even with fifteen years of recovery, the thoughts still sometimes make a plausible case for indulging. The Big Book says, “We are without defense against the first drink” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 24), and … Read More
No Secret Looking at my family photographs and reflecting on the last twelve years brings tears to my eyes. At my first OA meeting, I could barely hold my head up and say my name to pick up my twenty four-hour abstinence chip, which I still have. I was 43 years old, remarried, twice my normal body weight, and the mother of … Read More
Don’t Disappear Last year, I reflected on whether I should run for another term as intergroup chair. Because of work and family commitments, I felt I was not as effective in the last term as I could have been. It was the second time I had served as an intergroup chair in my twenty-five years in OA. I wondered if I should … Read More