Recovery Re-Call By admin Posted on August 1, 2016 3 min read 0 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest Share on Linkedin Share on Tumblr I recently did battle with another disease: shingles. I had so much nerve pain I could not go to meetings, and I felt abandoned. I was forced to make phone calls. Every OA member I called offered help and prayers. Even when I was hopeless, they gave me hope. Nerve pain is similar to the disease of compulsive overeating. Like food, I could think of nothing but the pain, which was so intense that I had to ask for help. My sponsor suggested I might want to actually read my OA literature. I began to study Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition by reading each paragraph, writing about it, and sharing what I learned. Every person I called, man, woman, or teen, asked, “What are you reading?” I know we used Gamblers Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous literature to get our program started in 1960, but OA has come of age. Last year I’d purchased a gift for myself: Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition. (I call it my Big Book.) It describes every path I tried to gain victory over my disease. I could never win. At my home meeting every week, we read “Our Invitation to You” and hear these words: “It is weakness, not strength, that binds us to each other” (p. 4). I finally understood there is no victory over the disease of compulsive overeating, period. It’s in the book that my “soul purpose” is to abstain and share with others. Share what? That there is a way out. When I had shingles, my phone became my lifeline. I called many newcomers. When Twelfth Step Within day came, I decided to call each person who was there for me when I first walked into my home meeting. Of our twelve members, one had died in recovery, four had never left OA and are still living in these beautiful Steps, and two had left OA but came back. I am still searching for the other five. That’s forty percent full retention and fifty percent active today with Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition being used as part of their recovery. Wow, we have come of age. Reach out! — Anonymous
