Gratitude Recovery Follow Through I came into the OA program after being in treatment. I was an insane compulsive overeater, anorexic, and bulimic. I took diet pills, narcotics, and alcohol to the limits of insanity and self-harm to control my compulsion for food. I was in rehab, two psychiatric units, and OA for four years before I understood this program. I have maintained abstinence … Read More
Newcomers OA Means Life All my life I’d been the skinny kid. My brothers and sisters nicknamed me “Stick” because I was so thin. I could eat anything and not gain weight. On my wedding day in 1991, I weighed 115 pounds (52 kg) and wore a size 5. During my first year of marriage, I gained 10 pounds (5 kg). Then I had … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Living Instead My psychologist recommended I go an OA meeting, but it took three months before I actually set foot through the door. I told him I didn’t think I could give up sugar and didn’t believe in god, so OA wouldn’t work for me. He laughed and told me that was the addict speaking. It took me those three months of … Read More
Abstinence Abstinence is Possible I am new to OA. I’ve been with the program for 101 days. I first went to a meeting to support my daughter, but I was nervous and unsure about going. I’d heard about OA through a client who lost 100 pounds (45 kg) three years ago and kept it off. I asked how she did it and she said, … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Trash Talk In the years following high school, I couldn’t hold down a job for more than eight consecutive months, and my residence changed just as frequently. Between each new address, I would return to my childhood home, where my mother now lives alone. I’d pass through town just long enough to discard another mountainous load of boxes into her basement— always … Read More
Higher Power The Addict Mask It is not my job to fight the addict. It has never been my job to fight the addict. I can’t fight the addict. The addict is too strong and powerful for me. The addict is nasty. He plays by no rules. He lies, cheats, steals, and will do anything to destroy me. The addict wears a mask: This mask … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Unwrapping For me, being a compulsive overeater is a gift. It came wrapped in ugly, grimy paper, but it’s still a gift. The ugly paper represents how my illness treated me: It made me eat so much I got really fat, made it so that even if did lose weight I gained it back, and it made a glutton of me. … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Bitter is Better I am a 62-year-old male, and since I came into program at the end of March 2015, my marriage has been restored and my family is mostly on good terms with me. My depression has lifted. I have excellent friendships inside and outside the Fellowship, and I feel a joy in daily living I had not felt for forty or … Read More
Diversity Breakup Note Overeating, you were in control of my life for a while. You ruined my life, took away my friends, isolated me, made me sick, knocked me down, destroyed me . . . and I let you. I didn’t fight back. I welcomed you every chance I got and let you hurt me, and I actually enjoyed it for years—until the day I … Read More
Steps Much in Common I came into program in May of 1985. I didn’t think I could possibly fit in. I was finished with diets, but my weight and eating were out of control. Thank God I found Overeaters Anonymous. I had been a yo-yo dieter all my life; I’m a sugar and carbs addict. I’d never understood my addiction, so every diet failed … Read More