Diversity Newcomers The Only Day Being abstinent all of three whole days, I looked in my mirror to see if my body looked smaller. It didn’t. I was mad. “This doesn’t work.” “What a bunch of B.S.” “I’ll never get thin.” “I can’t do this.” “It’s taking too long.” “I’m doomed to be fat.” ‘I’m doomed to live like an accordion, in and out, up … Read More
Relapse Relapse & Recovery Back from Relapse I am a grateful, recovering anorexic, exercise bulimic, and food addict. I have four wonderful years of abstinence. I came to OA in 1996, and by 2002 I thought I had graduated. I stopped going to meetings, making my calls, and writing down my food. I suffered through two years of relapse—starving my body, mind, and spirit—and came back in 2004. … Read More
Recovery Relationships Finding Support I came into OA on May 31, 2013, fearful, bitter, angry, resentful, and worried about everything. When the Twelve Steps were read at my first meeting, I heard the First Step and thought, “How could this group of people possibly know me?” My life was unmanageable. I was on family leave to provide constant care to my husband. I was … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery 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
Higher Power Spirituality My First Prayer My personal first spiritual experience was my first weight loss in OA. I came in because of desperation and rage. My family was crazy (so was I), and I had nowhere else to go. I had just been on a fast of water and diet soda, but when I weighed myself, I had gained ten pounds. I felt empty and … Read More
Gratitude Recovery 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
Tools & Concepts Baby Steps Up the Mountain Recently I learned I needed to change my plan of eating for my health. Okay, how do I do that? Power through, right?! If I could control my eating I would never have come into Overeaters Anonymous almost thirty years ago. Before that, I tried: I tried every diet in every magazine. Every night, I planned to start this or … Read More
Newcomers An Act of Hope When I walked into the rooms of Overeaters Anonymous, hope felt like a possibility, a possibility of a better life. I’d been bottling up all my feelings again; my mom had recently passed away and my wife and I had just moved into the South Bay area. Fear, anger, and sadness were churning inside me, and I did what I … Read More
Relationships Feeling Present We buried Bibs today. He was almost 20 years old. Bibs helped me with my OA program in death and in life. Alive, he opened me to the insanity of my anger at his being a cat, insistent about being fed on his schedule, not mine. Writing about my anger, I discovered I was angry about my own food plan. … Read More
Working the Program Giving Service, Receiving Help I am a compulsive eater who arrived in OA six years ago and has been in continuous abstinence ever since. I maintain a weight loss of more than 40 kilograms (88 lbs). I know I have an emotional, spiritual, and physical disease and need to keep my recovery strong by doing daily work. This is a simple program, not an … Read More