Working the Program My Way Didn’t Work “Just put down the food and you’ll recover”—that simply didn’t make sense to me. If I could just do that, I wouldn’t be in OA. I had successfully put down the food before—many times before—but eventually would pick it up again, eating excessively. Food was my enemy and my best friend. Why couldn’t I eat moderately? Why was I so … Read More
Higher Power New York City Stalkers They stalked me the length of the block, down the subway stairs, onto the #2 train, through the whole ride to 96th Street, where they got off and changed to the #1 along with me. Upstairs at 116th Street, what did I meet but those same stalking fragrances: not sweet, no, not those—the pungent ones that promised pleasures beyond measure … Read More
Newcomers Mudroom Madness Everything in my life was happy and lucky, except my weight. My disease manifested after I got married, when I was an RN working full-time. My husband would be asleep when I came home from work, and in the late, quiet hours, I could eat as many snacks as I wanted. Then I discovered I could put snacks in containers … Read More
Abstinence Simple and Sane After more than five years in OA, I can look back and see the grace of my Higher Power in the early actions of my sponsor when she immediately suggested we work through The Twelve-Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous. One of the earliest benefits of our work together was that I became aware of how much time, energy, and effort I’d … Read More
Recovery Real Feeling Before OA, I was falsely cheerful. I always appeared put-together and acted like everything was great. I never let anyone see me feeling sad, angry, or low energy. At my very first meeting someone shared about a hard time she was having—she even cried. I was repulsed, but others were nodding, and after the meeting she got hugs and support … Read More
Service The Difference That Satisfies Sometimes it’s quite hard to see the difference between a plan of eating, which says what I’m going to eat and in what quantity, and a diet, which also says what I’m going to eat and in what quantity. For me, the difference is about purpose and how I feel about it. In the old days, the diets I went … Read More