Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Gateway to Freedom I began OA at age 28 after attempting suicide; I’d gained 3 pounds (1.5 kg) after a bulimic episode, peaking at 107 pounds (49 kg). I was nuts; absolutely lost in the mental illness of food preoccupation and self-obsession. I began OA that next day and never left the rooms, our community, and my life of recovery. What I noticed when … Read More
Abstinence Tools & Concepts Understand, Appreciate, Implement, Reflect I came to understand abstinence initially by doing what I saw other recovering OA members doing. This included: weighing and measuring food; following a food plan created by a registered dietician who tailored it for my body’s needs; avoiding sugar and wheat products; doing OA outreach phone calls; attending meetings; doing service; reading OA and AA literature; journaling daily; studying … Read More
Meetings Tools & Concepts A Tendency to Overshare I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it: we spend the first twelve minutes or so of a fifteen-minute qualification telling members how awful things used to be (as if they don’t already know!) and then about two minutes sharing what happened to change us and one minute on what we are like now. Don’t get me wrong. I … Read More
Keep Coming Back Relapse The Freedom Fifteen On February 6, 2018, I will celebrate fifteen years without a binge. My biological birth date is December 16, 1955, but in truth my life began some forty-eight years later. I don’t know what happened on that day, February 6, 2003, but I became empowered not to binge, and I’ve continued to be binge-free to this day. It is simply the … Read More
Relapse Relapse & Recovery Recovery Gold For me, the disease of compulsive eating is like the best friend you love to death and stick with no matter what, until you notice she is crazy, hurts you, lets you down, and doesn’t give you the support you once got from her. Then it hurts so much that you want a “friend divorce,” but you also can’t believe … Read More
Literature Momentous At my first OA meeting, a kind soul offered to buy me a book of my choosing from the OA library. I had no idea what I was even doing there, and every piece of reading material looked foreign and, quite frankly, just weird. I rifled through the stacks of books, and one caught my eye like a beacon in … Read More
Relapse & Recovery Different Perspectives In 1994, I hit bottom. Food no longer filled the hole in my soul. A sense of hopelessness and futility was constantly with me. I had reached what was my heaviest weight of 335 pounds (152 kg) and doubled my size in just four years. I was a graduate assistant working as a tutor at my university’s writing lab. One … Read More
Working the Program Showing Up for Practice I used to be someone who would dive into things and give 100 percent, but only until the going got tough or I became bored. Then I’d move on—from jobs, weight-loss programs, even interests. For me to keep coming back to OA is testimony of the power of this program. I keep coming back because: OA works long-term when nothing … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Simple, Powerful Acts Since arriving in the OA rooms, I have a new understanding of forgiving myself and others. OA does not say I must be good or walk on my knees repenting. OA says: Make a list, go to meetings, share my despair and hear the despair of others, and listen to the solutions that each of us apply, one day at a … Read More
Traditions What Price Freedom? I remember my last binge very clearly. I called my local OA office that night, and I will never forget the woman I spoke to and how glad I was to speak to an actual person. A few days later, she took me to my first meeting. Since that day (more than ten years ago), through the grace of God, … Read More