How OA Changed My Life Recovery Gift List This year, OA celebrates its 60th birthday! Observances and activities will be held worldwide. My Pinellas County Tradition Intergroup was part of the celebration last year, and we organized a workshop where we created a list of all the gifts for which we’ve been grateful. As our gift list grew, our eyes were opened to how the program has changed … Read More
Keep Coming Back Relapse Imperfect, Upward Climb The strength and hope that my Higher Power and Overeaters Anonymous give me are gifts greater than the physical changes I longed to see when I first came into the program. But I haven’t always known these tremendous gifts. Like a hamster running on a wheel, my compulsive overeating, food and dieting obsessions, and bulimia kept me running from the … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Tools for Sanity I came to understand my abstinence through working with my first OA sponsor in Step One, looking at what foods and food behaviors I was powerless over and when my life was unmanageable as it related to food. The most obvious problem was my nighttime bingeing, and at first my bottom-line abstinence was not bingeing at night, using the 3-0-1 … Read More
Relationships Creatures Teachers I am surrounded by many furry and non-furry “children” on my little ranch. My world revolves around them, and all have taught me something. What a great way for God to teach me about myself! Meet some of my life teachers: Bobby, my tortoise, teaches me to be slow and steady. “Easy does it, Mom.” Blu, my rescue horse, needs me to … Read More
Recovery Never to Busy for Love My pets have always been important to me. I was socially awkward and an only child. Other than food, my closest relationships were with pets. My dog and cat were my best friends, my main sources of joy and comfort for many years. Early in my OA recovery, my pets gave me valuable insights into my eating behaviors. Although I … 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
Diversity Virtual Gifts The gifts of this program are incredible. Once, I was in the food and in a relationship with a partner who hated what I adore: the people, language, and country of France. Now, I’m abstinent. I was able to leave that relationship, and I’ve moved to France for a year. God has truly turned my hopeless, trapped existence to one … Read More
Newcomers Comfort and Support There I was, alone, scared, and miserable on a Wednesday morning, approaching the church where the OA meeting was held. I wandered forlorn into the main entrance. Church services were being celebrated, and I had no idea where to go or even who to ask. No one seemed to know where I should go. I wandered around this mammoth church … Read More
Fellowship Term Lesson I went to World Service Business Conference as a new delegate, with excitement and some fear. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew I was there to give service, but I was afraid I wouldn’t get enough downtime. (I have to balance my need for downtime against a tendency to isolate.) Balance was my motto for the week, but … Read More
Recovery Rescue Work In my professional life, I am a medical doctor with a PhD. Don’t ask me how I managed—I don’t know how, considering all the emotional and spiritual difficulties I carried with 115 kg (254 lbs) on my body. Perhaps my profession was the only thing I thought I could be good at, so I worked a lot and published many … Read More