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
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
Spirituality All I’ve Ever Wanted I have been maintaining an abstinent weight of 125 pounds (57 kg) since September 2015. My early life was what I’d call a perfect breeding ground for addiction: I grew up in an alcoholic home full of insanity, loud arguments that got my heart pounding, shame, abandonment, and no talk of a Higher Power at all. I remained hyper vigilant, turning … Read More
Steps Principle Links I think I always had honesty, OA’s First Step Principle. I was 15 in 1971 when the disease descended upon me, and I knew something had gone seriously wrong in my life. “A human isn’t supposed to live this way,” I thought, as I scarfed holiday sweets and felt an overwhelming sense that I would never be able to control … Read More
Newcomers Even Before When I first joined OA and wasn’t getting abstinent, I came across “Pray Then Act” (Lifeline, March 2015, p. 16), a story about a person who experienced a sudden, intense obsession to stop for food at a drive-through. She immediately called her sponsor, who said, “You can have it tomorrow.” This advice drove home in a very real way the OA principle … Read More