How OA Changed My Life Recovery Work-World Recovery Two years ago, I was hired to work as a workshop leader at a treatment and rehabilitation facility in California, so I travel there every other month. About a month ago, I was outside, walking along the coast, when it hit me hard: I have this opportunity only because OA changed my life and brought me into the world of recovery. … Read More
Recovery Working the Program I Stayed Abstinent A favorite OA phrase of mine is “willing to go to any length” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 58). Practicing this has helped me stay abstinent, which for me is not eating foods with refined sugar listed in the first four ingredients, for twenty one and a half years. For me, this phrase means: Attending at least two OA meetings … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Traveling Recovery Traveling away from home over the holidays can be a difficult time for a compulsive overeater like me. Surprisingly, I am still compulsive away from home! Because I travel often, I’ve developed some techniques that help me stay abstinent and in recovery on the road, especially over the holidays. To set up recovery before my trip, I do these things: … Read More
Steps Priceless Peace Before I was halfway through my Ninth Step, I experienced, as the Big Book promises, a new freedom I’d never dreamed was possible: “Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th. ed., p. 84). I was free from the fear of financial insecurity. The feeling was new and odd. Much of my life had been … Read More
Diversity Newcomers The Path of Totality In August last year, parts of the United States witnessed a full solar eclipse. There was roughly a 70-mile-wide (113 km) “path of totality,” and the lucky individuals along this path got to experience an awesome phenomenon. At first, I didn’t understand the hype, but my daughter lives near Nashville, which was in the path of totality, so she invited … Read More
Recovery Relationships From Mother to Child For many years I blamed my mother for conditions in our family that fostered my addictive nature and compulsive relationship with food. Because ours was such a confusing mixture of love and resentment, and because I never received the support and guidance I needed, I never thought I would want to bring a child into this world. Thank goodness for … Read More
Abstinence Why Would You Want To? “In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 101). The Big Book promised that working the Twelve Steps would allow me to feel neutral about my former binge foods. This was one of the things that attracted me to OA. I wouldn’t … Read More
Abstinence How I Work It—Today In 2003, I was in my 30s and I couldn’t stop bingeing. In spite of the fat, depression, headaches, stomachaches, diarrhea, and isolation, I just couldn’t stop. So I came to OA, got a sponsor, and started weighing and measuring my food. My goal was to work the program intensely for one year and “get it.” (I had always been a … Read More
Tools & Concepts Strength of Ten By the grace of God, working the Steps and using the Tools, I have been free from the compulsion to overeat for four years, one day at a time. And I would like to keep it that way. Recently, I was traveling: I went through seven time zones, which challenged my routine. I know this is a program of action … Read More
Tools & Concepts Any Distance, Any Length “Any form of service—no matter how small— that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery.” —The Tools of Recovery Six months ago, I moved, leaving behind the OA meeting that had been my home for five years—my strong, healthy meeting full of abstinent recovery and knowledge of the Twelve Steps. There are meetings in … Read More