Higher Power Perseverance, Even When When I got into program, I weighed about 240 pounds (109 kg), well over my target weight of 190 pounds (86 kg). I was bingeing and drinking too much alcohol, plus I was mildly depressed. I thought my spiritual life was okay, but really it was a cycle of small peaks and deep valleys. I’d get some abstinence, but then … Read More
Keep Coming Back Turtle Tale I knew early on that Opie and I had a lot in common. They say, “If you spot it, you got it,” and when HP brought this rescue dog into my life, his behavior was only too familiar. Selfish and self-seeking, Opie struggled with impulse control and trust—he seemed to lack faith that the world would provide him with kibble, toys, … Read More
Steps Connection Bridge Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. The list of people I had harmed was very fresh in my mind the day I walked into OA. In fact, it was branded on my conscience and burned fiercely as shame whenever I encountered someone I had harmed. But … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Dance In my dance class tonight, I raised my hand and asked for help with a troublesome step sequence. The teacher spent a good three or four minutes going over it with me until I understood, and she had to explain it a few different ways before I figured it out. All my classmates were standing around watching and waiting. The teacher looked around … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Every Minute, Every Situation The key threads woven into and through my soul and my program of recovery are hope and gratitude. The hope I felt at my first OA meeting was probably what kept me coming back, even though I wasn’t sure for what, besides weight loss, and even though my insides were twisted with pain, anger, and resentment. (I didn’t even know … Read More
Service Live and Learn—and Serve If I accept the circumstances I am in, I am given the opportunity to learn and serve. To learn and serve is the agreement I made when I entered the Twelve Step program: Accept—Learn—Serve. When I came to understand I had a disorder that made me different from many other people, and when I came to accept I would have … Read More
Working the Program Adjusting Focus I was a great believer in whatever the next diet, philosophy, or trick was. You see, I knew there was a solution. Desperate, bingeing, swearing off, gaining weight, once-in-a-blue-moon losing weight through unhealthy restricting, and begging God to help me, eventually I found my way to OA. I was in another Twelve Step program, so I knew asking for help … Read More
Fellowship Tools & Concepts Be a Coach! The word “sponsorship” has connotations in the outside world that do not fit my understanding of being an OA sponsor. For example, in immigration, a sponsor is legally responsible for a person entering a new country; there could exist a patriarchal implication that the sponsor is somehow superior to the sponsee. The word “sponsor” seems to confuse OA members more than … Read More
Fellowship Tools & Concepts Pass It On My first few years in OA, I was working the Twelve Step program my own way. It didn’t work. I heard the suggestion to get a sponsor, so I did—several times— but I never bothered to talk to them. After four of the most painful years of my existence, having one foot in the Fellowship and the other pointing outward, … Read More
Working the Program Can Do At my first OA meetings, I recognized myself in the shares of others. Defensiveness, excuses, blaming, rationalizing, self-loathing, failure—all those alcoholic thoughts and actions described in the Big Book—all were familiar to me around food. I’d eaten volumes and screwed up dieting every day for years. Every night was one last huge supper and a swearing off, but by breakfast … Read More