Better for Both In managing food addiction, there is no “putting it up on a shelf and never touching it again;” it’s an ongoing challenge to keep food within boundaries that are now set and kept. For me, it is also the same with sex. I have to keep my thinking within certain healthy boundaries whenever I think about sex or myself as … Read More
Family Dinner The clarity of abstinence illuminates my relationships with a more accurate light. My past behaviors require me now to demonstrate a willingness to be flexible and show my family, friends, and associates I’m different inside as well as outside. Here’s a specific example of how practicing the Steps in all my affairs has created a new normal in my life. … Read More
All the Same Age Although I’ve been a very thankful member of this wonderful Fellowship for two and a half years, I still feel like a veritable babe in arms. I know we are all toddlers until we have been abstinent about five years. I look forward with alacrity to the day I’m emotionally of an age to join the OA kindergartners! Maybe since … Read More
To Love and Be Loved Ten things that help me most in achieving serenity: Step One. I admit I’m powerless—over food and other people (their emotional well-being and their opinion of me). I’m powerless over war, famine, poverty, natural disasters—powerless over everything outside myself, and a lot of what’s inside too. Action plan. My action plan includes morning exercise and meditation. When I wake up, … Read More
Conscience Acceptance Before program, I was conflict-averse. (I don’t enjoy conflict now, but before, I used to really run from it—physically, if possible, or emotionally.) Basically, when things got ugly, I’d panic and check out. Because my compulsive disease can also be contradictory, I’d often display the opposite trait, pushing to get my way, in group decisions. If the group went against … Read More
Different Paths to Unity Editors note: Below are two world service contributions from OA members in support of our Strategic Plan. My name is Heidi, and I’m a compulsive overeater—a short sentence, but one I could not say for many years. During my childhood, I was often alone because my parents worked full-time. My big sister did well in school, and my parents always … Read More
Team Effort I just returned from the last professional car race of the season. Gosh, no more racing for a while! I look forward to the weekends and car racing, but I will have to be content with American football until racing resumes. You’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal about racing? A bunch of cars go fast around a track.” But … Read More
Different Genders, Ethnicities, And Ages Editors note: Below are two world service contributions from OA members in support of our Strategic Plan. My name is Denise, and I am a compulsive overeater. I am a 62-year old straight black woman, wife, mother, and grandmother. OA found me in 1988. I was in program then for eight years. I lost 120 pounds (54 kg) and thought … Read More
Keep Recovery a Priority I wrote a song once that said: “I am stuck in the middle of the hard part of my story.” I was 27, and I thought it was a clever lyric for a challenging time. Eleven years later, I see that difficulties back then pale in comparison to what’s happening now. Due to a series of stressful events, I am … Read More
Finally Understood In May 2015, I was up 30 pounds (14 kg) from a yearlong sugar binge. Though I had been on a constant roller-coaster of losing and gaining, this was the highest weight gain I had experienced in seven years. It was at this low point that I first began to realize my powerlessness over food. I had not yet found … Read More