After not seeing a regular attendee at my home meeting for several months, I decided to call to see how they were doing. This person was really glad to hear from me but had decided to attend an outside support group for eating issues and reported having much success with abstinence and physical recovery. We had a great conversation, and …

I first became a sponsor in 2008 as part of working the OA program of recovery. I started sponsoring after experiencing seventy days of back-to-back abstinence, working the first three Steps, following the OA-HOW structured meeting format, and soaking up lots of love and physical, emotional, and spiritual healing like a dry sponge. I came to OA obese and full …

Since coming to program in 2006, I’ve struggled with the idea of anonymity as a Tool of recovery: a Principle and Tradition, yes, but a Tool? The other Tools (a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, action plan, and sponsorship) have an identifiable action or directive I can take, plan, do, go, call, write, or read. Anonymity felt like …

During my past twenty years of abstinence from compulsive overeating and compulsive food behaviors, doing my best to incorporate the Principles of OA’s Twelve Steps into every moment of my daily routine, I have often heard that compliance is not the same as surrender. I believe this to be true, for I have watched as members working a program of …

A sponsor has what a newcomer wants: abstinence! I wouldn’t be able to sponsor if I was in the food. It would be like a drunk sponsoring someone in AA. We’re crazy when we’re in the food, whether we know it or not, and it would be a disservice to OA and the newcomer to pass on that insanity. There …

Here I sit, self-quarantined in the middle of a viral pandemic after returning home from the teeming petri dishes of an airport and airplane. I’ve been advised to stay put for two weeks, which is just as well since some of my meetings are closed indefinitely. So, what’s a compulsive overeater to do? Isolate? I think not. Last time I …

I remember ten years ago or so emailing my sponsor and asking her if an online meeting was really a meeting. Her immediate response was “absolutely.” Thank heavens she said that. Her support helped quiet that perfectionist in my mind that was telling me I had to go to a face-to-face meeting or it wouldn’t count. Yes, face-to-face meetings are …

When I walked into my first intergroup meeting in 2003, my presence increased the size of the entire intergroup by 33 percent. Only three members in the entire area fellowship were attempting to serve all of the meetings and a few hundred OA members! Only three! They traveled up to 40 miles (64 km) one way to attend intergroup meetings. …

There are many different ways to share experience, strength, and hope in the OA Fellowship. As two OA members in recovery, we would like to share a way that has worked for us. We have been calling our relationship “Partners in Recovery.” Together, we have developed a unique relationship that is separate from a sponsor/sponsee relationship, although we still continue …

In August 2008, several of us were sitting in the proverbial OA circle before a discussion was to begin and joking about the way we fit on our chairs. My comment was, “My thighs always hang over the edge.” The man next to me noted he didn’t have that problem and mentioned he could “help me with my food.” My …