Only through Anonymity When I first came into Overeaters Anonymous, I quickly learned to respect anonymity: who I saw, who said what—none of that was mine to share with anyone. Basically, I learned not to gossip about who, what, where, or when. This made sense to me, especially because I didn’t want anyone to know who I was or tell anyone what I … Read More
The Spirit of Tradition Eleven My earliest memories are of me playing in front of the mirror. The game I played consisted of me pretending to be famous and answering questions from an invisible interviewer. I remember what a blast it was, mimicking TV commercials, award ceremonies, and entertainment shows. Twenty years later, I found myself in a public relations and marketing career, getting paid … Read More
Healthy Program Boundaries The Tenth Tradition, like so many other Traditions, keeps OA meetings focused on the OA message of recovery through the Steps, Traditions, and Tools. It sets a healthy boundary as to what is appropriate to say in a program setting and discourages digression into outside issues. I’ve learned about setting healthy program boundaries by seeing the Traditions in action at meetings. I try to keep the … Read More
Realigned by a Few Tenths There are problems faced by OA members who do not practice a dogma-based spirituality. These problems could be eliminated by restating certain Steps and Traditions to align with Tradition Ten. In OA, I was constantly being told: living within ethical and moral principles can only occur within dogma-based spiritual practices. spirituality is only expressed by belief in a singular and … Read More
Pressure-Free How did I come to Overeaters Anonymous? A therapist who saw successful recovery in her clients recommended OA to me. I’d gone to a meeting years ago and wasn’t sure if OA was for me. But I’d certainly had a lot of experience with heavily promoted commercial plans and products. OA was free. What did I have to lose? What … Read More
Wisdom in Contributing OA has always impressed me in how well it works, obviously due to Higher Power’s brilliant Twelve Traditions. The Seventh Tradition is the most revolutionary of all. I remember reading that when Bill W. was forming AA, he had connections to the very rich John D. Rockefeller and asked Rockefeller for a huge sum of money to make AA grow. … Read More
Keep It Simple When I put this Tradition in my own words, I say, “As a member of an OA group, I should never pitch or stress the name(s) of non-OA-approved, books, literature, authors, spiritual leaders, vitamins, weight loss programs, church revivals, other Twelve Step groups, self-help chewing gums, etc. If I do, I could become distracted by problems of money, property, and … Read More
Dual Addictions Q. Can people who use drugs or alcohol participate in Overeaters Anonymous meetings and pursue food abstinence? Is there a ban on this? A. If you are asking if someone can have recovery from food addiction while they are acting out behaviors of other addictions, I believe that through working the Twelve Steps with a sponsor to stop eating compulsively, they … Read More
Staying on Point Have you ever started a conversation with someone and from the beginning of the talk to the ending the purpose or focus or topic changed five or six times, whereby the end of the conversation was miles away from the subject that was initially discussed? Personally, this diversion frustrates me; however, it’s human nature. It happens to us all, and … Read More
The Big Picture Decisions Our group considers itself free to make its own decisions, guided by a Higher Power. We don’t have to have certain values or particular ways of doing things just because some other groups do. No one can make us do things the way they think is right. We are free to do things the way we think is right. But … Read More
