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With Support and Love

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Being in Overeaters Anonymous has changed my life for the better and given me a different lease on life. More importantly, it has broken those chains that for forty years prevented me from living the full life that God desires me to live.

I did not discover the root cause of why I overate until 2005, when I had a revelation that I was molested by my uncle when I was 4 years old, and worst of all, was molested again by my mother at age 7. In my childhood, I resorted to self mutilation, such as scratching and biting myself and bumping my head against the wall to attract my family’s attention about what happened to me, but to no avail.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1972, I discovered a new way to express myself—not only to attract attention but also to get even—by using food. Food was an escape and a mask, shielding the shattered human being inside me. Food was my escape and my comfort zone, and it never talked back. It was my best friend for forty years, but it held me captive as a hostage. From the time I was a small boy through becoming an adult male, I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Food was my life, and it kept me from my responsibilities until October 2011 when I was at my lowest point: I ate my wife’s cookies when she was hungry. She told me to stop overeating or else she would leave. So I decided to try OA.

I’d been in the program before, but I’d been in denial. After what happened that October I had to take the program seriously—and my life as well. My family has a history of obesity, and I never wanted to be a statistic. Being in OA this time around, I’m surrounded by very understanding people who have been there. It makes my purpose in life a wonderful experience.

With support and love from OA members and others, such as my spouse, I know in my heart that the reason for writing is to carry the message to other OA members who suffer. Peace and love.

— Arthur V., Illinois, USA

 

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