Going to Any Length

I started attending a Monday night OA meeting but found myself struggling with abstinence. A weekly meeting didn’t seem to be enough. Then I found a meeting that met Monday through Friday at 7 a.m., 22 miles (35 km) from my home, and I started traveling to these daily meetings. I’ve learned that if you want continuous recovery from any compulsive behavior, you have to go to any length to seek it.

As God would have it, I met a fellow OA member who lived in my hometown. She and I started a Monday-through-Friday sunrise group with just the two of us attending. Slowly, other people started trickling into our meeting. My friend and I took on service positions as secretaries for our group. I still struggled to get back-to-back abstinence, but I didn’t stop going to daily meetings.

Then my grandmother became seriously ill, and I was taking care of her 24 hours a day. I had to give up my OA secretary position, and I couldn’t attend meetings. One service I could give was answering our local OA hotline. An amazing thing happened. I finally reached a place in my recovery where I had more abstinent days than days of bingeing. That telephone service kept me in OA recovery.

Four years later, I had a nervous breakdown over my grandmother’s impending death. She went into a care home, and I relocated to another county. Relocating was difficult, but I went back to OA meetings after two and a half years of not attending. I again became willing to go to any length. In six months, I became the secretary of an OA Step study meeting.

My six-month secretary position has ended, and now I’m the group’s literature person. I’m also back on the hotline. I’ve noticed that my abstinence gets better as I perform more service. I’ve lost 60 pounds (27 kg), and I’m willing to go to any length because I’ve found that nothing tastes as good as abstinence feels.

— P.R., Vacaville, California USA