Traditions 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
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Lucky and Relieved This program has changed my life. It has taken away my desire to assassinate your character. It has stilled my desire to engage in gossip because it has made me feel better about myself. It has forced me to cease being intolerant and judgmental and to humbly accept that I am no better or worse than you—just equal. The Twelve … Read More
Higher Power Actions That Help I came into program pretty mad at an HP who seemed not to care about me and let all the bad things happen both to me and in the world. When I started working Step Two, my Step work started demonstrating to me how limited my belief was. I began to explore and experience something greater than my limited imagination. … Read More
Higher Power Dear One: I “DO” OA has been a blessing in my life since July 2016. Working through the Steps has given me a new perspective and a more intimate relationship with this Power greater than ourselves than I have ever had before. I have called my Higher Power many names throughout my life (though “HP” is not one of them). I’d been ranting and … Read More
Recovery Relationships I Give What I Want I didn’t know what I needed when I came through the doors of OA. I wanted to lose weight, but it what I really needed was love and acceptance. I needed to find out how to love, accept, and respect myself and my relationship with my HP. Today I give to others what I needed. I don’t talk down to newcomers. I don’t tell … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World We All Qualify I am a compulsive overeater of a common variety, and there is little about me personally that would not fit right into the least diverse of OA meetings. I am female, white, and I have been in OA for six years with four years of continuous abstinence. I came into the rooms of OA morbidly obese and now am at … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Balanced Prescription My first OA meeting was in 1980. I was a college student, sick from bouts of anorexia and bulimia, and afraid I would not be “as sick” as others in the rooms. Sure enough, my first impressions were that I was different; I was the thinnest and youngest in the room; and maybe I didn’t belong there. During the meeting … Read More
