“Abstinence is the beginning.” This sentence, one I have seen and heard many times since entering the rooms, popped out at me like never before as I read page 272 in Voices of Recovery this morning. Abstinence is the beginning: of connecting with Higher Power, with self, with others who have this disease of connecting with others who don’t have …

Before program, I was conflict-averse. (I don’t enjoy conflict now, but before, I used to really run from it—physically, if possible, or emotionally.) Basically, when things got ugly, I’d panic and check out. Because my compulsive disease can also be contradictory, I’d often display the opposite trait, pushing to get my way, in group decisions. If the group went against …

Change is good, they say, and like medicine, it’s often prescribed to solve problems. I cannot tell how many times I tried this remedy. I tried fewer carbs, more lean protein, a new fitness regime, a fresh hairstyle, new clothes—just to give myself a much-needed boost and create the impression of doing something worthwhile so that everything would change and …

Dear Sponsor, I received an outreach call from you at a time when I was grappling with the idea of never going back to OA. I was struggling with a few of my defects, and because I felt overwhelmed by them, it was easy for me to blame another party for my relapse into my old patterns of eating. I …

Tradition Ten – Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy. When I first joined OA in 1990, I assumed all members thought the way I thought and believed what I believed. I was sure we all felt the same about religion, politics, and social action. My first clue …

I found the Power inside of me, a small quiet voice. Call it intuition. It is a sudden or intuitive thought or decision that helps me move forward for the sake of what is good. It is a feeling, sometimes overwhelming, filling me and lifting me up; a release of a burden; a certainty and clarity of what is right, …