It’s as simple as this: I settled for food. To block the pain of my love starved existence, I used food and sugar until my carefully constructed façade of beautiful well-being began to bloat from the excesses I needed to eat to feel safe. But I had to do something to keep from losing my looks, the one thing that …

After almost ten years in OA and a physical abstinence of my own definition, I struggled with the fact that I was still stuck in obsession and compulsion around food. I had a way of eating that was more or less nutritionally balanced, but I still obsessed about knowing exactly what I was going to eat. I was alternating between …

I live in a small town, and we’re a pretty homogenous group racially and culturally. But I have some thirty years of attending OA, and my early years were in a larger city. This city was very diverse, and I struggled with that somewhat in my work and in my neighborhood. Diversity was causing more problems than I could imagine, …

It’s such a blessing to laugh at myself, to see humor in the midst of misery. There’s so much laughter in the rooms, laughter at how ridiculous we are in the disease. The laughter is healing. It connects us—all of us, we all relate. We relate and we laugh and we know we’re not alone in these experiences, these thoughts, …

I came into the doors of OA six months ago, weighing 159 pounds (72 kg) at 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) tall. I was athletic and a relatively normal size, but I was in food hell and miserable. I believed that if I just got down to a certain weight, I would be happy. By the time I stepped …

The Third and Eleventh Steps were difficult for me in the beginning because of the word “will”; “our will” in the Third Step and “His will” in the Eleventh. “Will” sounds so demanding, definitive, coercive, and exacting. However, in the process of writing about Step Three, I came to understand it as “God’s direction.” I believe God is always trying …

Tradition Eight: Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers. I am a professional person on several fronts. I have various public personae. I am a person of “wisdom” and knowledgeable about many things, like a trivia guru. I also have worn many masks. None of this, however, serves my participation in and appreciation …

The gifts of this program are incredible. Once, I was in the food and in a relationship with a partner who hated what I adore: the people, language, and country of France. Now, I’m abstinent. I was able to leave that relationship, and I’ve moved to France for a year. God has truly turned my hopeless, trapped existence to one …

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, …

While working the Steps early in my OA recovery, I struggled with surrendering to a Higher Power. A kind man explained a Higher Power could be anything outside ourselves that we turn to for guidance, comfort, support and a healthier perspective. I could relate to that! Drawn to the outdoors since my lonely childhood, I’d often felt at peace in …