Service Tools & Concepts Making Connections 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 … Read More
Higher Power Spirituality A Mistaken Belief 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 … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World Better Than Smooth 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, … Read More
Recovery Relationships Laugh In 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, … Read More
Diversity Newcomers He Understood 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 … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Slogan Direction 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 … Read More
Traditions Losses and Gains 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 … Read More
Steps Connection Bridge Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. The list of people I had harmed was very fresh in my mind the day I walked into OA. In fact, it was branded on my conscience and burned fiercely as shame whenever I encountered someone I had harmed. But … Read More
Diversity Virtual Gifts 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 … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Power Within and Without 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, … Read More