Service Tools & Concepts Lessons from the Fellowship My recent service as Virtual Services Trustee has taught me about: balance between service to others and self-care, the importance of what is good for OA as a whole instead of what I prefer personally, accepting help and direction and not taking it as criticism, how much there is to know and how little I do know, grounding my ideas … Read More
Diversity Newcomers Core Connections I have been attending OA for about ten months. From a friend, I had some idea of what to expect coming into my first meeting. I have a tendency to deeply connect with the emotions of other people in any room. Sometimes this is a blessing, sometimes it’s a struggle. In that first OA meeting, I immediately felt the openness … Read More
Diversity Newcomers The Great Miracle Recently, I was asked to write a response to a newcomer’s question: “What can OA offer me?” I suffer from two problems that make me powerless over my compulsive eating: a physical problem and a mental one. Certain foods, ingredients, and eating behaviors trigger me to eat uncontrollably. Many times while eating trigger foods, I tried to will myself to … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World A Beautiful Journey Divisions create discord. Rarely does one set out to deliberately sow discord. Instead it is a byproduct of self-interest or self-centered fear. Unity of purpose and spirit results from new attitudes. The reason OA can have unity as an undergirding Principle is because we have the Twelve Steps, which transform our hearts, helping us focus on service done with humility. … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World Service-Based Blessing A number of years ago, my area had two intergroups with quite a bit of dissension between them. Fortunately, some of the members saw that what they were doing wasn’t working. They had the idea to disband both intergroups and start a new, unified intergroup. Our local fellowship was on board with this idea, and Unity Intergroup was born. I was … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Until I Could I am grateful to have been accepted in OA as a person who is not overweight and is a lesbian. My eating disorder began at age 14, when I became aware of my sexual orientation. The thought of being gay was so reprehensible to me that I began hiding myself from myself; I created a distraction by obsessing about food … Read More
Diversity Newcomers Long Shot Win Overeaters Anonymous seemed like a long shot to me. How could it help me? I didn’t have serious weight issues—but my eating was out of control. I certainly was a compulsive eater. I spent most of my day obsessing about what to eat. Should I eat some protein or maybe more greens or perhaps just give up and eat potato … Read More
Diversity Newcomers One to Two, Gently I am a newcomer. I’ve been abstinent three weeks. For me, Step One has opened the path of “beginning to change.” Now that I have accepted something that I would never in a million years be willing to accept unless I absolutely had to—I feel that anything is possible. But if can’t do it on my own, then why not … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Sticking with It When I joined OA twenty years ago, I wasn’t interested in physical recovery. I needed help with my out-of-control emotions and relationships, but I was too scared to start from scratch in any Twelve Step fellowship for emotions and relationships. I was anorexic, so I could go every week to OA meetings (instead of once a month to “open” meetings of … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Different Bodies, Similar Reasoning Look for the similarities, not the differences.” How grateful I am to have gotten that message straightaway when I walked in the doors of OA. It was out of desperation that I had to do this, because the only alternative was going to be death. I came to OA looking different than most, weighing in at 42–47 kilograms (93–99 lbs), … Read More
