Meetings Still Possible When I started going to meetings years ago, I went to face-to-face meetings. I thought attending face-to-face meetings each week was the only way I could work program. However, in the past two years I have struggled with health issues, making weekly attendance at face-to-face meetings impossible. During this time, I discovered new ways to work my OA program. Now, … Read More
Literature Lifeline Makes a Meeting Recently I went to visit a meeting to bring flyers, newsletters, and other materials from our intergroup. When I arrived, I couldn’t find the meeting or the members. They had been denied access to their regular meeting space because the facility was hosting another event. I found them huddled around a table in the rear of the dining room. Although … Read More
Tools & Concepts Strength of Ten By the grace of God, working the Steps and using the Tools, I have been free from the compulsion to overeat for four years, one day at a time. And I would like to keep it that way. Recently, I was traveling: I went through seven time zones, which challenged my routine. I know this is a program of action … Read More
Literature Momentous At my first OA meeting, a kind soul offered to buy me a book of my choosing from the OA library. I had no idea what I was even doing there, and every piece of reading material looked foreign and, quite frankly, just weird. I rifled through the stacks of books, and one caught my eye like a beacon in … Read More
Tools & Concepts Starting Days with For Today My favorite OA book is For Today: I love it because it helps me begin each day with recovery in mind. Reading it makes me part of a huge OA community; we’re all reading the same thing each morning. For Today demonstrates in a tangible way how many days have passed in the year and how many are left, which reminds … Read More
Relapse & Recovery Different Perspectives In 1994, I hit bottom. Food no longer filled the hole in my soul. A sense of hopelessness and futility was constantly with me. I had reached what was my heaviest weight of 335 pounds (152 kg) and doubled my size in just four years. I was a graduate assistant working as a tutor at my university’s writing lab. One … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Writing Voices of Recovery OA literature plays a large part in my recovery from compulsive eating. We’ve made many changes, and helping with the development of Voices of Recovery connected me with OA members around the world. It was my chance to express myself through writing and to read other members’ ideas. Creation of this publication started in 1998, when members were asked to … Read More
Newcomers An Act of Hope When I walked into the rooms of Overeaters Anonymous, hope felt like a possibility, a possibility of a better life. I’d been bottling up all my feelings again; my mom had recently passed away and my wife and I had just moved into the South Bay area. Fear, anger, and sadness were churning inside me, and I did what I … Read More
Tools & Concepts Sharing Stories Thank you for Lifeline magazine. My latest issue arrived two days ago, and, as always, it gave me insight, contact, Tools, and a feeling of connection. About fourteen years ago, I lived in Houston, Texas. I was sick of my obsessive eating behavior and sick of resorting to strict diets or fasts to make up for bingeing. I had heard … Read More
Relapse If Only Before OA, I thought I was so unique with my secret of using compulsive eating to cope with fears, regrets, selfishness, and inadequacy. I also suffered from “if onlys:” “if only I would be more outgoing,” “if only I had a faster metabolism,” “if only I enjoyed exercising.” I felt so incompetent as a wife, mother, and employee. A friend … Read More