Gratitude Recovery A Curse and a Blessing As a child, I loved this fairy tale: A girl is born, and a fairy gives her the “gift” of obedience. At first, she tries to protect herself by keeping her gift/curse a secret, but when her father remarries, her bossy, jealous stepmother and stepsisters quickly discover she has no choice but to obey. Her life becomes unmanageable. Stripped of … Read More
Service Tools & Concepts For Others and For Me Service is a big part of my recovery. My disease is one of isolation, and selfishness is a character defect of mine. By giving service, I am forced to interact with others and become selfless. I do things for others without expecting anything in return. It’s a whole new concept for me, doing favors with no strings attached! I started … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Summer Steps and Smiles As I reflect on the unofficial start of the summer season, I’m filled with gratitude for OA. I first came into these sacred rooms on a Monday, right after the Fourth of July. Thank God that summer party at a friend’s lake house drove me to look into OA. A childhood friend had become sober in another Twelve Step fellowship … Read More
Higher Power HP’s Child People look at me and form an opinion: appearance does influence people’s thinking. If I’m overweight, others might think I’m undisciplined, but what they don’t realize is that compulsive eating is an illness. I am a person of color who has been in OA thirty-five years. I have around a 50-pound (23- kg) weight loss. When I came in, I … Read More
Gratitude Recovery The Strategy of Surrender At our writing meeting, we often read articles about spiritual awakening from books such as Lifeline Sampler. Reading articles written by fellow Overeaters Anonymous members, people like me, seems to give me the deepest insights, and this particular meeting opened up a new perspective about gratitude. Once again, I became able to identify behavior patterns I’d created a long time … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Sweet and Simple I’ve struggled with my weight since I was 5 years old. At that time I heard my father comment, “No fat daughter of mine will ever be seen in a tutu!” Those words would haunt me for fifty years. At the time I heard them, I didn’t know I was fat; I was only in kindergarten. I had not yet … Read More
Gratitude Recovery A Tale of Two Knees I have had two knee replacements in two years. The first time I wasn’t abstinent, but this most recent time I was. I want to share the difference. The first time I was in rehab, I was physically, spiritually, and mentally bankrupt. I paid an acquaintance, my eating buddy, to bring me non abstinent food. I ate sugar and white flour … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Follow Through I came into the OA program after being in treatment. I was an insane compulsive overeater, anorexic, and bulimic. I took diet pills, narcotics, and alcohol to the limits of insanity and self-harm to control my compulsion for food. I was in rehab, two psychiatric units, and OA for four years before I understood this program. I have maintained abstinence … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Home Truths Here am I thinking, now that I’m an abstinent member of OA, it automatically means I’m an outstanding citizen within my family. But eavesdropping on a conversation between my wife and son lands a bombshell of a home truth in my lap. My son asks, “Mammy, do you ever wake up grumpy?” My wife replies, “Sometimes!” Then, after a substantial pause, “And sometimes I let him sleep on!” Dumbfounded, … Read More
Abstinence The Beginning “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 … Read More
