Recovery Relationships Freedoms Gained in OA First, I can go into a supermarket and not have to buy the sugars and carbs I’m addicted to. What a freedom and relief that is! “Not today!” I think to myself with gratitude. Also, I have the freedom to be happy in life and enjoy its pleasures. No longer is that dark shadow, the curse of addiction, crossing my … 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
Recovery Relationships A New Love Song In my late 30s, I got way too excited about writing songs with my church’s music director. For several months, as we collaborated, I flirted with him and got enmeshed with his dream of selling songs commercially. I’d always been overweight, but during this time I was so alight with creative and sexual energy that I barely slept or ate, … Read More
Recovery Relationships With Support and Love Being in Overeaters Anonymous has changed my life for the better and given me a different lease on life. More importantly, it has broken those chains that for forty years prevented me from living the full life that God desires me to live. I did not discover the root cause of why I overate until 2005, when I had a … Read More
Recovery Relationships Better for Both In managing food addiction, there is no “putting it up on a shelf and never touching it again;” it’s an ongoing challenge to keep food within boundaries that are now set and kept. For me, it is also the same with sex. I have to keep my thinking within certain healthy boundaries whenever I think about sex or myself as … Read More
Steps Hard, Healing, Emotional Work Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. I recently finished Step Five with my sponsor. I’ve done a Step Five before, but it’s been over a year since my last one. This time it was hard. Really hard. Those of us who have done a Step Five recall the … Read More
Traditions Cash Conscious I’ve had a few interesting occurrences happen with the Seventh Tradition. The first I can remember is a time I didn’t want to go to a meeting. I realized I didn’t have any cash, which sounded like a really good excuse: “I don’t have two dollars, so I’m not going.” Right? I used the restroom at the college I was attending … Read More
Recovery Relationships To Love and Be Loved Ten things that help me most in achieving serenity: Step One. I admit I’m powerless—over food and other people (their emotional well-being and their opinion of me). I’m powerless over war, famine, poverty, natural disasters—powerless over everything outside myself, and a lot of what’s inside too. Action plan. My action plan includes morning exercise and meditation. When I wake up, … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Different Manifestations of Our Disease Editors note: Below is a world service contribution from OA members in support of our Strategic Plan. My friend and I certainly have different manifestations of this disease. What brought her to OA was life-threatening anorexia, while I have always been a garden-variety compulsive overeater. Still, we relate in many ways: We both need to be very careful with the … Read More
Steps Never and Always Step One: We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become unmanageable. When I read about Step One and think about my life—my crazy eating habits, the mental obsession I’ve struggled with—I can freely, honestly, humbly admit that I am definitely powerless over food. I have tried to control my eating most of my adult life and have … Read More