How OA Changed My Life Recovery Dancer in the Mirror For years, I’d walk my dogs at a local park. Nearly every night, we’d pass a recreation room where there was a Latin dance aerobics class, and I’d watch from a distance. I didn’t want to invite the humiliation of being a morbidly obese woman watching people exercise. I had been ridiculed in public before. In the mirrors, I saw … Read More
Keep Coming Back Relapse One Thing Changed I have not always had a weight problem, but I’ve always had the disease of compulsive overeating. Before age 13, the disease did not show up on my body, because I was using the fuel to grow. But it was definitely at work between my ears, manifesting mentally through my obsession with sweets and other binge foods and spiritually through … 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
Tools & Concepts Baby Steps Up the Mountain Recently I learned I needed to change my plan of eating for my health. Okay, how do I do that? Power through, right?! If I could control my eating I would never have come into Overeaters Anonymous almost thirty years ago. Before that, I tried: I tried every diet in every magazine. Every night, I planned to start this or … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity New Life Blooming I am a 21-year-old college student and a recovering anorexic, bulimic, and compulsive eater. I’ve been in OA for almost a year and recently got a sponsor to help me work the Twelve Steps. I’ve been in treatment for my eating disorders and that is where I discovered OA. I wrote a poem about my recovery, and my sponsor suggested … Read More
Recovery Relationships A Gift from Grace Before I returned to OA in 1999, my life was a prison of my own making, and I had no visitors. It was a world of isolation because all I trusted was food and how good it made me feel in the moments I was consuming it. My compulsive overeating began when I was 5 and a half years old. … Read More
Relationships Loner No Longer “I never have to be alone again . . .” It was June 1989: I was powerless over food and my life was unmanageable. I had just lost forty pounds (18 kg) again and quickly gained ten pounds (5 kg) back. I was on my way up the scale and full of anger and rage. I felt totally helpless, hopeless, … Read More
Steps The Enough Prayer Let me have faith so I will love as if there will always be love enough for me and I have never been hurt. Let me have faith so I will be a friend, as if my friends have always been here and I have never been alone. Let me have faith so I will eat as if there will … Read More
Writing Dog Talk My dogs’ unconditional love is so helpful when I can’t love myself. Dogs don’t judge my weight, my income, or my status in life. To dogs, I am okay just the way I am. When I was new to OA and first got a sponsor, I refused to talk to her about anything but dogs for three months because I … 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