When I came into OA, I was on the edge of a mental breakdown. I’d tried everything to stop my food obsession and my destructive food behaviors. I’d done a lot of work on myself and learned lots of self-help tricks, but nothing was working. I was numbing my feelings 24/7 and could not see a way out. That was …

I imagine many members of OA have issues with their parents. Here is how I solved my problem with my mother. My mom and I never got along because she was so controlling and at times was abusive during my childhood. I felt completely controlled by her and also misunderstood and, frankly, unrecognized for who I was. I started eating …

I am a compulsive overeater and powerless over sugar. It’s embarrassing to admit that publicly because many people laugh when they hear it. But I joined OA twenty-four years ago, and I’m recovering one day at a time. Physical recovery is happening slowly but surely. Where I’ve really seen progress in my life is in my emotional recovery. Working the …

My family has a very strong work ethic that I inherited. However, I also had blind spots that affected my working life in ways I never grasped until I felt inspired to do a complete inventory of my job history. A new Fourth Step inventory is what it took to open my eyes to all the character defects and shortcomings …

This year I will celebrate my twenty-first anniversary with my large corporate employer, a miracle I can only attribute to the OA program and my Higher Power. I am grateful for this continuing gainful employment that has enabled me to provide financially for myself and my now-grown children. I am exceedingly mindful that this anniversary might not have come to …

I am alive. When I reflect on the mistakes I’ve made, I realize how lucky I am to be alive: I seem to find balance when I least anticipate it, through luck and working the Twelve Steps. Perhaps that’s because coincidence is simply Higher Power being anonymous. One way to accept that I’m fully alive is by understanding that I …

OA not only changed my life but this recovery program also gave me a life worth living. Before I became abstinent from sugar, compulsive overeating, and compulsive food behaviors, I lived a life in food, using it constantly to manage and escape feelings and stress. I’d never want to go back to the way it was before I found OA, and …

Two years ago, I was hired to work as a workshop leader at a treatment and rehabilitation facility in California, so I travel there every other month. About a month ago, I was outside, walking along the coast, when it hit me hard: I have this opportunity only because OA changed my life and brought me into the world of recovery. …

Recovery in the workplace certainly has its challenges for me. I’m the receptionist for a big organization with a large lobby area. Constantly, lunch spreads and snacks are placed right in front of my desk area. Having to see and smell these items, which are usually off my food plan, can make workplace abstinence a real battlefield for me. I …

When I came into OA about thirty-three years ago, I was working for an important corporation. It just amazed me that our OA meetings were very much more efficient and effective than corporate meetings. Corporate meetings, with all their power, resources, and experience, should have been the better in my mind. But I observed differently, and here is what I …