Meetings Tools & Concepts Leaving My Comfort Zone Coming back from work one late winter afternoon, I caught myself thinking that since the weather was cold, I’d better get home, take a hot shower, put on those nice pajamas, have a soup, and finally snuggle into a soft warm blanket to watch a movie or read a novel or newspaper. However, it was Wednesday, the day of my … Read More
Keep Coming Back Relapse Imperfect, Upward Climb The strength and hope that my Higher Power and Overeaters Anonymous give me are gifts greater than the physical changes I longed to see when I first came into the program. But I haven’t always known these tremendous gifts. Like a hamster running on a wheel, my compulsive overeating, food and dieting obsessions, and bulimia kept me running from the … Read More
Tools & Concepts Whatever It Takes I am writing this as one of the assignments my sponsor gives me. She asked me to write on the action plan Tool. As I understand this Tool, it means using whatever it takes to help me achieve and maintain my abstinence. What actions have I started to take to help me do this? I make sure I get to … Read More
Meetings Tools & Concepts One More Tool I have been abstinent from bulimia for eleven years and abstinent from anorexia for ten years. I access the oa.org website to learn about all types of meetings so I can participate. Relying on the fact that I have choices about face-to-face, phone, and online meetings helps my recovery because I know I can use that meeting Tool and be of … Read More
Meetings First-Meeting Gifts I went to my first OA meeting on a Saturday in March 1979. I was coming off a food binge of almost two years; it had started when my fiancée told me she didn’t want to marry me. The next day I’d gone off to the races. I gained over 100 pounds (45 kg) in a year, and didn’t see … Read More
Meetings Desperate and Helped I came to OA because other members worked the Twelfth Step. Members of an OA group in another state shared their stories in a diet magazine. “Wow,” I thought. “These people think and act about food like I do!” But my life was not too bad, and if it was not too bad, then it was okay. I received a … Read More
Newcomers Just One I can clearly remember my frame of mind the first time I attended an OA meeting. I had absolutely no idea what OA was about, or how or why it worked. Most importantly, I wasn’t at all sure I belonged there. I wasn’t sure I fit the profile of a person who needed OA. Because of that, my first meeting … 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
Tools & Concepts Any Distance, Any Length “Any form of service—no matter how small— that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery.” —The Tools of Recovery Six months ago, I moved, leaving behind the OA meeting that had been my home for five years—my strong, healthy meeting full of abstinent recovery and knowledge of the Twelve Steps. There are meetings in … 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
