“In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 101). The Big Book promised that working the Twelve Steps would allow me to feel neutral about my former binge foods. This was one of the things that attracted me to OA. I wouldn’t …

When I was getting ready to learn to drive, my father wouldn’t sign my driver’s ed voucher until I wrote a paragraph on responsibility. Being a typical 15-year-old, I waited until the last minute because I thought the idea was dumb and naively believed he would relent. He did not—he wanted me to understand the gravity of driving safely and …

This Twelve Step program has saved my life. I have been maintaining a 50 pound (23 kg) weight release for thirty wonderful years and am at my ideal body weight. This is a miracle; generations of women in my family have suffered from food addiction and premature death. I use slogans constantly to help keep me on track, and I’ve …

I’m one of those compulsive eaters with a wide experience of diets and other weight-control alternatives. For more than thirty years, I would do everything I could to lose weight and was successful in almost 90 percent of my attempts. It was wonderful—for a short time. I’d get new, smaller clothes, compliments, and the clear sensation of having settled all …

After giving birth to my sixth child, I realized I was obese. I had always dieted away my postpartum fat, but this time I was obsessed with food, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep the weight off for more than a few weeks. I weighed over 170 pounds (77 kg). My Higher Power helped me find …

Overeaters Anonymous worked when many other attempts to control my eating did not. The proof for me is that I have maintained a healthy body weight for over twenty-two years. My previous diets always resulted in a food celebration and a return to compulsive overeating. I couldn’t successfully reach a goal weight and maintain it for more than a few …

The painful body images I carried for more than fifty years of my life have slowly evolved, moving from a fat girl in gym class, full of self-loathing and self-doubt, to a healthier image of a fit person who regularly exercises, and now to a triathlete. This new body and new life became possible only through working the Twelve Steps …

I found the Power inside of me, a small quiet voice. Call it intuition. It is a sudden or intuitive thought or decision that helps me move forward for the sake of what is good. It is a feeling, sometimes overwhelming, filling me and lifting me up; a release of a burden; a certainty and clarity of what is right, …

I don’t consider myself a religious person. Although recovery has reconnected me in some ways to the religion of my youth, it does not define my concept of Higher Power. Too often a physical manifestation of Higher Power eludes me. As a child I yearned for the simple belief depicted in the church where I attended a youth program—a gentle …