The seed of OA was planted in this compulsive person’s head in 2002 when I was 19 years old, but I was not yet ready to accept the fact that I was a compulsive overeater. Fast-forward to 2015: at 31 years old, I was at the end of my rope—I’d lost my will to fight for myself and was questioning …

It was May of 2015, and I was up 30 pounds (14 kg) after a yearlong sugar binge. Although I’d been on a constant roller coaster of losing and gaining, this was the biggest weight gain I’d experienced in seven years. It was also the low point when I began to realize my powerlessness over food. I had not yet …

I am just coming back from a bingeing relapse that started with me eating two pints of ice cream as an appetizer. I went out searching for a 24-hour grocery store at 4 o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve to buy ice cream. I ended up at a gas station in an area so crime-ridden that there was an …

When I came into OA in 1983, I was taught early on about the G-A-S that makes the program run: Gratitude, Abstinence, and Service. I started my service by giving rides to meetings, arranging for my two daughters to babysit so young mothers could get to meetings, and making at least three phone calls every day. I set up the …

A couple of months ago, I was out walking my dogs when I received a call from one of the many names in my contacts list to which I’d given the last name only as “OA.” I answered and was happy to chat with an OA fellow whom I’d met several years earlier in the town where I’d first attended …

I’ve always loved hiking and being in the mountains. When I gained enough confidence after three years of working an OA program, I signed up for a seven-day mountaineering trip. We would hike over snow and ice in the Canadian Rockies, carrying all our equipment and food and staying in alpine huts along the way. I was one of the …

I joined OA in 2009. Below is a list of behaviors and actions I took (in addition to getting a sponsor, working the Twelve Steps, and using the Tools) in the past eighteen months that helped me stay abstinent and spiritually and emotionally recover. Without the program, I don’t think I could have done these things for myself. I live …

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 …

When I first started connecting with OA friends on social media, I was a bit wary about it. I was concerned it would somehow lead to a break in anonymity, even if only accidentally. I’m quite open with friends and family that I’m in OA, but I also wanted to be respectful of the Traditions and didn’t want to risk …

OA has many sayings One says, “Welcome Home” Before you leave, we want you to know You don’t have to go it alone We’ve sat where you are We’ve been where you’ve been We know the same pain We, too, longed to be thin We learned to trust others To share hope and strength When we finally decided To go …