Fellowship Recovery No Longer Isolated It is a wonderful feeling to go around the room and look into another compulsive eater’s eyes and say, “I put my hand in yours because I care,” and really mean it sincerely. Unity Day reminds me that I am no longer isolated in my home, in my room, in my hiding places, being loved and comforted by my food. … Read More
Traditions Guarding the Traditions At OA meetings, I often hear shares that include social issues. We members are products of our environment, after all, and those environments can include poverty, deprivation, abuse, harassment, homelessness, injustice, unfairness at work, and victimization by criminals. For my part, I have a social conscience, and my failure to live up to its demands is a factor in my … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Real Magic I am contemplating the last workbook question of the Twelfth Step: “What is the message I am living?” (The Twelve Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, p. 107). My mind ventures back several months, when a spark inside my soul led me to put these Twelve Steps to the test. Would the promises of the Step Principles really materialize … Read More
Meetings Tools & Concepts Quickly or Slowly Like many compulsive overeaters, I entered the rooms of OA only to lose weight. I’d tried dozens of weight loss programs and lost weight, only to gain it back plus more. I came for the vanity and stayed for the sanity. I really listened to the Big Book promises when they were read aloud at OA meetings, and I realized … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Higher Power Getting Warmer I came into program uncomfortable with the concepts of belief and faith. I preferred facts and proof. Belief, I felt, was a sentiment best reserved for the religious, which I was not. I was, however, powerless over food and I wanted what this program had to offer. More than anything, I wanted the Twelve Step promises to come true in … Read More
Recovery Relationships Freedoms Gained in OA First, I can go into a supermarket and not have to buy the sugars and carbs I’m addicted to. What a freedom and relief that is! “Not today!” I think to myself with gratitude. Also, I have the freedom to be happy in life and enjoy its pleasures. No longer is that dark shadow, the curse of addiction, crossing my … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World As Written and with Urgency I am nine months into recovery in OA and more happy, joyous, and free than I could ever have imagined. And I do mean ever. My heart bursts with the love I have found for my HP through working the program as written. Yet, at the same time, I am almost crying with pain. It’s pain not unlike the pain … Read More
