Gratitude Recovery A Tale of Two Knees I have had two knee replacements in two years. The first time I wasn’t abstinent, but this most recent time I was. I want to share the difference. The first time I was in rehab, I was physically, spiritually, and mentally bankrupt. I paid an acquaintance, my eating buddy, to bring me non abstinent food. I ate sugar and white flour … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Grateful for Friends in OA “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 I was at home on February 27 when I fell and broke my right ankle. At the emergency room, they found it was broken in two places and needed surgery. I was in the … Read More
Traditions Responsible Acceptance At first, the Traditions had little meaning to me. At the place and time I attended meetings, the Traditions were not emphasized, so I pretty much ignored them. Oh, sure, I finally saw that the Traditions kept groups functioning, but they still didn’t mean much to me personally. My responsibility seemed to be the Steps. When I started to wake up … Read More
Service Twelfth Step Within Lifeline I am a grateful, abstinent, Lifeline-subscribing member of OA. I love and appreciate our magazine. I have a stack of old Lifelines, and recently my HP inspired me to suggest a good way to use them. When making a Twelfth Step Within call, why not give the prospect a copy of an old Lifeline? I like this idea and recently … Read More
Service Speaker Go-Getter I’ve been in OA this time around for sixteen years. Before that I was in for eight years, then out for five. For all of these years, I resisted taking a certain service position: Program Chair (or Speaker Getter). It seemed like too much pressure for me to handle. In June, I relented and decided to give the position a … Read More
Fellowship Recovery For the Good of All The OA group conscience meetings I’ve attended that were successful allowed members to practice recovery principles in an open, orderly manner with surrender to a Higher Power and the goodwill of all OA members. Successful group conscience meetings were announced ahead of time at regular meetings. They used the Suggested Format for a Group Conscience Meeting available at oa.org and … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World Birthday at Home Recently, I had the privilege of celebrating both my twentieth OA birthday and the twentieth birthday of my OA home group. I met OA for the first time at this group’s very first meeting. For this event, we asked our intergroup to invite other OA groups to join and celebrate our journey toward recovery. We had more than double our … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Could and Would For thirty years, I was bulimic, but I have not purged in almost eight years. When my weight reached an all-time high of 293 pounds (133 kg) at 5’11” (180 cm) two years ago in February, I decided I’d had enough and was going to get weight-loss surgery. But the surgery center didn’t want to operate on me because of … Read More
Fellowship Our Small But Mighty IDEA Our IDEA celebration last year was a small but mighty gathering of recovering compulsive eaters, both newcomers and long timers. At 11:30 a.m. PST, we stood in a circle and turned to the person next to us, held his or her hand, and said, “I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do … Read More
Recovery Around the World Virtual Help I found OA through an email loop. The loop showed me what OA was like and gave me hope and strength. After a month of email loop meetings, I went to my first live virtual meeting, a voice chat about Step One. There, I received my miracle. With an open mind, I accepted Step One and began abstaining from binge … Read More