I dreaded the Ninth Step more than any of the others, even the Fourth and Fifth Steps. I’ve always envied those who seem to lead fairly normal lives, doing no more than a minimal amount of damage as they went along. I’m not one of those. My selfishness and self-centeredness knew no limits. Everywhere I went, everything I participated in, …

After thirty years in OA, I’m still deeply grateful that I’ve been able to keep off more than 150 pounds (68 kg). A critical part of my success has been working the Twelve Steps of OA. When I first joined OA, I was able to quickly work Steps One through Seven. Then came the feared Steps Eight and Nine. Because I …

Last year, I reached Step Nine and had seven amends to make. I made five of them months ago. The two that are left are my parents, and to be honest, the only reason I haven’t made amends with my dad is because I consider them a package deal. So the amends I’m stalling on is to my mother. “I’m …

I am currently three and a half years abstinent and working Steps Ten, Eleven, and Twelve to the best of my ability, one day at a time. During a recent morning call with a sponsee, I was listening to a Step Ten resentment she’d written about. When she got to the part of identifying her character defects and shortcomings in this …

When I began OA in October 2000, I chose a sponsor who had what I wanted. She shared her experience of working through the Steps and Traditions of OA with her sponsor, and I began my process according to her experience, strength, and hope. I purchased OA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book along with its companion, The Twelve Step Workbook of Overeaters …

I first became a sponsor in 2008 as part of working the OA program of recovery. I started sponsoring after experiencing seventy days of back-to-back abstinence, working the first three Steps, following the OA-HOW structured meeting format, and soaking up lots of love and physical, emotional, and spiritual healing like a dry sponge. I came to OA obese and full …

During my past twenty years of abstinence from compulsive overeating and compulsive food behaviors, doing my best to incorporate the Principles of OA’s Twelve Steps into every moment of my daily routine, I have often heard that compliance is not the same as surrender. I believe this to be true, for I have watched as members working a program of …

After being abstinent a few years and keeping off 75 pounds (34 kg), I needed to include another amends in my Eighth Step: making amends to you, my body. I need to make amends for those thirty-five-plus years of stuffing and starving you, shaming and scolding you, shutting you up, shutting you down, disregarding your cries, trying to cut myself …

A sponsor has what a newcomer wants: abstinence! I wouldn’t be able to sponsor if I was in the food. It would be like a drunk sponsoring someone in AA. We’re crazy when we’re in the food, whether we know it or not, and it would be a disservice to OA and the newcomer to pass on that insanity. There …

When I came into OA, I was on the edge of a mental breakdown. I’d tried everything to stop my food obsession and my destructive food behaviors. I’d done a lot of work on myself and learned lots of self-help tricks, but nothing was working. I was numbing my feelings 24/7 and could not see a way out. That was …