Steps An Idea Whose Time Has Come My thinking can get me into a ditch on the side of the road. For example, if I read Step Two questions such as “What do I need from a Higher Power? What would I like such a Power to be and do in my life?” (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, p. 13), I … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Lucky and Relieved This program has changed my life. It has taken away my desire to assassinate your character. It has stilled my desire to engage in gossip because it has made me feel better about myself. It has forced me to cease being intolerant and judgmental and to humbly accept that I am no better or worse than you—just equal. The Twelve … Read More
Abstinence Blessings and Opportunities I have been maintaining my abstinence through illness, one day at a time, for the past eighteen months, and I am so grateful to other abstinent fellows who had shared with me, prior to my diagnosis, that they faced chronic health conditions. I thought it was a miracle they were abstinent despite their ill health. Then I was diagnosed with … Read More
Steps Traditions The Springboard I never destroy my Fourth Step work, so I can quickly make an Eighth Step amends list using the folks I mentioned in Step Four. But my Eighth Step list often includes more names than I’d written before. There are always more people I have harmed, even people toward whom I hold no negative feelings whatsoever, not even resentment. I … Read More
Recovery Working the Program The Essential Me I’m juggling a lot of stressful family and work responsibilities right now. It’s easy to get lost in the potent stew of “must-do’s,” worry, and expectations (both mine and others’) and find myself trying to control events, people, feelings, and outcomes and make everything “right.” (Right, of course, means “my way.”) That’s how I used to live, on the adrenaline … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Higher Power The Spirit of the Traditions Before program, I considered God a slot machine. I kept playing because once in a while a few coins dribbled out. But my fruitless quest for happiness felt like the extension of a drunken dream. If someone had asked me about HP, I would have given a boilerplate statement about “following my bliss,” or I might have said I didn’t … Read More