“I have always been an emotional eater,” says Kerry from Michigan USA, and as an advocate for social justice, strong emotions are part of her work life. When she recognized that she couldn’t control her binge eating behaviors, Kerry turned to OA and discovered the key to overcoming her compulsion.
“I am not the poster child for OA,” says Carol M. from Washington USA, “but I have a stable relationship with food and eating behaviors.” Read more as Carol shares how she created positive momentum in her OA program.
When obsessive thoughts come, like worry about regaining weight, turn to Higher Power because you open the door to Higher Power turning to you when you are in need.
As a child, Bianca tried weight gain as a defense against her abuser’s desires. “Unfortunately, it did not work,” she says. But as an adult, she was able to overcome her trauma and emerge into a hopeful and healthy life with OA and therapy.
Kara M. did all the “research”: dieting, binge eating, bulimia, weight-loss surgery. In the end, she still felt malnourished. “I was starving for something take-out food could not provide,” she recalls. And then God called her back to OA, and she learned how to change with the help and support of our program.
A.F.S. from Illinois USA was a “revolving door member, joining and dropping out, for decades, and during that time she continued cycles of binge eating and restricting. It was not until she was given the gift of desperation that she committed to truly working the program. “And I hated it,” she says, “but the freedom tastes much better than any food I could eat.”
Have you ever met someone with 47 years of abstinence? Meet Chris Q., who became abstinent on November 13, 1977, and shares read her story about what it takes: “Abstinence . . . . is ours for the asking if we are willing to fight for it,” she says.
“Now when I see cake, I can walk on by. It doesn’t call my name,” says Susan from New York USA. What an amazing gift of abstinence and recovery.
I’ve been in OA for well over fifteen years now. It wasn’t until my thirteenth year in this wonderful program that I was able to be abstinent. It took me this long, simply because I had given myself definitions and forms of abstinence that I could not reach. For the longest time, I would not … Continued
Mary was very excited about her trip to Italy, but she had also became very anxious about it’s world-famous food culture, a prime attraction for tourists. How to manage this? She found simple and powerful answers from her sponsor and OA-approved literature. Her sponsor’s reminder? “I’m pretty sure God is in Italy.”