Linda, grateful compulsive overeater, and Beverly, compulsive overeater, host this workshop on Step Eleven: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” Examples of prayer and meditation are discussed.
Linda, a compulsive eater, and Karen, abstinent compulsive eater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Ten: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”
Tina, a recovering compulsive overeater, and Gloria, a compulsive overeater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Nine: “Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” They give specific examples to show what making amends can look like in different situations.
Stephanie, a compulsive overeating, and Nancy, a gratefully recovering compulsive overeater, host this workshop on OA’s Fifth Step: “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Stephanie, an abstinent compulsive overeater, and Nancy, a gratefully recovering and abstinent compulsive eater, host this workshop on OA’s Fourth Step: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
Ronnie, a compulsive overeater, and Tina, a recovering compulsive overeater, host this workshop on Step Eight: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.” For Ronnie, the accountability of Step Eight is what differentiates the OA program from talk therapy.
This episode explores the nature of the disease of compulsive eating and the willingness it takes to begin the recovery journey. Some refer to the state of being just before accepting the OA program as “Step Zero.”
Beth learned about OA after she noticed a coworker losing weight and becoming noticeably happier. When she realized that she was out of control, she asked if she could join her coworker at a meeting. At the meeting, she was relieved to hear that OA is not a diet program and that the other OA members had problems with food that were similar to her own.
“I cannot believe I have been abstinent long enough to have made it to Step Twelve,” says Michele. “When I first came to this program, I would not have thought my life would be as it is now.” What changed for Michele? Read the story to find out!
“The Eighth Step is the springboard for creating genuinely healthy relationships, based on honesty, humility, balance, appreciation, and objectivity,” says one OA member. Sometimes, though, becoming willing to make direct amends takes time.