Can an agnostic find recovery from binge eating in the OA program when it has so many references to God? In her own words, one agnostic OA member says, “This program works. I have not binged in over twelve years. If you are like me, I encourage you to attend one of the many atheist/agnostic/secular OA meetings. Hope to see you there!”
Joan has completely turned her life around in the four years since she joined OA. “The person I am today is no longer full of yesterday’s resentments,” she says. “She is a person who seeks daily to be the OA message.”
“If I could control food the way it controls me, I wouldn’t need OA,” says one OA member. For years, she lived life “in the food” and in other addictions to cope with the echoes of childhood abuse, but now she is standing vulnerably in our loving program where she has found a path to healing.
Laurie, a recovering compulsive overeater, reflects on her gratitude for the gifts that sponsorship brings to Twelve Step recovery.
“The Fifth Step: what a daunting Step it was for me as a newcomer,” says Anonymous. “But I can remember the feeling when I was done . . . I was relieved.”
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.”
Have you relapsed into compulsive eating or compulsive food behaviors? This video can help you understand how you got here. It will point you toward the next right thing you can do to get back to recovery.
Kathleen’s binge eating and low self-esteem made her ill and unable to hold a job. She was in the midst of bingeing and counting calories when she heard on the radio a public service announcement about Overeaters Anonymous. When she attended her first meeting, someone told her “You’re not alone anymore,” and that was enough to give her hope and start her on her recovery journey.
OA invites DIVERSITY and promotes UNITY. In this episode, one OA member describes what it is like to have decades of recovery and another OA member focuses on the Big Book: Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition.
“By admitting my powerlessness over food and my life in Step One and by continuing to come back for twenty-nine years, I have maintained an 80-pound (36-kg) weight loss,” says Kristin, who previously had done many years of “research” into dieting.