Jennifer’s childhood left her hungry for love, and that opened the door to an obsession with food. After thirty years of binge eating and diets another door opened: the door to recovery through OA. A year later, Jennifer can say, “I know I am worthy, and I want to nurture my authentic self and heal old wounds.”
Desperate and exhausted after an all-night eating binge, Jessica wrote a letter to her food addiction, and spelled out every scary, uncomfortable, and honest thought. After two years in OA, she now sees how writing that letter made it possible to find recovery and a worthwhile life.
“It is because of OA that I can miraculously hold an addictive food in my hands and not have it speak to me.”
“It was only a few moments into my first meeting that I realized it was not about the weight, but the way I was leading my life,” says Marti, who reflects on her one-year anniversary of abstinence from compulsive overeating.
Mary Ann weighed 236 pounds (107 kg) and was facing a fatal liver condition. That was her wake up call. She came to OA, threw herself into the program, lost 106 pounds (48 kg), and has found spiritual, physical, and emotional recovery.
“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.
At age 11, Paul started binge eating to cope with feelings of loneliness and boredom and that compulsive eating behavior stayed with him through adulthood. After Paul found OA, his life changed completely, and he has learned to turn his powerlessness over to his Higher Power in exchange for the gift of abstinence.
I’ll never forget my last close call with bingeing. I had just left the doctor’s office after a check-up in early May 2006. It was my first time meeting this doctor. I was 35 pounds (16 kg) overweight and two weeks back into program. She was professional and told me I needed to lose weight … Continued
Isa experienced food addiction and body image issues from early childhood. “I would have done anything to be thin,” she says. After topping 242 pounds (110 kg), she joined OA and knew right away she was in the right place.
Mary, a compulsive overeater, hosts this workshop on OA’s Second Step, which some regard as a bridge from the powerlessness of Step One to the resolve of Step Three.