Diane D. did all the right things to find recovery in OA, from surrendering in Step One to adopting a plan of eating and throwing herself into service. But then everything crashed because of illness and an outside addiction, and God seemed nowhere to be found. How did she make it back to recovery?
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.
Regarding the start of her relapse, Lee R. from Massachusetts USA reflects, “Looking back, I realize that what I was trying to do was “to be normal,” which could never happen. I am a compulsive overeater and nothing will ever change that.” But she never gave up hope and the miracle happened for her.
“Before OA, I had tried every diet, every exercise, every new ‘thing’ to lose weight. What I hadn’t tried was fixing myself from the inside out.” Join Agnes, a compulsive overeater, as she shares how OA helped her find a workable plan for freedom from her food behaviors.
Judy B. draws a parallel between restoring the family home she has inherited and her OA recovery. Like recovery, “Restoration is working with what is and trying to bring it back to a better reality,” she says.
Donna from Massachusetts USA has seen just about the worst in terms of the hardships that life can throw at you. Yet in OA, her life has been transformed into one of abundance. “I love the real stuff of this world,” she says. “I appreciate the struggle.”
Deborah has endured jail, marital separation, and cancer, but today she shines with recovery. “I am now claiming six years of abstinence,” she says. “Y’all have taught me life is fun, but my meals can’t be fun. . . . It’s worth all the daily discipline for freedom from food obsession.”
Sam grew up in a time of war, when food scarcity was a real issue. When the war ended, Sam’s scarcity mentality and trauma did not . . . until he heard about OA. “It changed my life forever,” he says.
After four and a half years in OA, Rachel had experienced both solid abstinence and a period when life’s challenges had her surviving but not thriving. “What really propelled me through,” she says of this challenging time in her life, “was working another set of Steps.”