A healthy check-in from Rosanne’s sponsee leads Rosanne to reflect on what it was like for her before she found OA. “I wanted to be thin but not give up the food. . . . OA encouraged me with more than just food issues—I no longer felt alone.”
A bird’s repeated failures reminds an OA member of the insanity of compulsive eating behaviors and how an outside influence is essential to arrest those behaviors.
A medical doctor asserts that compulsive eating is a disease that precedes other chronic disorders. The disease can be successfully treated by applying treatment principles similar to those used for alcoholism.
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.”
When a local radio commentator voiced one of the usual criticisms about overweight people, OA member Lori felt compelled to carry the message, which was read aloud on the radio the next day.
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.
“No matter what walks of life the members come from, each is entitled to experience the fellowship our program offers,” says Anonymous, who showed up to their first OA meeting only wanting to be thin and for the emotional pain to stop and found themselves “loved and accepted as I was.”
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.