Trust Higher Power Today
When obsessive thoughts come, like worry about regaining weight, turn to Higher Power because you open the door to Higher Power turning to you when you are in need.
Higher Power
When I “Knew It All,” It Led to 10 Years of Relapse. Thankfully, the Longer I Am in OA, the Less I Know
Mimi D. from California USA has gained and lost 100 pounds (45 kg)—twice. The first time was during her first 18 years in OA. Thinking she was “cured” was the beginning of a decade of relapse and a rapid 100-pound weight gain. Yet today, she is abstinent and says, “My soul like a watered garden.” Learn how she found her way back to OA and abstinence.
Eight Practical Lessons I’ve Learned from Working OA’s Twelve Steps
Jean C. first joined OA 35 years ago but failed to work the Steps, which she attributes to another 18 years outside the rooms. Today, however, she is back, she is abstinent, and she is here to share what she has learned.
I Found My OA Recovery, so Why Did God Leave Me Stranded?
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?
I Was Transformed from a Lifetime of Compulsive Eating to a World of Recovery by Working OA’s Twelve Steps
“I am not like normal eaters,” says Lori B. from Canada, who joined OA at age 62. Learning this in her first OA meeting “lifted a huge weight from my shoulders,” she says, “as I could hear the promise of a solution.” It has taken 6 years, including one bout of relapse, but today Lori has found her secret to recovery.
I Returned to OA Because My Spirit Hunger Can’t be Nourished by a Box, Bag, Bottle, Batch, Bin, or Bucket of Food
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.
I Am Convinced God Prompted Me to See This Path to Recovery, but I Had to Do the Footwork.
When Judy E. fell into relapse, she never stopped working her program. She used all the Tools and worked the Steps, but she just couldn’t stop herself in the moments leading up to that first compulsive bite. Then she heard a message from her Higher Power and set a goal to improve her awareness. Read on to find out how she did it.
“I’m Perfectly Sane. I Just Have an Eating Problem”: My Journey to Step Two in Overeaters Anonymous
As a psychiatric nurse, Nancy Z. from Missouri USA knew what insanity looked like, so at first it seemed absurd to her that she needed to be restored to sanity. But as she started to look at the evidence—her weight and her relationships—she started to see that there was something for her in taking the Second Step.
Returning from Relapse, I Did a Step Ten Inventory and Started Working Step Eleven Daily
“I though God had forgotten me in my relapse,” says Hafeze from Gilan, Iran. She later realized that God was simply waiting for her to ask for help. When she came back to OA, she was blessed with a better understanding of the disease and how to find recovery.
Now Hiring: A Big God
Jacki shares a writing exercise placing a help wanted ad for her personal Higher Power. In OA, we need a Power that is greater than our problem with food, and we get to choose for ourselves the nature of this Higher Power.