This podcast features an Asian, Pacific, Islander, and Desi (APID) specific-focus workshop that was made open to visitors outside OA. The podcast highlights the experience, strength, and hope that APID members have to share within the OA Fellowship and to those outside OA who are still suffering from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors. 0:00–7:11Introductions … Continued
In this poem, Jacki asks Higher Power to be with her in moments both peaceful and painful.
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.
“Joy comes in finding the good, even in the bad. Not only would I rather find joy, I am also assured that Higher Power would want this for me also.”
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.
Compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors are indicators of an individual’s suffocated spirit. However, with the encouragement, support, wisdom, and love of OA’s Fellowship, a new sense of wholeness can emerge.
Some atheist and agnostic OA members practice meditation in Step Eleven. For one agnostic, meditation has inspired a poem and a recognition of their personal Higher Power.
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!”
Terri explains what her religious friends and the strangers she has encountered don’t understand: that nothing can help her overcome her bingeing except her Higher Power, the Twelve Steps, and the Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous.
“When you have absolutely no self-esteem … sometimes you hide behind a wall of being ‘the expert.’” says this OA member. “I have made so many changes in my life, but there’s one that excites me the most.”