I Stand Aside from My Discomforts to Stand Inside Wisdom
“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.”
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“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.”
Joan has completely turned her life around in the four years since she joined OA. “The person I am today is no longer full of yesterday’s resentments,” she says. “She is a person who seeks daily to be the OA message.”
“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.
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.