Childhood sexual abuse and family dynamics can drive someone to turn to food for comfort. Without a solution, these patterns can grow with us into adulthood, complicating relationships with romantic partners and with weight. As one member has discovered, however, a new and healthier sense of normalcy can be found in Overeaters Anonymous.
Linda, a compulsive eater, and Karen, abstinent compulsive eater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Ten: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”
John hated his grandmother for the way she treated him as a kid. And he ate over it. But by working Steps Eight and Nine and by doing a “forgiveness inventory,” he got to the bottom of it and was able to forgive. “This program is amazing,” he writes.
The list of amends to make in Step Nine may be long, but it is guaranteed to be finite. Even in a difficult Ninth Step, the promises still come true! “And,” this writer reports, ”I am able to stay abstinent . . . one day at a time!”
Sherril didn’t see why all the fuss about self-amends. Then one day, while they were doing laundry, her daughter remarked that Sherril’s underwear belonged in the trash.
At Step Nine, Fiona has to come to terms with apologizing to her mom. “Whether she apologizes is irrelevant,” she says. “I need to clear my side of the street.”
Alan’s grandmother helped raise him, but later, Alan couldn’t bring himself to visit her in the nursing home. Working Step Nine, found a way to make a living amends and find a new passion for public health.
Tina, a recovering compulsive overeater, and Gloria, a compulsive overeater and food addict, host this workshop on Step Nine: “Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” They give specific examples to show what making amends can look like in different situations.
Mary, a compulsive overeater, hosts this workshop on OA’s Second Step, which some regard as a bridge from the powerlessness of Step One to the resolve of Step Three.
When an anonymous OA member started working Step Two and needed to contain his skepticism with some logic, he found a bedrock of truth in the ideas he had accepted in Step One. “If I practice honesty, the Principle of Step One, then I cannot wiggle out of these truths.”