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.
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.
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?
“Now when I see cake, I can walk on by. It doesn’t call my name,” says Susan from New York USA. What an amazing gift of abstinence and recovery.
An upcoming knee replacement surgery was the catalyst for Stephanie to take a really good look at using the action plan Tool. The result of her preparations and efforts? “I am no longer afraid of what is to come or whether I will be able to remain abstinent. . . . Now I am a Spiritual Light.”
Lisa A. from California USA saw that abstinent OA members not only committed to their plan of eating but also committed to working the OA program. Keeping her abstinence has required adjustments over the years, but nevertheless, “I am free from compulsive eating . . . and free to experience the promises . . . of the Big Book,” she says.
The sexual abuse that Blanca suffered as a child led her to gain weight in an attempt to make herself less attractive, and led later to multiple suicide attempts. Thankfully, her desperate attempts to outrun her pain were soothed and solved in Overeaters Anonymous. “My practice of the Twelve Steps leaves me with some very empowering ways of seeing life,” she says. “My smiles . . . . are coming from a place of inner peace, confidence, and happiness.
Maddie has been abstinent in OA for one week. “It’s terrible to admit . . . a destructive obsession with food,” she says. “But until we are ready to admit defeat, our abstinence will be on shaky ground.”
A poem of recovery — of taming the “dragon” of compulsive eating through the guidance of the OA Fellowship.
“Many of us come to OA feeling like this is the ‘last house on the block,’” Andrea writes. ”Thank God we find acceptance and understanding in OA.” Read about Andrea’s journey through food obsession, recovery, relapse, and finding serenity in our program.