“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.
A.F.S. from Illinois USA was a “revolving door member, joining and dropping out, for decades, and during that time she continued cycles of binge eating and restricting. It was not until she was given the gift of desperation that she committed to truly working the program. “And I hated it,” she says, “but the freedom tastes much better than any food I could eat.”
Have you ever met someone with 47 years of abstinence? Meet Chris Q., who became abstinent on November 13, 1977, and shares read her story about what it takes: “Abstinence . . . . is ours for the asking if we are willing to fight for it,” she says.
“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.
I’ve been in OA for well over fifteen years now. It wasn’t until my thirteenth year in this wonderful program that I was able to be abstinent. It took me this long, simply because I had given myself definitions and forms of abstinence that I could not reach. For the longest time, I would not … Continued
Mary was very excited about her trip to Italy, but she had also became very anxious about it’s world-famous food culture, a prime attraction for tourists. How to manage this? She found simple and powerful answers from her sponsor and OA-approved literature. Her sponsor’s reminder? “I’m pretty sure God is in Italy.”
Every single time Denise B. from California USA tried to leave the OA program, her binge eating and excess weight returned. Read as she shares years’ worth of experience, strength, and hope on a journey that has ultimately has led her to absitinence and recovery.
What does it mean to live life in between mealtimes? Follow the story of this anonymous OA member who describes her day and how even small, mundane activities can reflect back to you your own state of recovery.
Roberta L. from California USA joined OA in 1979. In spite of an early relapse, she kept coming back. She experienced her spiritual awakening in 2002, and since then she says, “My self-esteem has blossomed, and so has my life.” Enjoy her story of living in recovery.
Donna from Massachusetts USA has seen just about the worst in terms of the hardships that life can throw at you. Yet in OA, her life has been transformed into one of abundance. “I love the real stuff of this world,” she says. “I appreciate the struggle.”