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?
This year and from now on, I will not hide my addiction in plain sight. I was so worried about the American Halloween holiday this year, wondering how in the world I was going to make it through the night while I was passing out candy and watching horror movies. In many ways, movies and … Continued
As a child, Bianca tried weight gain as a defense against her abuser’s desires. “Unfortunately, it did not work,” she says. But as an adult, she was able to overcome her trauma and emerge into a hopeful and healthy life with OA and therapy.
When a job offer didn’t turn out as expected, Anonymous from the USA, reached out for a Tool and called an OA friend in recovery. “What I got in return,” she says, ”was a gift I never expected.” (And the gift came via a Step Ten inventory.)
“I heard the word God and nearly ran out the door,” says Anonymous from Illinois USA, “but I stayed and listened to the leader talk about hope.” Turns out, a belief in God wasn’t necessary, nor was belief in a higher power. All that was needed were three simple words and three simple Steps.
“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.
Kara M. did all the “research”: dieting, binge eating, bulimia, weight-loss surgery. In the end, she still felt malnourished. “I was starving for something take-out food could not provide,” she recalls. And then God called her back to OA, and she learned how to change with the help and support of our program.
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.”
When Judy E. fell into relapse, she never stopped working her program. She used all the Tools and worked the Steps, but she just couldn’t stop herself in the moments leading up to that first compulsive bite. Then she heard a message from her Higher Power and set a goal to improve her awareness. Read on to find out how she did it.