Chris B. reflects on the personal challenges that come with sponsorship and just how essential sponsorship is to recovery. “Consider my hand forever raised for being available to sponsor,” says Chris.
“A glass that looks so clean when out of the bright light can actually be very dirty,” notes Paulette. When she agrees reluctantly in to be held up to the light, she says “It is shocking to see me as I really am . . . . but now I know what to do about it.” The answer is in the Seventh Step.
Here I was at my rock bottom, and I didn’t feel I had any other choice.
What does someone with life-threatening anorexia have in common with a “garden variety” compulsive overeater? Would you believe they are: problems with stepping on the scale, issues with body image, and similar approaches to plans of eating? Read and find out why!
In this story, two OA members share their paths to recovery. One is marked by the significant decision to change sponsors. The other, trying different meetings until landing upon the right specific-focus meeting. Says one of the members, “Thank you, OA, for embracing and encouraging diversity. No matter where I am in my recovery process, my needs are met.”
Part of a Unity with Diversity series of stories from the February 2018 Lifeline, OA members Heidi and Lynda demonstrate how the diverse paths of a) coming back to meetings regardless and b) avoiding OA altogether for 30 years can both lead us (eventually) to unity and recovery.
“I can freely, honestly, and humbly admit that I am powerless over food,” says Carolyn M. When she takes OA’s First Step, it is not in hopeless defeat. Instead it is the beginning of a hopeful and liberating journey with a source of help that “gives me a peace I cannot describe.”
“Through nurturing both a small plant gifted in celebration of abstinence and my OA program, I’ve learned that with care, patience, and renewed enthusiasm, growth and beauty can always be rediscovered—even after 9,190 days.”
”I struggle so much with the character defect of pride,” says one OA member, “and I find the antidote in the Principle of Step Seven: humility.”
Dorothy cheated her employers to the tune of thousands of dollars, and she was hopeless to pay back such a large sum. But her sponsor encouraged her, she became willing, and Higher Power responded in kind.