A Requirement for Recovery In addition to having a sincere desire to stop eating compulsively, rigorous honesty is possibly the most important factor in success in recovery. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous clearly states: Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people […]
Category Archives: Supporting my abstinence
Practicing the Principles: Finding Recovery in Fiction
Reading program literature is an essential tool of recovery in Overeaters Anonymous and other 12-step programs. Alcoholics Anonymous, aka The Big Book, is an essential guide to recovering from addiction in all its forms. Overeaters Anonymous recommends replacing “alcohol” and “alcoholic” with “food” and “compulsive overeating” when reading AA literature. The 12 Steps and 12 […]
Two-Way Prayer
Two-plus years into my abstinence and recovery, I began to struggle. My food was in order, I was attending meetings and sponsoring, but something was missing. Using food to manage my emotions was pretty much a thing of the past, my life was much simpler and less stressful, and I found more possible to accept […]
Aspects of Abstinence
Compulsive overeating is a substance addiction like addictions to alcohol, drugs, nicotine, etc. In fact, we often refer to certain foods as “alcoholic foods.” As a compulsive overeater, I define my addiction as the inability to not eat something I know is going to hurt me. The harm goes beyond the emotional and social damage […]
Achieving Fit Spiritual Condition
OA’s 12 step program of recovery from compulsive eating promises members “a life beyond our wildest dreams.” While that promise appears in various forms in our literature, the expression “fit spiritual condition,” comes at the end of the 10th step promises on pages 84 and 85 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous: “And we […]
Serenity at the Beach
I came into OA in February 1989. I stayed for twenty-one years through periods of abstinence and relapse, my wedding, jobs, having children, and the death of my father. I shared my problems and my willingness to work on my program. Eventually, I’d realize that the problems I obsessed about were solved. I’d move forward […]