Safe Space for Neurodiverse OA Members

I have had issues with food as long as I’ve been alive, I officially have a binging eating
disorder but have used food for self-soothing and ways of coping with life since I was a
child.

I am a neurodiverse person or neuro spicy as I see it. I have ADHD and dyslexia and
several mental health conditions.

I have so appreciated OA’s Inclusivity with Diversity Policy. The OA neurodiverse
meetings and their specific processes has allowed me to relax in meetings. They allow
for such things to do such things as movement such as stimming, rocking, hand flapping
or other ways of shifting and moving in order to stay present.

In these neurodiverse meetings I have finally felt like I belong. I experience the world
very differently than neurotypical people. I have to ‘shape shift’ every day to fit in and
‘mask’ who I am in all other spaces in my life. Honestly, it’s exhausting!

Having to act ‘normal’ takes up so much energy that I have nothing left by the time I
come to a meeting. With the neurodiverse meetings, I finally feel like I am safe, heard,
seen and even appreciated for the ways I am different.

In my home neurodiverse meeting they do simple things like allowing only one voice to
be heard at a time, when saying specific texts or prayers at the beginning at ends of
meetings. People can say it ‘together’ but everyone stays muted but the one voice.
That’s made a huge difference for me.

In OA as in other 12 step programs, the emphasis is on all of “us” being the same.

I appreciate that it’s important for us not suffer from the idea ‘terminally uniqueness’, but to make it possible for me to participate fully there needs to be meeting parameters that create inclusivity. I feel in these neurodiverse meetings that I am not only tolerated (like invited to the party)but accepted(asked to dance) thank you OA footsteps for making a safe space for people like me.

-Nel G, Canada

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