When I first joined OA in 1996 we gathered at the “Lemon Squeezer” church in Victory Park, Johannesburg. It smelled of highveld dust and floor polish. At 30, I seemed to be the youngest in the room filled with middle-class white women who looked like my elderly relatives. Just two years into South Africa’s democracy integration wasn’t happening and the …
When I was in my disease and eating compulsively, I was preoccupied with food. Iwas obsessed with diets and my weight. There was no reprieve from the insanethoughts that pervaded my mind. Everything centered around the next binge,hoarding and hiding provisions, a warped body image, and eventually how much Icould restrict.Every diet was followed by demoralization, depression, and disillusion. I …
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Before I found OA, food was my answer to everything and anything. If I had a problem, I would eat. Uncomfortable feelings meant more food. After spending time in OA, I came to believe and accept that food is an ineffective means of coping. Using food to cope is no longer an option for me. Now, I eat to live, …
My sponsor asked me to write on these two questions: Jessica K. Source: oceanandbay.org
We recover together or not at all. This is the “we” in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.OA is not an “I” program. I tried the “I” program. It was all I knew; wasn’t I supposed to apply mywill to problems and overcome them? But my food issues were impervious to my efforts. I wasstuck. And I stayed stuck until …
I am a returning member, back in OA after many relapses over the past fourteen years. Earlier this year, after almost a year of abstinent recovery and losing two thirds of the weight I need to lose for my health, I began experiencing painful and disturbing digestive symptoms. It took months for doctors to diagnose the trouble, and in the …
Do you have a well-defined food plan? I do. Who helped you define your food plan? We had a suggested food plan in those days (1978)called Blue Sheet (it was on blue paper). I found balance in that plan and a guide to follow forthis defiant compulsive overeater. As time passed the amounts changed slightly and I found thisplan became …
There it was. I had done the first three Steps with my sponsor and we both knew what was coming next. He knew it was going to be a big step in my recovery, but to me it looked more like a pending emotional breakdown. Turns out he was right. I had built a pretty good system of denial and …
