Food Addicts In Recovery Anonymous

Ich entdeckte die Bulimie als Teenager. Zunächst schien sie die perfekte Lösung für all meine Probleme zu sein: Ich konnte unbegrenzt essen, ohne zuzunehmen – und dick werden wollte ich auf keinen Fall. Schon bald wurde der vermeintliche Freund Essen zu meinem Feind. Mir wurde klar, dass ein Bissen von Zucker- oder Mehlprodukten zu viel war und zwanzig niemals genug. Bevor ich zu Food Addicts in R...

I grew up with a young, single mom, and the early years at home were tumultuous. Finances were tight, and things often felt unstable. From a very young age, I could eat as much as my grandfather. There was no real connection between feeling full and stopping. I was a chubby kid, taller than my classmates, and became very aware of how I ate in front of others. I tried dieting, but I couldn’t stick...

I grew up in a tumultuous home where appearances mattered, and secrets were kept. I learned early how to look fine on the outside while hiding what was really going on – and that habit followed me straight into my food addiction. In school, I thrived. I was smart, the teacher’s pet, and loved gold stars and approval. Inside the classroom, I felt confident and included – even by the cool kids. Outs...

I was adopted at birth by two loving parents, and I had a beautiful childhood.  But everything changed when I was bullied in middle school and started eating to cope. While my mother wanted to talk about feelings, my father would take me out to dinner, and food became my emotional anchor. I didn't notice the weight creeping on; it felt like I just woke up one day overweight. I even had medical con...

Essen ist auch eine Droge  Ich bin Mitglied bei Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) und lebe mit einer Mehrfachsucht. Mein Weg in die Genesung begann nicht mit Essen – zunächst war ich in einem 12-Schritte-Programm für Drogensüchtige. Mit der Zeit wurde mir jedoch klar, dass Essen in meinem Leben die gleiche Funktion hatte wie Drogen. Es war nicht einfach Nahrung – es war meine Droge. Obwohl i...

As the oldest child in my family, I learned to take on the responsibility of caring for others, setting my own needs aside. My father often rewarded me with fast food. In college, isolated from family, I walked a mile every night to restaurants seeking comfort. Even as I climbed the corporate ladder, I felt inadequate and continued using food to manage my anxiety. After my father's death, I put my...

I came into Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) in 2019 at 193 pounds, 5'7", convinced I would be the one person the program wouldn’t work for. I didn’t even believe I was a food addict, just someone with a snacking problem. But my life told a different story. I grew up in Venezuela, waiting for my mother to leave the house so I could steal food from the cabinet and then throw the wrappers ove...

For most of my life, I never thought I had a food addiction. I believed my struggles with weight were simply the result of genetics and environment, a lottery I had lost. I came from a family where many people were larger, food was central to everything we did, and at 5’9”, I assumed my size was inevitable. For most of my adult life, I weighed over 300 pounds. Even as my health declined, my denial...

Once I started eating, I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t a grazer – I was a binge eater. I ate in secret, whole packages at a time, with the door closed. When I came to Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) at 20 years old, I was obese, deeply unhappy, and running out of hope. Today, at 58 years old and 85 pounds lighter, I have a blessed life in recovery. From age three, food lit me up like a Christmas...

In my Italian American family, everything revolved around food. I ate when I was happy, sad, lonely, or scared – and most of the time I was all four. My mom didn't want me to have the struggles with weight that she always had, so whenever she joined a commercial weight loss program (and she joined them all), she would drag me with her. She meant well, but every new plan just made me feel more brok...

I’m an 80-year-old food addict, grateful to have been part of the Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) fellowship for decades. I have lost more than 55 pounds, but far more importantly, I have gained a way of living that continues to sustain me. My childhood was shaped by alcoholism, abuse, and silence, followed by years of binge eating, denial, relapse, and shame. After getting sober in AA, I...

I was born a sugar addict, sneaking food as a child and using it to cope with my feelings. Moving constantly – twelve cities in eight years – made food my only reliable companion. In college, far from home, I'd cycle through dieting and binging, filled with shame but unable to stop.  After many years of failed attempts at recovery, the binges escalated. They grew bigger, lasted longer, and became...

At 65 years old and 210 pounds, I saw a photo on social media and didn’t recognize myself. That moment of disbelief led me to Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), where I discovered I wasn’t just overweight – I was a food addict. As an African American woman, I grew up hearing that I’d have to work twice as hard to succeed, and the pressure turned into perfectionism. For years, I ate to cope,...

I grew up surrounded by addiction, though my parents had found recovery early in my life. I was a relatively skinny child. Diagnosed with ADHD at five years old, I was on medication that suppressed my appetite. In 5th grade, my parents and teachers decided to try taking me off meds for a year, and I went from a size 8 slim to a 16 husky, gaining 60 pounds. When I went back on the medication to imp...

When I found Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), my weight wasn’t my real problem – it was the complete madness I experienced around food. Food had controlled my life since childhood. I grew up in my great-grandmother’s house, and the kitchen was my sanctuary. I was a fearful child; the sound of the doorbell sent me running to hide under her skirt, but food meant love and safety. I started us...

From vodka at 13 to nightly binges of flour and sugar in adulthood, my life was ruled by addiction. At 23, weighed down by blame, insecurity, and shame about being gay, I attempted to take my own life. At 24 years old, I found sobriety in A.A. After decades of struggling with food, weighing over 240 pounds, I discovered Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA). In FA, I began a journey of abstinenc...

The oldest of six children with parents who were overwhelmed, but tried hard, she found comfort in food from an early age. Despite being an average student at a healthy weight, she struggled with self-doubt and a fear of failure. After leaving home, food became her go-to coping mechanism for fear, doubt, and insecurity. Throughout her recovery, she faced many health challenges — including multiple...

My earliest recollection is from the age of four – being shy and awkward, always afraid to join other kids at play. I was a picky eater and would take a long time to get through what was on my plate. Still, I began to put on the pounds, and I got it in my head that losing weight would change everything. I’d be confident, outgoing, and finally feel like I fit in. So, I went on a diet. Then, I binge...

From a young age, she learned that food could quiet her inner storms. As a teenager, desperate to control her weight, she experimented with appetite suppressants—only to find that quick fixes led to deeper pain. She cycled through restricting, bulimia, and over-exercising, each attempt a futile escape from an overwhelming addiction that robbed her of being the mother and wife she longed to be. She...

From a young age, her life was doom and gloom. Food was her reprieve, protecting her from uncomfortable emotions. She endured sexual trauma as a young child, a difficult family, and mental illness. In elementary school, she began dieting and eventually tried restricting food. It was unsustainable over the long-term. At the age of 21, she found Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA). There, she sa...

At 78, he’s lived through war, marriage, career highs—and a 30-year secret battle with bulimia. Although he was raised in a middle-class family with healthy eating habits, he internalized early messages that “thin is good” and “fat is bad.” He grew up with food scarcity, body shame, and pressure to be thin, which led to a decades-long cycle of bingeing and purging, hidden even from his closest lov...

I didn’t grow up on a farm, but when I married at 19 years old, that’s where life took me. My husband and I built our lives there, raising four daughters amidst long days and hard work. It was a beautiful place to raise a family, but as the years passed, depression crept in and food became my escape. Over time—through isolation and the exhaustion of motherhood—food became more than just fuel. It w...

For as long as I can remember, I was either too much or not enough – too thin or too heavy. At 5’7”, I’ve been as low as 105 pounds and as high as 220. I ran, played tennis, and tried to disappear into thinness, but no matter how much weight I lost, I still saw flaws. I obsessed over food, swinging between control and chaos. My addiction manifested in bizarre ways: while studying at college, I’d r...

In 2013, weighing 193 pounds, I was caught in an endless cycle of gaining and losing the same 20 pounds despite exercising six hours daily. At my heaviest, I had reached 309 pounds. Food was my solution for everything—my way of stuffing down emotions in a family where we never discussed feelings or learned healthy communication. As a child, I soothed myself by sucking my fingers until age 12. I ha...

At the age of 58, I am grateful to have been in recovery from food addiction for the last eighteen years. I came from a loving, yet dysfunctional family, with a rage-oholic father and a mentally ill sister, and food allowed me to escape my stressful surroundings. Considered a “husky” kid, I was eating constantly. In our family, unhealthy eating habits were normalized – I remember ordering soda and...