OA RISE | Recovery Inspires Shared Experiences

We release the past so that we are free in this moment for all that is possible now…. We are a sponsor and sponsee, both OA long-timers, who have found incredible peace through forgiveness and working the 12 Steps of Overeaters Anonymous. Access the file mentioned in this meeting here .

My eating disorder began at a very young age. I started eating to survive the day and once I started I found that I couldn’t stop. I’ve been coming and going to program since the 80s and couldn’t find recovery until 2005. My motivation to return to this last time was ONLY to avoid the need to purchase a wheelchair to provide myself with mobility. I’m still a compulsive overeater but today I can wa...

I have been a grateful member of OA since June of 2007.  I learned very quickly that I must surrender to a power greater than myself if I wanted to be relieved of my binging and purging.  My ways of controlling and relieving the control with day-long binges were caught in a Groundhog Day cycle from a very young age day in and day out.  OA~ felt like a free fall at times, but it was...

We have two fantastic speakers for this Sunday!  One has been an active member in OA for 34 yrs.   She has performed service at all levels. She continues to go to meetings.  Today she lives the program. She still works with a sponsor. The second speaker has been in OA continuously for 32 years, although she suffered through a relapse in the middle years. She has done service at...

The “Body Image, Relationships and Sexuality Workshop” is based on OA’s new book by the same title. Once we are abstinent and have worked the steps, these three topics come into sharper focus. Body Image: Many of us have struggled to accept and love our bodies. The good news is that we can indeed learn to stop verbal and physical self-abuse and become willing to love ourselves and our bodies in re...

The Big Book says we are not a glum lot.  Therefore our speaker feels that if you are using a food plan given to you by a doctor or registered dietitian or nutritionist and if you are under the direction of a sponsor that It is completely possible to spend the holidays not suffering or struggling but being happy joyous and free and often serene.  You may spend it with friends or family s...

Speaker from Bozeman, Montana, with 34 years of abstinence. I sponsor people through steps 1 through 9 who wish to recover from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviours. Halfway through completing step 9, we are promised lives with freedom, happiness, serenity, and peace. We are assured that “our whole attitude and outlook on life will change” and that uselessness, self-seeking, self-pity,...

Step One with speaker from Portland OR.  She will share her experience, strength and hope on Step 1 both as a newcomer and as a member with time. Step Two with speaker also from Portland, OR.  She will share how Step 2 has evolved and changed for her over the course of her recovery. Step Three with speaker again from Portland, OR.  She will share her understanding of step 3 and how...

So what does it mean to be a Real Compulsive Overeater? Each of us needs to diagnose ourselves. This workshop will demonstrate the two-fold nature of addiction as laid out in the first four chapters in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. I am a Real Compulsive Overeater if I can’t eat my alcoholic foods, alcoholic ingredients or participate in my alcoholic behaviours safely and I can’t be abstin...

Something I had struggled with for a long time; and something that I watched my fellow OAers struggle with; or something we would simply abstain from; was the belief that something could and would, help us. It was eventually the one key element that changed the direction of my recovery and continues to light my way. I’m just a fellow OAer who has found recovery, found abstinence, and in my journey...

Letting go of our character is a spiritual process that leaves us open to receive the gifts and the message of this program. In this workshop, we will examine our defects of character-I call the defaults—that stand in the way of usefulness to HP and to ourselves.  In a loving, safe and creative process, we will look at some of the blocks that keep us stuck and lovingly let them go when we are...

Am I willing to surrender one day at a time? Am I willing to live life on life’s terms even when NOTHING feels certain? How do I use the program, the tools and HP to get me through each day, meeting calamity with serenity? And if doing what always works isn’t working, can I be willing to do something different?

Sometimes in the rooms of OA, we hear that there are no “musts” in the program of recovery – but the journey from active compulsive eating to abstinence and emotional sobriety takes a sustained and dedicated effort.  Our workshop will examine whether OA’s 12-step recovery process can take place without having some clear guidelines that seem a lot like “musts.” Access files mentioned in this m...

Adina and Sherry.  Overeaters Anonymous describes itself as “a community of people who through shared experience strength and hope are recovering from unhealthy relationships with food and body image.” ( oa.org ) We focus on working the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA, in the belief that “once the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.” (Alcoholics A...