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Sat, Jan. 29, 2005 FOOD ADDICTION Overeaters Anonymous provides hope for those battling food addiction OA members say they are leading happier lives after learning how to cope with bingeing on food BY IDY FERNANDEZ For the first time in more years than she'd care to remember, Martina hasn't had to hide behind a phone to order clothes in a size 3X. ''When you're fat, you feel like you don't deserve good things in life,'' she said. "I was embarrassed and ashamed, I just didn't want people to see me.'' But Martina, a 41-year-old legal processor, wasn't just overweight -- she had a food addiction. Called compulsive overeating disorder, food addicts binge for hours to soothe themselves the same way alcoholics drink to cope with life. Three years ago, topping out at 330 pounds and after going to the emergency room with heart palpitations, Martina's therapist suggested Overeaters Anonymous. The group is based on the same tenets as Alcoholics Anonymous: there's a 12-step program, daily meetings and membership is anonymous. In Miami, there are two chapters: One for adults and the other for second- through 12th-graders, which aims to help young people before their bad eating habits become chronic. All of the club members interviewed and photographed for this story are only being identified by their first name or initial in order to protect their anonymity. According to a 2004 University of Michigan report, compulsive overeating disorder usually starts in childhood when people are forming their food habits. Most people who have the disorder will eat uncontrollably for days at a time, the report said, and usually do it in secret because they believe food is their only companion. Feelings of guilt and remorse usually follow a binge, which then leads to more binging, according to the report. Compulsive overeating is more common in men than in women when compared to disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia, the report said. Obesity is related to the disorder, which makes it hard to diagnose in some cases. 'HELP EACH OTHER' ''We are not a diet club,'' Martina said. "We're just a group of people who get together and help each other with the disease of compulsive overeating.'' Club members learn eight tools to help them abstain from overeating: from developing an eating plan to understanding how to eat well. Those tools are linked to the first of the 12 steps: Admitting one is powerless over food and does not know how to manage it. Bobbie, a 66-year-old Bay Harbor Islands accountant, said it was the group's second step -- believing in a higher power that would help her gain control of her disorder -- that aided her the most. ''When I first joined the group, I wasn't even sure if there was a God,'' Bobbie said. "I use to say 'Well, maybe there is but He certainly doesn't care if I have an eating disorder.' '' That was 15 years ago. Bobbie didn't know how much she weighed because she had stopped going near a scale after she hitting 225 pounds. 'THEIR PROBLEM' She lived in a two-story house then and remembers buying a bar refrigerator to put in her bedroom so she wouldn't have to go downstairs. Whenever the fridge's supply was low, Bobbie would have her kids make countless treks up and down the stairs bringing her snacks. ''I just remembering sitting in bed, watching TV with a cigarette in one hand and a snack in the other,'' Bobbie recalled. "I use to say if someone had a problem with my weight it was their problem not mine. But now my whole outlook on life has changed, I'm a much happier person now.'' Bobbie weighs about 150 now, she said. She goes to meetings about three times a week, sponsors two other members and keeps in touch with her own sponsor. It's important to stay in touch with a sponsor on good days and bad, Bobbie said, to keep members from relapsing. And she should know. Bobbie almost relapsed in May 2002 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. ''Had I not been in OA, I know I would have binged to medicate myself,'' she said. "It's funny, but I came to OA for the vanity and have stayed for the sanity.'' When a new person joins the group, he or she is advised to attend six meetings before committing to Overeaters Anonymous. THEIR OWN WAY New members are told to find their own nutritionist, who will design their meal plans. And they are urged to connect with a sponsor, someone who has been through it and can talk them through a weak moment. ''Basically the group exists so we can share this fellowship and road to recover with others,'' Martina said. "Much like for alcoholics, this is the last stop when you've tried everything else and nothing has worked but you know you need help.'' Martina had lost hundreds of pounds before -- but couldn't keep it off because she couldn't stop eating. Now the 5-foot, 10-inch Country Walk resident weighs 190 pounds, wears a size 12 and walks with confidence. She no longer worries about breaking expensive chairs or getting stuck in a turnstile, she said. 'One of the our sayings is 'It's not what you're eating, it's what's eating you,' '' Martina said. Overeaters Anonymous "has taught me how to cope with life without overeating and to take things one day at a time.''
Republished with permission of The Miami Herald. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the written consent of The Miami Herald. |
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