Lifeline is created from OA members’ letters. Monthly topics are suggestions. You may write about any subject important to your recovery from compulsive overeating. Send your letters to Lifeline, PO Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 or email.

Features

• Stepping Out, Service with a Smile, Living Traditions and Taking the Spiritual Path: we always need stories related to these themes.
• Newcomers Corner: newcomers, share your OA experiences and concerns.
• OA Around the World: give us a history of OA in your country or area; current information on the number of service boards, intergroups and groups; significant accomplishments; and two or three short pieces from local members. Please send your history today!
• Generally Speaking (general OA topics) andHow OA Changed My Life
• Main Attraction: share your successes with public information and attraction.

Departments

• Ask-It Basket, Datebook, For Discussion and Web Links
• Share It runs only if sufficient material is available.

Other Materials

Lifeline accepts letters, artwork and photos (no faces, please) for publication. Credit lines and rights to submitted work apply equally to articles, artwork and photos. Submitted materials are not returned. Lifeline may edit articles and crop photos. Lifeline promotes “unity with diversity” regarding the race, nationality, gender, age, physical challenges and sexuality of its writers.

Please submit articles at least three and a half months prior to the first day of the month of publication. Deadlines appear in parentheses next to topics. Indicate the topic and month for which the article is intended. Typed letters by mail, fax or e-mail are preferred. Letters must contain the author’s name and address, even if the author wishes to remain anonymous in print. Thank you.

2012 Topics

JANUARY
What Is Your Action Plan? and Does My Life Depend on OA?
What does action plan mean to you?
How did you create your action plan?
If you had an action plan, how has it changed and your recovery grown?
How have you used OA’s new tool? Share any difficulties or successes.
Where would you be without OA?
Did OA save your life?

FEBRUARY
The Joy of Maintaining a Healthy Body Size and Healthy Body Weight: What Does That Mean to You?
What unexpected benefits came with achieving a healthy body size, and how have you maintained a healthy body size?
How does your new body affect your mind; what life adjustments have you made to accommodate your new size?
What does a “healthy” body mean to you, and who should decide? Was achieving a healthy body weight everything you hoped it would be?
Did you achieve a healthy body weight before or after attaining emotional and spiritual recovery? What made the biggest impact on achieving it?
What’s different now that you have a healthy body weight?

MARCH/APRIL
Compulsive Undereating, Compulsive Bingeing, Compulsive Overeating, Compulsive Bulimia
Choose one and answer, “Why did I do it? What helped me most to overcome it?”
That “aha” moment—when and how did you realize you are a compulsive undereater/binger/overeater/bulimic?
How did you recover if everyone else’s disease was different? Did you find similarities as well as differences?
What kinds of support were most helpful, how did the Steps or tools assist your recovery, and did you find special topic meetings (face to face or virtual) helpful?

MAY
Living in a New Body and Sexuality and Body Image: They’re
Not What You See in the Mirror
Has your new healthy body overwhelmed or frightened you and why?
For example: how has choosing new clothes to purchase become more or less daunting; how did you adapt your wardrobe to fit your new body; how has the association between body size and fashion affected you?
Outside changes change you inside too. How has your new body image affected you emotionally and spiritually? Has your new body image changed your personality or outlook on life?
If your body size hasn’t changed yet, has your body image changed because of OA? If your image (inside or outside) has changed, do you feel more or less “in the spotlight” in crowded places? Why?
What fears have you shed with your new body image, such as fear of flying, stares, unkind comments, wearing a bathing suit, etc. Describe your worst experience before OA and your best after OA recovery.
When you look in the mirror, do you feel shame or has another emotion emerged?

JUNE
How OA Changed My Life

JULY (Deadline: 3/15/12)
Generally Speaking
Write about anything relating to your experience, strength and hope in OA.

AUGUST (Deadline: 4/15/12)
Recovery Through the Principles
Which Twelve-Step principle has most influenced your recovery?
What principle was the hardest to practice?
What principle made the most difference in helping you overcome
character defects?
What principle helped most in your physical recovery, spiritual recovery or emotional recovery?
How do one or more of the principles govern your life, and have your thoughts about the principles changed over time?

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER (Deadline: 5/15/12)
Letting Go of Resentments and Celebrating Miracles With Gratitude
What was the hardest resentment to let go? What was the biggest challenge to letting go of your resentments?
What is a “resentment,” and how and when did you let go of yours? What emotions did you feel when you succeeded in letting go? How did you know you had truly let go?
What benefits do you get from hanging on to your resentments?
How do you celebrate HP’s miracles with gratitude, and how do you celebrate program miracles with gratitude?
Are the things for which you are grateful miracles or outcomes?
What miracles do you celebrate, and how do you celebrate them?

NOVEMBER (Deadline: 7/15/12)
Standing Up to Compulsions in Hard Times and Special Needs Members and Talking to Our Doctors and Health-Care Providers
When life gave you lemons, how did you stand up to your compulsions and make abstinent lemonade?
As an OA member with special needs (illiterate, blind, deaf, mentally challenged, etc.), what unique challenges do you face? How can OA better help you?
How have you or your group helped a special-needs member? How do you make a special-needs person feel welcome and comfortable in your meeting?
When have you found it difficult to ask your doctor for help? Why?
What has helped you be more honest and open when talking to your doctor or health-care provider? How did you communicate effectively with your health-care providers? What did not work when communicating with health-care providers?

DECEMBER (Deadline: 8/15/12)
Shortcomings Transformed Into Assets and Accepting I’m Not Perfect and Moving On
What character defects have you turned into assets? How did you do it and what made you realize this was possible?
When and what prompted you to finally accept that you weren’t perfect and didn’t need to be? How did you let go and move on?
How did you learn to stop “beating yourself up”?
What experience/strength/hope do you have for others stuck in perfectionism?
How did you overcome unrealistic expectations, either ones you set for yourself or others set for you?