Recovery Story
Tough Times, True Friends
Sitting here at my window, I am looking out at the snow piled up outside. I have been confined to my house for the past month because of major surgery. I have been in the OA Fellowship for four years, and only because of OA am I able to survive all of the trauma that has happened to me.
For the past 37 years, I have had a major affliction because of obesity. It has caused poor circulation, leg swelling, pain and an inability to walk. Since I joined OA, I have lost 110 pounds, and through the grace of my Higher Power, I have kept it off! All previous attempts to lose weight and maintain the loss have failed.
While I was in the hospital, I received my copy of Lifeline. The stories I have read in it each month have given me hope and inspiration that there is a new way of living, only if I am willing to accept that I am a compulsive overeater with a killing disease as fatal as the cancer I had in 1986. I had to exercise my faith and trust that my Higher Power was doing for me what I could not do for myself. I have always been a caretaker, and it was humbling for me to let other people take care of me. I couldn't get to a meeting, but the meetings came to me through the telephone and cards from my OA family.
I survive in this Fellowship by doing a lot of service. I am board chairperson for our intergroup and serve on local, regional and world service committees. I sometimes overdose on service; it's the food for me that I no longer put in my mouth. I can never give back what has been given to me so freely. When I think of all the still-suffering compulsive overeaters out there, I want to be like the little "Energizer Bunny" and keep going and going to spread the word.
I have accepted that this is where I am supposed to be right now and that this too shall pass. I want it now, but I know that it will be in God's time. All I have to do is practice these principles in all my affairs, work the Steps and Traditions to the best of my ability, and use the tools. Who knows what I will live to tell my 10th great-grandchild. I hope my story will help someone who is struggling, as I am now. The snow is beautiful! And it's great to be alive!
Reprinted from Lifeline magazine
