Overeaters Anonymous: What Step Are You Working On?

Azadi
Azadi Posts: 25 Member
edited September 21 in Motivation and Support
Hi, all!

So I got a few favorable responses to my call for 12-step fellowship here. So, I figured, why not plough ahead? Besides, I'm bored. :)

So, for those who are working a Program currently, I thought to open up some discussion of the steps.

I'm currently working Step 2 with my Sponsor: "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." I use the Overeaters Anonymous 12-step workbook, answer the questions provided, and discuss them with my sponsor when we talk. It's slow going, but worth all of the time it takes.

My greatest difficulty with Step 2 was not the idea of a Higher Power, but rather with the idea that I could be restored to sanity. I was thoroughly convinced that I was messed up beyond all hope of recovery... utterly unfixable. I had faith in God, I thought, but no faith in myself.

What changed my mind was speaking to teacher of mine, someone whom I admire greatly and whom I aspire to be like one day. He is a recovering alcoholic, and he was in straits much more dire than mine in terms of self-destructive behavior, depression, all around misery. He has been sober now for 18 years. He is happy, successful, and doing the things that I hope to do with my life in the future. What got him there was the 12 steps and faith in a God that would help, if sought.

What step(s) are you working? Have you started working the steps? Do you have reservations about any of them? Fears? Doubts?

I'd love to hear from any other steppers or potential steppers!

Replies

  • Precious_Nissa
    Precious_Nissa Posts: 416
    I dont do any programs but I know that with God all things are possible...he gives me strength to not over eat...he gives me will power, hope etc...
  • pamazado
    pamazado Posts: 13 Member
    I have been in program for 21/2 tears and have been thru the steps about 4 times and continue to learn every time. It is only thru the 12 steps that I have been able to find physical recovery as well as emotional and spiritual.I truely use the tools of the 12 steps and this program everyday!
  • Luckymam
    Luckymam Posts: 300
    It's something I'm going to look at it but I'm worried about the spirituality side - it's something I don't have. Faith in a higher power has never made sense to me.
  • Azadi
    Azadi Posts: 25 Member
    It's something I'm going to look at it but I'm worried about the spirituality side - it's something I don't have. Faith in a higher power has never made sense to me.

    Yeah, that makes sense. That is, I think, the thing that most folks are worried about, if they're apprehensive about starting 12-step. To share from my experience, I was raised religious, but my idea of God was very abstract and philosophical, not really the kind of God that could be, you know, turned to, or relied upon. It was a struggle for me to align my intellectual and theological tendencies in such a way that it would make sense for stepwork.

    What a lot of people do, especially atheists and agnostics, is that they don't use God as their higher power. It doesn't have to be about God, what it's really about is letting go, surrender, humility, acknowledging that you don't have control over everything, and that sometimes you have to release that control to a force outside of yourself. Some people use the Natural Force of the Universe, or Nature, or the Collective Consciousness of Humanity... some use the Fellowship, acknowledging that the Group is a power greater than themselves. Some even just look around them, find something like (I kid you not) a doorknob, and decide that that is going to represent their Higher Power.

    Some people go on from there to unexpectedly find an understanding of God that they can live with. Others continue to use things other than God as their Higher Power. In the end, what it's really about is attitude, not theology.

    Of course, this is all Step 2 and Step 3 stuff. Start with Step 1. "We admitted that we were powerless over food- that our lives had become unmanageable." See where that takes you. Worry about the Higher Power stuff when you get to it. :)
  • IrishChik
    IrishChik Posts: 465 Member
    Over the weekend I ordered the 12 Steps of OA book and Food Addiction: The Body Knows: Revised & Expanded Edit 1993 by Kay Shepherd. She comes highly recommended in the OA world.

    I pretty much have completed Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

    Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

    I put in to acceptance over the weekend. I was not able to make it to church yesterday but thankfully my old church has church online. It was just what a needed. The topic was "You are good enough" and it really spoke to me.

    After that, I followed through with Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

    Last night I began Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

    as well as 5-7

    Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

    Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

    Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

    So this is where I am starting today:

    Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
  • Azadi
    Azadi Posts: 25 Member
    Hey, it's fantastic that you've found some good literature! It's great to start studying the steps immediately.

    I would however advise you against going too quickly with them. They may seem really easily doable on first glance, but the steps are not something that you are meant to do over the course of a few days. People take months or even years on each step. Most people work the steps with a sponsor, someone who has been doing the steps for a while, and can guide you from a place of experience.

    4th step, especially, is something that should take you quite a long time. You can't expect to have done a through examination of yourself if you're just starting in Program. And steps 8 and 9 should really not be undertaken until you have a good amount of abstinence under your belt.

    I would strongly recommend that you look for a step workbook, and find someone with whom to discuss each and every question as you go through them. Remember, this is NOT supposed to be a quick process. I have been in OA 7 months and am just getting to the end of step 2 (and I've been religious my whole life). My friend who brought me into OA has been in Program 4 years and is still doing step 4.

    Of course, the program is different for everyone, and I would not presume to tell you how to work it, since I'm not your sponsor. I hope you will take my suggestions in the spirit that they are offered. :)
  • pamazado
    pamazado Posts: 13 Member
    Unlike a diet, 12 step doesn't have an end per say, I is a process of learning a new way of life, of " acting on rather than reacting to life" Not burying fear, anger resentments with our food. I have seen people go thru the steps quickly, yet not gleen the true meaning of each one.
    I believe it is a process in which you can grow and change behavior and the physical recovery is an awesome part of the whole learning process. It has changed my life so much for the better. not only am I 111 pounds less than my highest weight, but I like myself. I am authentic in all areas of my life. I feel emotions..not numb them. BUT I did NOT do it alone. I have a great sponsor and awesome OA group that has helped me build a relationship with a higher power and change my "reactions" to life.
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