I came into OA on Thursday, January 4, 1990. I was at my wits end unable to stop bingeing. Hating myself enough to want to end my miserable life. It was not as though I had a terrible life. I had a fine, decent husband. We both had decent jobs. Our kids were grown and on their own. We had a nice house and our cars were paid for.
On this first meeting in Echelon Mall Ministry, I will still in NutriSystem for the second time and gaining back weight. I was scared. The speaker spoke a lot about God and I was agnostic, so now what?
After the meeting, many people came up to speak to me. Told me to go to at least 6 meetings and get a sponsor. Yeah, Right. Get off of sugar and flour? I tried this for a couple of days and was back to bingeing within six days.
I still went to meetings and I made friends. One of them asked me to go to a HOW meeting and the sharing in that meeting brought me to tears. I am not a person who cries. I should say I do my crying alone, so I was upset with what has happening to me. I asked how I could get a sponsor and a woman said right here and introduced me to my first sponsor. My new sponsor told me to call her everyday with my food and told me what books I needed and what I should do and next week she would show me a food plan we could work on for me. I was in HOW and as my sponsor she guided me through our program.
March 13, 1990 was my first day of abstinence. I worked this program like my life depended on it. It did. I got up early, read my steps and wrote. I cooked my breakfast, made my lunch, and packed it to work. For months I was so tightfisted my hands hurt. But I was abstinent in all areas of my life.
Since I was agnostic my sponsor said to “act as if” I believed. In June I was reading step 3 in the AA 12 step book (we did not have OA books yet) and it said just like we depend on electricity for light and power, this dependence gives us independence. So I wrote about it, had my breakfast, packed my lunch, and went to work. I came home to a house with no power. I went out the diner and to a meeting and by the time I came home there was power again. “Okay God”, I said, “I have to give this a try.”
From that day on I have been working with my Higher Power whom I choose to call God. He has taken me through many medical trials and tribulations as well as showing me now to be honest and caring. My marriage has grown and strengthened as well as my family and friends. I have attended our Intergroup for all these years and have been my meeting representative, as well as chair for several committees and on the board.
This program have me a life worth living, a life I want to live for. I am writing this now because this month, I will be 75-years-young and I just can’t believe how God got me here.
— Bobbi S.