The Newsletter from Region 5 of Overeaters Anonymous Fall 2019 From the Region 5 Chair What a wonderful group of Intergroup have an amazing Fellowship and we Representatives, Officers, and Trustee have much to celebrate! As we look that we are blessed with in Region 5! into our future we focus on our primary We are so thankful for these people purpose – Our primary purpose is to who are willing to make a commitment abstain from compulsive eating and of their time and their talent to make a compulsive food behaviors and to difference in our Fellowship. Thank you! carry the message of recovery through Thanks to Cleveland Central the Twelve Steps of OA to those who Intergroup for hosting our Assembly still suffer. For me, this has a personal and also for the wonderful volunteers. component, I abstain from compulsive We are looking forward to the 2020 eating and compulsive food behaviors Convention in Cleveland, October 9th with the help of my Higher Power and through 11th, and we know it will be a the Twelve Steps with the guidance great recovery event! of my sponsor, and an outreach Every single day I am thankful component, to share the message of that my sponsor encouraged me recovery with those who still suffer. to give service to this Fellowship at I believe it is necessary for us, as the meetings, at Intergroup, at the a Fellowship, to make plans for our Region 5 Assembly, and at the World future, but today is the day that we Service Business Conference. I have must live in. Abstinence is part of today been blessed beyond measure and I – encompassing each moment of today. am so thankful to my Higher Power I must be present in the present and God for this amazing gift of recovery seek my Higher Power for guidance in in Overeaters Anonymous! Please all things. Anything that I can do to help encourage your sponsees to give another compulsive overeater is a task service. I believe it will change their for the present. Let us do today what lives too! we can do today and continue to work toward creating a bright future for our Looking into the groups, Intergroups, Regions, and our World. There are so many still suffering Future – but Living compulsive eaters to reach and I hope in the Present! that we all will reach out to someone today and invite them to a meeting or In 2020 the theme for the World Service plant a seed of recovery in their mind. Business Conference is: OA Celebrates Each One Reach One Everyday is a great 60 years! Looking into the Future! We goal! — CJ M. Region 5 Chair

The opinions presented in this newsletter are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent OA as a whole. Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

2020 will make it 60 years since Overeaters Anonymous began from an idea and a strong desire to find other people who were struggling with compulsive overeating. Who knew that from Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson’s beginnings with in 1937, that so many Twelve Step programs would come into being and that the programs would help so many fellow addicts recover? Rozanne S. started Overeaters Anonymous in 1958, using the model from Gamblers Anonymous to develop OA’s humble beginnings. Over the years OA has grown from 100 meetings in the to a worldwide program. Almost everywhere we go there is a Twelve Step meeting waiting to welcome us. I have been to OA in and Greece, not to mention several states throughout the USA. What is different about OA than other support programs? Our program is spiritual in nature and together we can do what we could not do alone. I personally feel blessed to have been a member of Overeaters Anonymous since 1975. — Deanna B. In Memoriam of Rozanne S. Founder of Overeaters Anonymous, 1929-2014 THE OA PROMISE “I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.”

Celebrating 60 Years of Spiritual Gifts Overeater’s Anonymous is celebrating 60 years and “The desire to stop eating compulsively” is the looking into the future, while focusing on today, only OA requirement, everything else is suggested. I just like I try to do, one day at a time! In October of heard enough times that if your concept of a Higher 2019, I celebrated my 69th year on this earth and my Power is not working, CHANGE it! It was suggested 39th OA birthday. It took me a long time to achieve that I list all the requirements I wanted in an ideal abstinence. Like many others, I believed a Higher friend, which is someone who listened, was always Power was way too busy to deal with something as gently available, and would help me to do best in trivial as helping me not to overeat! life. It took a while, but today I pray to this very I never quit going to meetings, found journaling approachable Higher Power, that I call God. and literature helpful, and did not gossip. The rest of I have released over 75 pounds and will be free the tools were hard, due to little to no trust in people, from my binge food called sugar for 10 years in April, in general. Kind of like the God of my childhood. 2020. What an amazing spiritual gift I have received, Refraining from eating sweets and being asked as long as I use prayer on a regular basis. I feel to be the Twelfth Step Within Chair, got me out of grateful almost always for all the gifts I receive. myself and encouraged me to give back some of what — Darlene D. OA has given me.

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 2 FALL 2019

My Gratitude to OA I am grateful to Bill W. and Doctor Bob for giving a My own journey of gratitude found me sitting in pattern for living with the Twelve Steps and the AA Big the dark with no hope for the future. I would get a Book. Alcoholism is a disease of the mind. Rosanne temporary reprieve by getting enough food to satisfy discovered that compulsive overeating does not make me. My knees bothered me on stairs, my back was not us bad people, but that we have a disease/an illness. great, and when I would sit-down in a chair I would I have had family and friends die from it. I accept nod-off. My clothes did not fit. I was buying 4X shirts that I am a compulsive eater at every meal. It is not a and pants with a 52’ waist, so they would not be tight. sentence, but a freedom from the bondage of food. I did not know how I could continue like that. However, I like the Acceptance Prayer in the Big Book p. 417 I was managing just fine thank you very much. “Accept life on life’s terms.” I have learned to deal with I did not know about OA. My friend was going to a myself regarding food and other things. I have not commercial weight loss program and urged me to go. arrived, but I need to reaffirm my commitment every She said that “maybe you will meet somebody”. It was day. I like going through the Steps in the Big Book in a pay and weigh program. I lost 70 pounds the first the chapters “How it Works” and “Into Action.” These year, but I couldn’t keep away from my favorite foods chapters guide my program. and was soon back to where I was, but heavier. I saw I have a lot of admiration for Rosanne, to realize this as what would happen if I left the program. It took the similarities between the struggles of compulsive me a few years before I walked into the rooms of OA. overeaters and those of Gamblers Anonymous I was hugged, made to feel welcome, and so I never members. It is a testament to her leadership that she left. It has been over 10 years that I have been on my was able to put together a group and eventually adopt OA journey, which includes a 150-pound weight loss. the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to the I have a new relationship with a Higher Power, and I Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous. I am amazed have hope for the future. My knees and back are fine. that starting at Rosanne’s first meeting January I do not fall asleep when I sit-down. I do the footwork, 19, 1960 the fellowship has grown to a worldwide but I leave the future to my Higher Power. organization, fulfilling her first vision of OA. — Kevin F.

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 3 FALL 2019

Overeaters Anonymous Virtual Meetings We cannot always get to face-to-face meetings. But that doesn’t mean we are without a way to get to a meeting. Overeaters Anonymous has an abundance of other meetings that anybody can attend, at any time of the day, as long as you have a phone or a computer. Some people find the virtual meetings scary at first, but overtime they become a true blessing in their lives. OA virtual meetings consist of telephone, online, and non-real-time meetings. Using telephone or online technology, OA members from around the world may attend meetings together. These meetings take place in “real time” and are fully interactive. Also face-to-face meeting, but it suffices when you need included are non-real-time meetings, which do not some recovery and you cannot get to one. meet in real-time. Virtual meetings make recovery For example, you can join the Sunday Morning from compulsive eating possible for those who are Coffee and Recovery meeting at 9:00 AM unable to physically attend meetings, and also serve Eastern/8:00 AM Central by Zoom. If you look up this as a valuable program supplement to those who meeting at OA.org, you will find instructions “Click attend face-to-face meetings. on above link (https://zoom.us/j/8605127192)”. Like all registered OA meetings, virtual meetings You may need to download a Windows or Mac App welcome all who have the desire to stop eating that will assist in connecting to the meeting. If it compulsively, do not require members to practice is your first time on Zoom, you will be prompted any actions to remain a member or to share at a to “download and open” the Zoom meeting room. meeting, have no affiliations other than OA, and You can also join the meeting using your Smart practice the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Phone. Just download and install the Zoom Cloud OA.” (From the OA.org website page: https://oa.org/ Conferencing App on to your phone and then join the newcomers/how-do-i-start/virtual-services/) meeting using the meeting ID listed above or dial-in It is easy to connect to these meeting though with your phone: 1-929-205-6099 USA. It’s pretty each meeting has different instructions on how to straight forward and not that difficult. connect. It may seem intimidating at first, but once This meeting is the recovery meeting our region you do it, you may realize that your fear was a bit sponsors using the Region 5 Zoom Service. It is a exaggerated. The first thing you need to do is find a Step study meeting using our OA literature. We get virtual meeting that you may want to attend. You can a lot of newcomers and people from overseas at find the list of meeting at OA.org then clicking “Find this meeting. On the fourth Sunday of every month a Meeting”. You can choose from one of the many we have a lead on the Step of the month. They have options “Telephone Meeting”, “Online meeting”, or been awesome to say the least. In many ways coming “Non-Real-time Meeting”. Then you select your time- to our Sunday morning meeting is much like coming zone and then search. You can also limit the results to a regular face-to-face meeting, but from the by clicking the advance button and adding other comfort of your own home. What better way is there criteria, such the day of the week. When you pick to start off your week? If you want more information the meeting simply follow the instructions provided navigate to the Region 5 Website (https://region5oa. when the meeting starts. During the meeting you org/) calendar and click on the meeting that is listed can mute yourself and just listen or you can ask to every Sunday, expand the listing and click the link speak and share. It’s easy. It’s not as good as a provided. — Joel I. Region 5 Secretary

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 4 FALL 2019

World Service Business Conferences Being a World Service Business Conference (WSBC meetings are amazing with much recovery and fellows or conference) delegate is an incredible experience; with several decades of abstinence. I attended seven and so incredible that the only way to understand it is to highly recommend going to as many as you can fit in. experience it. Yet, I’ve been asked to share my personal The business sessions and the committee/ experience as a delegate to the 2019 WSBC. subcommittee meetings were outstanding examples of There is a reason pre-conference documents are how people can cordially hear each other’s passionately available so soon before conference. There is much conflicting views and come to a consensus. I may not reading and processing to do. The first time I was a always agree with the results, but am amazed at how delegate (in 2013), I underestimated that time I needed HP works to bring about the greater good of OA as a to go through all the motions, so I had some late- whole. I can trust HP and the process, then vote for what night cramming to do during conference. This time I I believe to be best for OA as a whole. It was humbling did (most) of my homework well ahead of time. What as well as an honor and privilege to participate in all five I underestimated was how long it would take me to Business Meetings, two Bylaws Committee meetings, read the new proposed book. Should I again have the and five Reference Subcommittee sessions. opportunity to serve at WSBC, I plan to have all my Since the best decisions are made when every voice studying done before I leave town! is heard, I am grateful that OA’s group conscience Just getting to conference was a growth experience process includes opportunities for all to have input. Our for me, as I’m not one who regularly books flights, diversity is one of our great strengths, and every voice is parks in pay lots, navigates airports, or uses public important. transportation. I scheduled my return trip on Saturday, Motions that are dealt with individually each average so I missed the Board of Trustees meeting at which the about 45 minutes of business session time each, so the board elects its officers, as well as more OA meetings consent agenda, by which several motions were passed and the Delegate Dinner/Dance. at once, saved us much time. Arriving at the Embassy Suites, it was a joy to be I find every OA (and life) activity offers opportunities greeted by people I have met at various OA events, as to practice the principles of the program. At this well as membersWSBC of my OA family whom I had not yet conference, I learned a new perspective on “principles met. It truly felt like home. There were 188 eligible above personalities”. This applies not only to me voters from 17 different countries, plus OA staff and using the principles rather than reacting to others’ many volunteers who helped the conference run personalities, but also to considering the principles smoothly. The conference schedule was intense. I want above my own personality! to do it all, but that was not possible, let alone prudent. Just like WSBC work starts well before the actual To be of maximum service, I needed to prioritize my own conference, it continues well after. First, I wrote a self-care. report for my intergroup and region. I continue to serve The theme of this WSBC, Growing Our Membership as the chair of the Bylaws Subcommittee (Subpart Worldwide, informed the forum and the workshops. B Reviewers), as well as a member of the Bylaws They were all engaging and inspiring. I participated in Committee. And now I am writing this article. the Forum (Each One, Reach One, Every Day—Carrying How does one capture such an enormous life- the Message of Hope) and 5 workshops: 1) Carrying changing experience in a report or article? All I can say the Message: See a Health Fair/Professional Trade is that the benefits of serving OA through WSBC are Show Booth in Action, 2) How Attractive Are We to unbelievable and ongoing. Newcomers, 3) Keeping Members Engaged, 4) Social I urge you to pursue opportunities to serve. If your Media — KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly), and 5) All About intergroup doesn’t have an opening for WSBC delegate, Conference (for a refresher on Parliamentary Procedure you may wish to apply to be a region delegate, like I did. and how conference is run). Know, too, that your service is also welcome as a visitor There were four OA meetings every day—at at intergroup meetings, region assemblies, and WSBC. breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening times. These — Susan M.

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 5 FALL 2019

Being New and/or Young in OA It’s August 2018. I am walking into a building with or person in their 20s comes in the door. If you are my aunt, the building where my first OA meeting older and there are no younger people around, try took place. I turn right, go through a door, and am to connect the new person to a young person you greeted by a room full of people with smiling faces. know in program. If you can’t do that, share your My first impression? I was intimidated. Here I was, experience, strength, and hope from when you were surrounded by much older women who obviously their age. If they are the only young person there and had a lot of recovery, and I felt like a child (and I no connection is made, they may never come back. was 30!). I was the youngest person there. Once the The beautiful thing is, despite the changes meeting started and readings and sharing began, I that have taken place between generations, our knew I was in the right place, and I kept coming back, addictions tend to stay the same. I was anorexic in but that first impression was there. high school, as many others were and are. I binged through my senior year and college, as many others have. I yo-yoed, did fad diets, starved myself, exercised in bulky clothing to lose water weight, counted calories, you name it. Short of surgery and prescription drugs, I tried it, as many others have and are currently doing. While times, technology, nutrition knowledge, and fads change, our core addiction is the same. We can find something with the newcomer to identify with when we were their age, so they no longer feel alone and different because of their age. We, the young people in the room, want connection and understanding. It’s all about connection. Connection with people in recovery brings us support and hope. We seek to identify with someone, which starts to remove the dreaded feeling of being alone. Connection to our feelings brings us understanding of how we truly feel and how they affect our addiction. Connection to our bodies tells us how we feel in the moment and even how that can affect our addiction, too. Connection to our Higher Powers bring us healing, abstinence, and a OA is turning 60 soon and yet, despite all this useful life. time, a majority of the people in OA are older. This Another thing no one really talks about is can lead to a number of issues, but the most obvious sponsoring older people. I have sponsored a few issue is a lack of identifying with someone at your people now, all older than me, and it can be difficult meeting when you are a young newcomer. It can also at times. They have all had times where they can’t be very intimidating, being the youngest person in believe they are taking advice from some punk kid, the room AND being completely new. I can’t imagine they can’t believe they don’t have their lives together, how 18-year old me would have felt; I may have just but I do (not that I do, but they think that!), and run away. overall treatment like I am not as serious of a sponsor Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we because I am younger than them. reach out to other young people in the most obvious All I ask is that I am treated as a sponsor. As a way – by coming back. Be the young person in sponsor, I am here to do one thing and one thing the room. Be the one there, when the teenager (continued on page 7)

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 6 FALL 2019 only – to share my experience, strength, and hope things with people I don’t like: 1. Find something they with my sponsees. Maybe younger sponsors don’t know that I do not and learn just a little bit of it; 2. have as much experience, maybe we are a little naive Find something beautiful about that person, because purely because we haven’t been around as long as despite how I feel about them, there is at least one other OAs, but we remember that a sponsor is chosen thing that makes that person amazing. because the sponsee wants what they see in them. OA is turning 60 soon. It’s weird, thinking of a What is important – our abstinence, our connections world without OA, and even, at one point, without to our Higher Powers, the guidance we give on AA. Where would I be today without programs and working the Steps and building a spiritual life, and the OA? Looking down the barrel of a 30/45-year-long help we provide establishing a food plan to achieve a gun, waiting for the day my addiction finally kills me. healthy weight – is not connected to age at all. But that isn’t the case anymore! I am so thankful to Bill W., Rosanne, AA, OA, and everyone in between “What is the opposite of addiction? for their legacy. Something built before I, and even my It’s not recovery – it’s connection.” parents, existed, is here to help me, heal me, connect — Christina’s Sponsor me to a Higher Power, and make my life more fulfilling and happier than I could ever imagine. And for that, I had a teenager teach me chess once, and by I am grateful. So grateful. And for that, I want to do teach I mean I stared, slack jawed as he explained the my part. I want to do what I can so that, when my last five turns of the game and what I did wrong to children are teenagers, they will know there is a way lose and what I could have done to win. I had a kid to deal with addiction. One day, I want to share my explain to me what his cards did in a tournament and story with them, so they have someone to identify why he thoroughly and inarguably wiped the floor with, should they ever need it. My hope is that one with me (he was 10, I about 25). We can all learn day OA can reach more and more young people to something from anyone. I have a 9-month old niece, help them battle their addiction at a younger age, at and she has taught me that it’s okay to randomly an age where the damaged may still be minimal or take naps and not have a care in the world even reversible. I hope to be a part of that, HP willing. sometimes. I now make it a goal of mine to do two — Christina H. A grateful 31-year old compulsive overeater.

Why I Keep Coming Back - For the happiness I feel when descending the stairs to my home group meeting and seeing the faces of “my people”. - For the compassion I feel when seeing the faces of friends who know the loneliness, fear, and shame of compulsive eating. - For the love I experience when looking at those same faces who now know the joy that freedom from compulsive food behavior brings. - For the relief of having no secrets around my food. - For accountability. - For the chance to stand on the holy ground of recovery. - For the help I receive from following a plan of eating that I did not create for myself. - For the opportunity to let the lonely, frightened newcomer know there is hope and a solution to this brutal disease. — Belinda G.

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 7 FALL 2019

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Check Out the Website for More Details and Updates! “Gift Yourself” Holiday Workshop Join the NWII Overeaters Anonymous Intergroup 2020 World Service Convention for this sponsored workshop. Theme: Sunshine of the Spirit: Strengthen your program during this busy time with 60 Years Around the Sun! a workshop! Two Speakers and fellowship focusing Dates: August 20–22, 2020 on staying abstinent during the holiday season. Renaissance Orlando Date: Saturday, December 7, 2019 at Sea World ® Time: 10:00 AM–12:00 PM 6677 Sea Harbor Drive Registration: 9:30 AM Orlando, FL 32821 USA Chesterton Health & Emergency Center Phone: 407-351-5555 770 Indian Boundary Road Hotel Reservations will Chesterton, IN open January 2020. For further information call Kevin F. @ 219 921-9379 OR Diane C. @ 219-221-1594 Region 5 Spring Assembly March 13–15, 2020 Hilton Garden Inn 501 Gateway Boulevard Chesterton, IN 46304

Check back soon for more information!

LINKS: www.oa.org www.region5oa.org PIPO Funding Request OA Podcasts R5 Intergroups OA Seventh Tradition Cycle The 12 Steps R5 Resources WSO Events The 12 Traditions R5 Forms OA Technology Solutions The 12 Concepts R5 Links Breaking Out of Relapse Video R5 Board & Committees Find a Meeting A Guide for Anonymity R5 Assemblies Donate to OA in the Digital World Region 5 Calendar Lifeline

OA Region 5 Freedom From Bondage 8 FALL 2019