c2105026
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2009
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- 900
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- Location
- NSW
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- 2000 VTII Commodore Olympic, 2012 Ford Focus ST
hello all
Just thought I’d share about my journey.
By October last year I had just about enough of my issues, key of which was an eating disorder. I would binge eat on a regular basis, with irregular purging.
I had tried everything. I had done therapy, seen dietician and nutritionist, tried every diet or way of looking at my problem. There were also issues of alcohol abuse and some gambling.
I noted that Russell Brand had put a book out about addiction; as he was a recovering addict, I thought I’d get it.
It was 12 step based.
****! I already tried that in the 2000s. Worked for alcohol, not food. But....I was all out of ideas. My best thinking had me in the throes of addiction.
I decided that the beers and binge food I had on 9 October were to be my last. I started working through the steps. Despite the fact I was chiefly an overeater, I engaged with local AA groups to assist with the drinking, and to provide general 12 step help as well. Local NA group accepts my eating disorder as an addiction, I go to these as well.
I got a sponsor who was a born again Christian working with the Salvation Army, and is over 4 years clean off drugs an alcohol. I had a food relapse on 26 October On the 27th October I properly turned my will and my life over to the care of a higher power (for me that’s Buddha and his teachings) and the rest is history. In the 12 step program I have done all the once-only steps, now onto the maintenance steps 10-12.
Today is my 100th day of recovery. I identify as a compulsive overeater and mild alcoholic. I have lost 17 kg, and gone from not being able to run at all due to shin splints, to a 33k effort today as I prepare for the Canberra Marathon on 15th April. It’s been a wonderful journey. I have even become a sponsor myself for a young lady who I came across at an OA meeting in my travels.
FWIW here are the 12 Steps, as per Narcotics Anonymous
****************************
1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Just thought I’d share about my journey.
By October last year I had just about enough of my issues, key of which was an eating disorder. I would binge eat on a regular basis, with irregular purging.
I had tried everything. I had done therapy, seen dietician and nutritionist, tried every diet or way of looking at my problem. There were also issues of alcohol abuse and some gambling.
I noted that Russell Brand had put a book out about addiction; as he was a recovering addict, I thought I’d get it.
It was 12 step based.
****! I already tried that in the 2000s. Worked for alcohol, not food. But....I was all out of ideas. My best thinking had me in the throes of addiction.
I decided that the beers and binge food I had on 9 October were to be my last. I started working through the steps. Despite the fact I was chiefly an overeater, I engaged with local AA groups to assist with the drinking, and to provide general 12 step help as well. Local NA group accepts my eating disorder as an addiction, I go to these as well.
I got a sponsor who was a born again Christian working with the Salvation Army, and is over 4 years clean off drugs an alcohol. I had a food relapse on 26 October On the 27th October I properly turned my will and my life over to the care of a higher power (for me that’s Buddha and his teachings) and the rest is history. In the 12 step program I have done all the once-only steps, now onto the maintenance steps 10-12.
Today is my 100th day of recovery. I identify as a compulsive overeater and mild alcoholic. I have lost 17 kg, and gone from not being able to run at all due to shin splints, to a 33k effort today as I prepare for the Canberra Marathon on 15th April. It’s been a wonderful journey. I have even become a sponsor myself for a young lady who I came across at an OA meeting in my travels.
FWIW here are the 12 Steps, as per Narcotics Anonymous
****************************
1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.