Comments on: Overeaters Anonymous- The Good, The Bad & The Crazy

By: nowaygirl

nowaygirl — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 14:27:00 +0000

I’m on day four of the meal plan from FA and these headaches, depression and discomfort suck. My mom lost 60 pounds quickly in the last ten months. I called my doctor and have been referred to weight managment because eating healthy and portion control while reducing the amount of sugar in one’s diet shouldn’t make me feel like shit. I have been to a few meetings and people look depressed as hell and sad. It’s like a cult and folks are looking to control others under the guise of sponsorship. I’m going to lose my weight the right way under the watch of a doctor. The battle with food addiction is in the mind. FA is not for everyone the support and tools are helpful. I don’t need to torture myself to be a size 0. I can achieve it through other means without isolating myself and being crabby all the time. Thanks for writing about your experiences with FA.

By: Natasha Ruiz

Natasha Ruiz — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 22:16:00 +0000

Thanks, Leora. Someone I know fell prey to OA and FAA in 2010 after years of overeating. She went from being a tie-dye clad hippie with a darling shape and the energy of an athlete to a frail, emaciated and emotionally weepy shell of a woman. She’s almost like a child now. Everything revolves around OA. Her husband moved her across the country (co-dependent???) and made it impossible for us to be there for her. I fear she will not be able to keep up this dangerous “abstinence” for the rest of her life. But what can you do???

By: Susan Elizabeth

Susan Elizabeth — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 05:03:00 +0000

Leora, thank you so much for writing this! I was so happy when I stumbled upon this article because it speaks directly to my experience with FA. What I try to explain to my family and friends when talking about my FA experience, I tell them that it enabled me (encouraged me, really) to hate myself even more than I did before…as if that were even possible. It caused Ed to be #1 VIP, and all the while I was dropping weight like CRAZY. Of course I thought I was happy (because thin is everything to someone plagued by Ed), but I was destroying myself in the process. I followed it to the letter for 2.5 years because I really did believe that I didn’t “deserve” to be a normal eater, and truly felt that this was the punishment I earned.

Leaving FA was absolutely the right decision for me. I finally woke up and decided to try loving myself. It was a long and painful road and took me years of therapy and searching, but now I found this amazing group of fellow recoveries. And I am so grateful!! But man, the damage that FA inflicted really took its toll. So thank you again for shedding some more light on the subject. I do agree with you though that not all OA groups are “Ed disguised as recovery,” and can be great for many people.