This is a reply from yet another loop....in response to alcoholics not having to drink everyday.
Point of fact.......alcoholics do need to drink everyday in order to live. Alcoholics in recovery choose not to drink alcohol. Food addicts need to eat everyday. Food addicts in recovery choose not to eat addictive binge & trigger foods or engage in addictive behaviors. Compulsive overeaters need to eat everyday, but those in recovery choose to weigh & measure and/or commit their food portions to their sponsor. Some drug addicts need to take drugs everyday of their lives too, but choose not to take narcotics unless prescribed by a doctor.
There is a lack of recovery in OA compared to other 12 steps programs in existence (as I see it). I believe part of the reason (and the danger) is that people don't take their addiction to food seriously enough and that they try to make food a "special" addiction and "different" than other addictions. Addicts are addicts are addicts. The program is the same no matter which program you are in. I believe once you start thinking food is a "different" addiction you are asking for trouble. Doesn't it follow then that you will need a "different" program. The truth as I see it is that you do have to be more vigilant with food than with alcohol....because alcohol is more obvious in it's forms (there are exceptions) and with lack of proper & misleading labeling of food in this country you have to be very careful with what you eat as addictive substances are unknowingly put in your food. But that doesn't make food a harder addiction so much as it makes us better at recovering. We HAVE to be vigilant and we HAVE to take more responsibility for what we put in our mouths if we are to stay recovered (and get recovered). But the addiction process is the same. The recovery process is the same. Put your drug down, get a sponsor, work the steps. No different than any other addict. Hard, yes. Lots of people float in & out of AA. Some are not there because they want to recover but because the state forces them to be there (or their job, families) and sometimes they decide they want to recover & stay, and sometimes they go back out. In OA nobody is forcing you to be there against your will via threat of jail. So there is that difference. Yes, society is not as understanding of food addicts as alcoholics. But that is today. Alcoholics had a rough road to haul when they brought their addiction to the forefront of American consciousness. Now it is our time to bring the true nature of food addiction to this country's consciousness. That is our responsibility....we addicts have to do this. The best way we can help is to recover ourselves. Then we have recovery experience, strength & hope to share. If I seem hard-core it is because I am a hard-core addict...no excuses. So in my recovery I have no excuses. I am responsible for the food I put in my mouth. Lots of reasons contribute to my being an addict but I place no blame as I am always the responsible party when it comes "using" my addictive substances. I am not at fault for being an addict....but I am the only one responsible for putting addictive substances in my body. That is my point of power. If I am responsible for something....then I can change it. My HP gives me the strength to do it....but I do the footwork, no-one else. I am not special or different, neither is my addiction. What works for AA's will work for me. That is a blessing, not a curse.
Of course this is all my opinion.....take what you like and leave the rest.
Multiply addicted and by the strength of my Higher Power recovering,
Amy