How Lifeline Changes My Life
and the Lives of Others

Catalyst for Action: Lifeline is a catalyst for action. OA members write articles about their experience, strength and hope recovering from compulsive eating. I read Lifeline to replace the inexperience, weakness and hopelessness that permeated my life before I found recovery.

I read Lifeline when I need guidance from my sponsor or other members, but reach only voice mails. I find some nugget of wisdom that helps me learn.

When I don’t feel like driving in the rain to a meeting I promised to lead, I motivate myself by reading Lifeline’s Service With a Smile section. I see how members give service, fulfill commitments and strengthen their abstinence. I go to the meeting, fulfill my commitment, strengthen my recovery and stay abstinent another evening.

On a sunny morning after breakfast, instead of staring at the refrigerator with longing, I read Lifeline. The hope of other members refreshes me when they describe how they stay abstinent when cravings return.

I read Lifeline to remember why I must eat abstinently. Members share freely, reminding me it’s better to live without the assistance of extra food. I am grateful to all of you. Thank you.

Fresh Perspectives: At an OA meeting I regularly attend, Lifeline is included in the weekly format rotation. The leader picks one or two issues from our Lifeline library and members read selected articles. We seek the wisdom of recovery from members just like us, who share their experience, strength and hope. The meeting members discuss the readings and their relationship to our experience, whether we’re abstinent or seeking that elusive first abstinent day.

Using the honor system, we lend our copies of Lifeline to members and encourage them to subscribe and write articles for Lifeline and our newsletter.

Everyone benefits because we hear fresh perspectives on problems we may be having, hearing experiences that surprise, challenge, encourage and inspire us. We never know what words in Lifeline will reach a still-suffering compulsive eater, change his or her life and give that person a fighting chance at recovery.

Universal Connection: Lifeline is a universal connection for recovering compulsive eaters and those who read it. It’s a permanent record of recovery, inspiring us to work the Steps and use the tools necessary to recover from this food addiction.

A Lifeline donated to a doctor’s office by the local intergroup may save the life of someone who picks it up. An OA member may find his way back to these rooms after another member missing him sends him a gift subscription. Yet another person may find hope when she reads an article in a used Lifeline issue passed along by a friend.

The more OA grows, the more resources we’ll gain to throw a “Lifeline” to suffering compulsive eaters in and out of the rooms. They will know they’re not alone. Our stories help the Fellowship thrive and bring others into its fold. Will you add your story to this universal connection?

— Mike B., Baltimore, Maryland USA