Many of us had asked God to help us control our weight and this prayer hadn't worked. Later we understood why our pleas for help seemed to fall on deaf ears. What we were really asking God to do was remove our fat while allowing us to go on eating whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Most of us also needed to learn to ask other people for help and let God speak to us through our fellows. In OA, God's healing power comes to us through a caring community of other compulsive overeaters. Before we joined the OA Fellowship our prayers for help might have gone unanswered simply because we were never meant to face this disease in isolation. We were meant to open up so that we might learn to truly love others.
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, pg. 15-16
whoa.
this hit me the other night square between the eyes. community is the path to healing. isolation is not.
4 comments:
Community? Oh yeah. Only WHERE IS IT?
(Sorry, just having a moment, a moment that has nothing to do with you.)
(After a week of isolation due to being sick.)
we were never meant to face this disease in isolation. We were meant to open up so that we might learn to truly love others.
Wow. This was the perfect thing for me to read since I am going to my Recovery group after work. Its a mixed group, we each have different issues and there are only three of us, but its a start.
Isolation is what I do. So this is hard - but important.
You said:
"community is the path to healing. isolation is not."
And, that stated:
* The "theme" of my struggle for most of my adult life
* My constant, current meditation
* And, my greatest focus of therapy for my recently diagnosed chronic depression...
~ Alex
oh s/l i'm sorry, i hate being sick this time of year, it just magnifies my seasonal junk... hope you're feeling better soon!
barbara - keep coming back, it works if you work it! :) i'm so glad you have support through the amazing work you are doing!!
alexander - thanks so much for coming back - i too have struggled with depression for so much of my life. and because of that i have isolated myself for much of my life too. i love this idea because it not only tells me that not isolating myself is healthy, but that it the place where healing can be found. i will be holding you in the light today.
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