04.05.2026 - Emotional Sobriety - Veronica04.05.2026 - Emotional Sobriety - Veronica
OA RISE | Recovery Inspires Shared Experiences
Veronica shares how working the OA programme, especially the Tenth Step and a growing relationship with a Higher Power, helped her move from control and perfectionism toward emotional sobriety. Group members respond with their own reflections on trauma, appearance, religion and self‑worth, linking emotional growth to freedom from compulsive eating.
1:34:43•5 Apr 2026
Emotional Sobriety, Control, and Self‑Love with Veronica
Episode Overview
- Emotional sobriety is framed as addressing deep patterns of dependency on people, places and things, not just stopping compulsive food behaviours.
- Regular Tenth Step work helps reveal recurring themes such as abandonment and control, turning awareness into the basis for new choices.
- Bringing in a Higher Power "everywhere" – including around food – shifts the sense of responsibility from self‑will to spiritual guidance.
- Practising the pause before reacting is described as a lifesaver that softens controlling behaviour and makes space for others.
- Forgiveness and self‑love are presented as ongoing practices that reduce shame, ease old wounds, and lessen the pull toward bingeing.
“If I want to arrest my food addiction, I must learn to regulate my feelings and bring in something greater than me.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This OA RISE meeting centres on emotional sobriety, with Veronica offering a long, honest share that many compulsive eaters might recognise themselves in. After the usual Overeaters Anonymous readings of the Preamble, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions by Tanya, Marsha and Susan, the group settles in to hear Veronica talk about why emotional sobriety has become her main goal.
She reads the line from the OA literature about practising the steps to "achieve emotional sobriety" and admits it once felt "very amorphous". For her, it now means getting underneath lifelong patterns of control, perfectionism and fear so she can stay abstinent and sane. Veronica traces her history through childhood trauma, a deeply religious upbringing, arrested emotional development and the belief that food was the problem to be "fixed" through diets, gurus and programmes.
She explains how sponsorship, Vision meetings, and daily Tenth Step work helped her spot patterns like abandonment and control. A key turning point came when she realised, "If I want to arrest my food addiction, I must learn to regulate my feelings and bring in something greater than me," and that she was "very agnostic when it came to the food".
She talks about learning to pause instead of react, seeing the Tenth Step as a "pain reliever" and the pause as a "lifesaver", and shifting from running the universe to allowing others their space. Forgiving her father, softening rigid boundaries and discovering self‑love all show up as part of her emotional sobriety.
The second half includes Q&A, writing prompts on control, guardedness and compassion, and heartfelt shares from members like Maureen and Lucia, who relate to growing up with strict appearance standards, religion and a lack of warmth. If you're curious about how emotional work and spiritual practice can support abstinence from compulsive eating, this meeting offers rich, relatable experience to reflect on your own patterns. What might your next step toward emotional sobriety look like?
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