10.18.2026 - Living in HOPE10.18.2026 - Living in HOPE
OA RISE | Recovery Inspires Shared Experiences
Laurel C shares her long-term journey with compulsive overeating and bulimia, using HOPE and clear "guardrails" to describe how she lives the Twelve Steps. Fellows contribute their own experiences of relapse, fear and daily tools, creating a practical and spiritual picture of ongoing recovery.
2:00:28•18 Oct 2026
Living in HOPE: Guardrails, Big Book Truths and Long-Term OA Recovery
Episode Overview
- HOPE is presented as honesty, open-mindedness and other-centredness, perseverance and prayer, and energy, enthusiasm and engagement.
- Clear guardrails around food, meetings and daily practices help identify slips early instead of waiting for a full relapse.
- Reading the Big Book using "I" statements can make the description of addiction feel more personal and harder to deny.
- Long-term recovery is supported by daily prayer, meditation, Step 10 reflection and committing food in advance.
- Open sharing about relapse, fear and difficult feelings is encouraged as a safer choice than hiding and struggling alone.
“I was digging my grave with the fork and the spoon, and willpower wasn’t enough — I needed defined guardrails and a power greater than myself.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This OA RISE meeting centres on "Living in HOPE" with long-time member Laurel C sharing her experience as a compulsive overeater and bulimic, and how she uses HOPE as a daily framework for recovery. Laurel breaks HOPE down into four parts: honesty, open-mindedness and other-centredness, perseverance and prayer, and energy, enthusiasm and engagement.
She talks candidly about reaching 550 pounds, enduring a drastic intestinal surgery, and discovering that changing her body without changing her spirit only deepened her illness. Her story includes multiple periods of abstinence, short relapses, and the courage to come back and learn from each break. Using the AA Big Book with "I" statements, Laurel shows how closely she relates to descriptions of addiction and how this helps her see her disease clearly.
She offers a vivid "guardrail" metaphor for abstinence and recovery: instead of feeling trapped in a straitjacket, she sees clearly defined food plans, meetings, sponsorship and daily practices as loving safety barriers that stop her from careening over the edge. The episode’s style is practical and spiritual at the same time. You’ll hear about concrete tools like Step 10 trains, God boxes kept in car glove compartments, committing food in advance, daily prayer and meditation, and maintaining a home group.
Fellows such as Audrey, Gina, Rachel, Lori, Stacy and Pat share honestly about fear, relapse, slippery foods, and the relief of finally getting honest with sponsors and themselves. This meeting will appeal to anyone living with compulsive eating, food-related bulimia, or addiction who wants real-world examples of using the Twelve Steps over decades, not just days.
It’s serious subject matter with flashes of humour and warmth, grounded in the idea that "we are not a glum lot" and that hope is built through action, not wishful thinking. If HOPE were your recovery blueprint, what would your guardrails look like today?
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