Light Into Dark Places - Charlotte W 2012 (OA)Light Into Dark Places - Charlotte W 2012 (OA)
Recovery Crone Podcast
Charlotte W shares her experience as a compulsive overeater in OA, describing how she moved from anxiety-driven bingeing to practical daily recovery. She talks through the Twelve Steps, her view of a higher power, and the routines and metaphors that help her keep food in its place.
35:25•26 Sept 2026
Charlotte W on Food Addiction, Higher Power and Growing a Bigger Parachute
Episode Overview
- Food was used to correct every emotion, leading to compulsive eating, hospitalisation, and failed diets.
- Abstinence is defined as avoiding compulsive eating behaviours, not achieving perfect food choices or long streaks.
- Redefining a higher power as a supportive "current" helps separate moral judgement from food and body image.
- Daily practices like prayer for others, affirmations, and non-food self-care act as preventative care against relapse.
- Viewing compulsive eating as "not my fault, my default" allows for blameless acceptance while still taking responsible action.
“It’s not my fault. It’s my default.”
Curious about how others manage food addiction and build a life that isn’t ruled by the scale? This talk from Charlotte, shared in the Recovery Crone Podcast’s “Light Into Dark Places” series, offers a candid look at compulsive eating, relapse, and long-term abstinence within Overeaters Anonymous. Charlotte openly identifies as a compulsive overeater and "compensation enthusiast," describing childhood bingeing, obsessive dieting, hospitalisation for compulsive eating, and using food to fix every emotion.
She explains how her thinking shifted from seeing weight as a simple matter of knowledge and willpower to recognising it as an addiction rooted in obsession, anxiety and culture. You’ll hear her unpack each of the Twelve Steps as a practical framework rather than a moral checklist. She talks about redefining a higher power away from a punishing, rule-based deity and toward "the great current" – a force that has her best interests at heart, even when her mind doesn’t.
For Charlotte, abstinence is about refraining from compulsive behaviours, not chasing perfect days or a goal weight, and she stresses that her self-worth is no longer tied to numbers on a scale or an abstinence tally. Her daily routine is surprisingly down-to-earth: prayers for others, affirmations like "I was born whole, nothing to be corrected," noticing emotions in the body, and small non-food treats such as tea, music or walks.
She shares vivid metaphors – blue ink collected back into a jar so light can pass through, the Eastern Australian current from Finding Nemo, and a parachute that grows as recovery practices build up around a still-present disease. Charlotte also touches on "living amends," setting healthier boundaries, accepting her natural anxiety, and being an "unquestioning soldier of preventative care" who follows programme suggestions without turning them into another obsession.
It all adds up to a story that may resonate if you’ve ever felt food was running your life. What parts of Charlotte’s experience reflect your own relationship with food and self-worth?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.