Food for Thought for Over Eaters Anonymous

[MajestyJo]

From the book: Food for Thought

Communicating


If we do not tell people what is troubling us, they cannot help. We have sometimes been too proud or too shy to let others know what we were feeling. Rather than trying to communicate with those close to us, we ate. Eating instead of communicating further increased our isolation and unhappiness.

Exposing our feelings makes us vulnerable, and we often fear that we will be hurt or rejected. We may be trying to preserve a false image of ourselves as self-sufficient and free of problems. Whatever the reasons for our unwillingness to communicate, we are cheating ourselves. By "clamming up," we cut ourselves off from the care and support of those who love us.

Honest sharing between individuals opens the way for growth and change. By expressing our thoughts and feelings out loud to another person, we become better able to understand and deal with whatever is bothering us. More important, we deepen our relationships with family and friends when we are willing to communicate on a meaningful level.

Give me courage to communicate.

Didn't know how to communicate in early recovery. I wasn't in touch with my feelings and it was only by going to meetings and posting on recovery sites, then I learned to identify them.

This girl in treatment kept saying, "...but how do you feeeeel?" I was extremely annoyed, especially after hearing for several weeks and I couldn't get away from her. I finally said, "If I knew how I was feeling, I wouldn't be here." I had a lot of childhood trauma and learned to shut down and stuff for many years. Food and cigarettes were great stuffers. I am hungry, no I don't want to eat, and would pick up a cigarette. When I found myself reaching for that second or third helping, I knew I wasn't hungry, I was just in the state of mind, "More...!" and acting out in my disease (dis-ease).

I use to get hit if I was told to shut up, so I didn't talk. When AA got me talking, they couldn't get me stopped. AA took me to other areas, because the 12 Steps are applicable to ALL parts of my life.