FOOD FOR THOUGHT- OA/AUGUST 2014

[MajestyJo]

Friday, August 22, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Emotional Abstinence

When our eating was out of control, our emotions were also out of control. Even after we accept physical abstinence from compulsive overeating, we may still go on emotional binges. This indulgence leaves us depleted and hung over and wreaks havoc in our relationships with those we love.

The Twelve Steps are our guide to emotional abstinence. They are the means by which we can live without being destroyed by anger, envy, fear, and all of the other negative emotions. Working the Steps frees us from our slavery to self-centered, irrational reactions, which harm ourselves and others.

Realizing the damage, which comes from hanging on to anger and resentment, we gradually become able to turn these feelings over to our Higher Power before they get out of hand. Accepting ourselves means that we can accept others for what they are without trying to manipulate them or expect them to be perfect. Controlled by our Higher Power, we learn to avoid emotional binges.

May I remember the importance of emotional abstinence today.

A good one! So much of addiction is due to emotions and allowing them to direct us and my thinking always took me into more.

I never thought that I had an eating problem. I remember saying, "I am eating because I am upset, if that a$$hole didn't do...."

Never under stood how that more feeling was associated with me eating, whether I didn't because I was fat or because I was fat and who cares and ate what I wanted, 80% not healthy, especially when I add the butter. Everything is better with butter on it, has been my slogan for years. The same as a little bit of sugar will make things go down real smooth and make everything taste better, whether it was food or just life in general.