Though we may
have members dealing with this issue, we have not yet established a
separate small group for Eating Disorders
If you have
extended recovery time and feel capable of leading a group, please
notify us.
WELCOME
This recovery support group's purpose is to
conquer the painful effects of eating disorders. To that end we
support each other as family. We seek to apply the 8 Recovery
Principles to our lives and to our relationships.
We welcome
you. We cannot fix your problems, and we will not seek to run your
life for you. We will accept you and love you. This is a safe place.
When we attended our first meeting, many of us were having a
variety of feelings. We were relieved to find a place where people
might understand our pain and despair. We were angry that we had to
get help and could not manage alone this part of our lives. We felt
lonely and were ashamed of the way our lives had become. We had
secrets that we were reluctant to share.
Our group is not a
therapy group or a study group. It is a Christ-centered support
group. We do not give advice. We share our experience, strength, and
hope with each other.
Here we learn a new way of living. We
learn, at our own pace, to experience in a healthy way intimacy and
sharing with others. We learn to trust, to ask for our needs to be
met, to say no when no is appropriate, to express our feelings, and
to hang around when all we want to do is run. Here no one shames us
for what we have done or still are doing. Here we have a safe harbor
within which to heal, and for that we are grateful. The only
requirement for membership in our group is a desire to change our
unhealthy eating behaviors.
Those of us who have experienced
life change through the program offer this challenge to you. This
program works as we complete the work with the help and supervision
of a sponsor or accountability partner. If you do not have a sponsor
or accountability partner, we encourage you to enlist one, complete
the written work in the Celebrate Recovery Workbooks and the "Love
Hunger" workbook, and share your work with your sponsor or
accountability partner.
We are happy you are here. We
encourage you to take one day at a time and keep coming back... it
works.
We recommend
several actions to help you begin recovery:
1. Attend several meetings before you decide if
this group is not for you.
2. We encourage you to obtain a
copy of the Celebrate Recovery Workbooks and the "Love Hunger" book.
3. Participation in the meeting is
your choice. You can pass when it is your turn.
4. You will receive a phone list.
Call a sponsor to work with you, as you have questions and as you
work on the steps. Use the phone list to call people when you need
help.
5. We guard the anonymity and
confidences of group members carefully. Do not share who you see or
what you hear in these meetings with any person or prayer list.
6. Keep coming back. God will
change your life as you apply the Christ-centered 8 Recovery
Principles.
Attending this meeting is the first step in
confronting the denial in our lives. We are glad that you are here,
and we encourage and support you as you grow with us. We love and
support you.
SELF-EVALUATION
1. Do thoughts
about food occupy much of your time?
2. Are you preoccupied with a desire to be thinner?
3. Do you starve to make up for eating binges?
4. Are you overweight despite concern by others for you to lose
weight?
5. Do you binge and then vomit afterward?
6. Do you exercise excessively to burn off calories?
7. Do you overeat by bingeing or by grazing continuously?
8. Do you eat the same thing every day and feel annoyed when you eat
something else?
9. Do you binge and then take enemas or laxatives to get rid of the
food you have eaten?
10. Do you hide stashes of food for future eating or bingeing?
11. Do you avoid foods with sugar in them and feel
uncomfortable after eating sweets?
12. Is food your friend?
13. Would you rather eat alone? Do you feel
uncomfortable when you must eat with others?
14. Do you have specific ways you eat when are
emotionally upset, sad, angry, afraid, anxious or ashamed?
15. Do you become depressed or feel guilty after an
eating binge?
16. Do you feel fat even when people tell you
otherwise?
17. Are you ever afraid that you won't be able to
stop eating when you are on binge?
18. Have you tried to diet repeatedly only to
sabotage your weight loss?
19. Do you binge on high-calorie, sugary, forbidden
foods?
20. Are you proud of your ability to control the food
you eat and your weight ?
21. Do you have weight changes of more than 10 pound
after binges and fasts?
22. Do you feel your eating behavior is abnormal? Do
you try to hide it from others? 23.
Does feeling ashamed of your body weight result in more binging?
24. Do you make a lot of insulting jokes about your
body weight or your eating?
25. Do you feel guilty after eating anything not
allowed on your diet?
26. Do you follow unusual rituals while eating, such
as counting bites or not allowing the fork or food to touch your
lips?
If you checked five or
more of the questions numbered 1, 4, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19,
22, 23, 24, you may be dealing with compulsive overeating.
If you checked five or more of the questions numbered 1,
2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 22, 25, 26, you have eating
behaviors typical of anorexia nervosa.
If you checked
five or more of the questions numbered 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14,
15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 26, you have eating behaviors common in bulimia
nervosa.
