I came to Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) fifteen years ago weighing 211 pounds. Despite countless diets, fasts, and exercise routines, I couldn’t maintain weight loss until I found FA. Beneath my career ambitions, I was plagued by shame and self-loathing, constantly trying to project whatever image people wanted—determined, fun, or athleti…

This food addict’s story was about fear, which led her to go to the food. It was a drug that made her feel safe. Although her family looked normal from the outside, her dad was an alcoholic, and she did not realize how cunning the disease of addiction was until later in life. As early as five years old, she was uncomfortable in her body. There was …

A food addict from New South Wales, Australia, I am the youngest of three who grew up with a strict, abusive father and a hardworking, protective mother. My childhood was filled with deep-seated fear, including night terrors, fear of the dark, and fear of my father. Despite having a large, extended family around me, I felt totally alone and alienat…

Una joven adicta de los Estados Unidos con raíces en América Latina vivió con mucha inestabilidad en su juventud. Buscó consuelo en la comida y los laxantes. Por las extrañas acciones que practicaba con la comida desde muy pequeña, y la incapacidad de parar de comer, ella subió de peso. Cuando se sintió rechazada y perdida, encontró la recuperación…

For years, I blamed everyone for my struggles with weight and food addiction – my parents, my wife, and my job. After I joined Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), I realized it wasn’t their fault. My practice of eating large quantities began in childhood. Teased and friendless, I would sneak away to eat alone with the lunch money my mom gave m…

At a young age, I was completely focused on food and how to get it. Gaining weight by third grade, I went on my first diet – with my mom! By twelve, after a painful friendship breakup, I was binge eating and purging in secret. In college, despite quitting drinking, smoking, and pills through sheer willpower, bulimia was a battle I simply couldn’t w…

Despite growing up in a home full of love, this budding food addict was in a cycle of sneaking, hiding, and shoplifting food from as early as age six. She came to learn that no amount of love could have prevented her food addiction and no amount of love could have cured it. Her parents and siblings were moderate eaters, and they tried to help curb …

I am a 73-year-old Asian-American woman from New England and, I can promise you, I’ve quit almost everything I’ve started in my life except for the Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) program. I found FA at thirty-three and have benefitted from this program for more than half my life. By 11 years old, already consumed with fear and worry about …

I grew up in a very diet-centric household; we were always on some kind of diet. At an early age, I started rebelling against the rigid household rules, finding every way I could to get the food I wanted. When my parents divorced, I would ride my bike over to my dad’s house to steal change for treats at the corner store. By 8th grade, I was obese. …

I was born and raised in Ireland. When I was 11, my family moved away from the big city to a rural area. Always in search of my identity, I thought that if I found out who I was, everything would feel better. But I had a spiritual hole inside of me, and I tried to fill it with food. I thought my big social life and ambitious jobs would help me feel…

In first grade, I weighed 120 pounds, and by fifth grade, I had high triglycerides, high cholesterol, and a fatty liver. Never feeling like I fit in physically or socially in my hometown of Brooklyn, NY, I was bullied over how “different” my family and I were. Four summers in a row I was sent to weight-loss camp, which put my parents into debt. By …

A sneak eater and a speed eater from the jump, I literally made friends with kids based on what they had in their fridge and pantry. When I was around food, I couldn’t rest until it was finished. My earliest memories are food-related, and they are painted with a lot of shame, fear, and low self-esteem. I thought if I got down to a magical weight, e…

My whole life was about dieting, restricting, and waiting to be thin. When I’m thin, then I’ll be happy, I thought. I was sure Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) was not for me – too time consuming, and there was that whole “higher power” thing. I’ll just go to the gym more often and I’ll keep doing this commercial weight-loss program, I told …

Standing at the refrigerator looking for something—anything—to change the way I felt, I heard myself admit, “I do not know how to eat,” and I started to cry. Ironically, I was the class clown, the jokester, and above all, I wanted you to like me. I lost weight after gaining the freshman 50 in college, and I thought that would solve my problems. It …

At the age of thirty and weighing 207 pounds, I was living a hopeless life. My existence was one of self-loathing, never feeling like I belonged. As a young person, I started hiding food, which began a cycle of guilt and shame over my eating. I fantasized that by going away to college I would make myself over into a new person. Instead, college was…

At nine years old, eating five meals a day and snacking in between, I thought I was ugly and I hated my body. In high school, at 217 pounds, my friends thought I was the strong one, but I never really showed what was happening inside. My twenties were a complete blur. I started a new diet every Monday morning, but by 10 a.m., I’d say, “forget it.” …

I was just miserable. Ashamed. Desperate. Somehow, I had eaten my way to being 80 pounds overweight. What I could wear on a Friday wouldn’t fit by Sunday night. Willpower is something I have in spades, but I was no match for the phenomenon of craving that occurred when my addiction to food kicked in. In truth, I was a person of great extremes, and …

Plagued by a lifetime of anxiety and repeated hospitalizations for depression, this transgender man took refuge in food. As his addiction progressed, everyday tasks and the most basic self-care seemed impossible. With anger issues escalating at work, diabetes so out of control he was losing his eyesight, and thousands of dollars spent on therapy, t…

I grew up a middle child in a single parent family, until my life changed at the age of five when I moved in with my aunt and uncle. I would eat everything in the kitchen, and then deny, deny, deny -- or blame it on the dog. At school, I felt like a square peg in a round hole and was often in trouble for misbehaving. After school, I would prepare a…

While putting food on the table and keeping the lights on were ongoing challenges at home, my family showed their love through large quantities of food. At school, I was always the biggest person in my class. TV shows and magazines about weight loss only made the cravings worse. I worked hard at the gym and then rewarded myself with food. Once I ha…

She did not have weight to lose, but knew she was in serious trouble with binge eating. Repeated trips to fast food and convenient stores looking for “pep” and answers in food, she was overwhelmed, hopeless, and certain Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) couldn’t help. The more she ate, the emptier she felt. Today she feels content and satisfi…

I was an anxiety-ridden child. I was uncomfortable in my own skin and felt as if I just never fit in. Looking for relief, I made food my solution. I hoarded food, stole food, and stole money to buy food. Graduating to other substances, I was smoking cigarettes at eleven years old, and using alcohol and marijuana by sixteen. When my doctor prescribe…

As a kid, I would eat everything that was put in front of me and then go back for seconds. But I was thin, so my weight wasn’t an issue. As I grew up, I ate to escape: from work stress, from family relationships, and from fear in general. I was wracked with so much worry and resentment that, night after night, I had difficulty sleeping. I turned to…

From my earliest memories, I was never satisfied. No matter how much I got, I wanted more. I felt like everyone else had life’s instruction manual, but I felt alone and awkward. In school I found my solace in food and Teen Beat magazine. After college, I decided a geographical cure would solve my problems, hoping that as soon as I crossed the borde…

I grew up an only child with two loving parents, but my expectations were so high I never believed anyone loved me enough. I was left with a deep emptiness that I tried to fill with food, constantly fantasizing about what I’d eat next, and figuring out how to sneak food without anyone seeing. When my parents would go out at night, I could eat whate…

At 58 years of age, I argued that I didn’t really eat much, but you don’t get to be 300 pounds without eating. In reality, I was a fast food guy in denial. I never ate breakfast, but I would stop at the drive-thru, eat in my car, and binge all day at the office. I had high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. When my doctor gave me the foodaddicts.o…

At 18 years old and 295 pounds, I was trapped in the downward spiral of food addiction. When I heard about Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), I thought, “No way will I ever set foot in one of those meetings." I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant and I lost a sibling at a young age. Experiencing grief and survivor’s guilt, I though…

Nineteen years old, 245 lbs., and completely out of control with food, I could not get it together to apply to colleges, get my driver’s license, or even get out of bed. Lonely and depressed, “eh, whatever” became my mantra. Even after losing 100 pounds in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), I still treated my program as a diet. When I started…

On the outside, she would light up a room with smiles and positive energy. A competitive athlete who also had a penchant for traveling the world, her life looked like a dream. On the inside, however, she was plagued with deep insecurity and anxiety from a young age. When poor body image crossed paths with always wondering if she would ever fit in, …

Fueled by willpower, high moral standards, and determination, I successfully controlled my weight for extended periods. However, by my early twenties, my eating was out of control and I was overweight and hopeless. After each 10,000 calorie binge, I would curl up in bed crying in pain and swear this would be the last time, knowing I could not stay …

Over time, she went from being a picky eater, to an under-eater, to an emotional eater, to a binge eater. After getting sober in another 12-step program, her eating got completely out of control, and she realized she was still practicing a lethal addiction. To control her weight, she trained at the gym at 4am, spent money on herbal concoctions, and…

I’d heard about Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), but at my first meeting, when I didn’t see anyone who looked like me, I assumed no one there would understand my culture. I had gained and lost 50 to 100 pounds over and over again, and kept trying diets, extreme exercise, weight loss gurus, positive affirmation coaches, and bulimia. I even h…

Battling the war with food and dieting for 20 years, this African-American woman was constantly looking for anything on the outside that could make her feel better on the inside. An overachiever, she could work highly demanding professional jobs, shoving down caffeine and sugar. On weekends, she holed up at home in her bathrobe, ordering takeout an…

Diabetes ran in this Black woman's family, so she understood that amputation, blindness, heart attack, and stroke were real dangers as long as she continued to eat addictively. Nevertheless, she was stunned when her doctor prescribed insulin for the rest of her life. In recovery, she found a new way to approach eating and food that supported rather…

She was intensely driven by obsession with self and the perfect body. Dieting left her miserable, with the perennial question, “What do you do after the diet?” Once she found her way to Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) years of misery ended in a flash, and she now has the resiliency and capacity to deal with life that she never had before.…

Se pasó años buscando una solución a su sobrepeso, sin saber que era adicta a la comida. Repetía patrones familiares poco saludables. Su crecimiento en el programa fue lento hasta que pudo dejar de mentirse a sí misma y a sus seres queridos. Es una historia de transformación, de vivir en la sombras a vivir con integridad.…

At work, with a file cabinet packed with food, he created concoctions at his desk. After work, he hit the vending machines. Expensive diets, gadgets, subliminal audiotapes, metabolism boosters, weight-loss programs; nothing helped until he heard, “Just go to an FA meeting.”द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

This chubby child transformed into a teen party girl in New York City, but cute clothes, college, boyfriends, and world travel did not solve her problems with food. Filled with rage, she used bulimia, smoking, marijuana, and other drugs to stay thin. After finding Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) at 24, she built a rich and amazing life in r…

Anxious, depressed, and tortured by uncontrollable, self-destructive eating, she went from cheerleader to punk rocker to looking for geographic cures. At age 22 she heard stories of healthy, bright-eyed food addicts in recovery at her first meeting, and she said, “Sign me up.”द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

I didn’t care about stomach aches, dental cavities, skin breaking out – I just wanted to eat. But finally, with the help of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) meetings, I could say, I am a food addict and I need help.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

Always feeling she wasn’t enough, this food addict struggled, ate, covered up her eating, tried to exercise it off…and repeat. When she heard people in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) talk about food the way she thought about it, she knew she was home.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

He started raiding the kitchen at age six and by age eight was a lonely, emotional binge eater. Then, as a young Black man over 300 pounds, a room full of women in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) showed him the way to love, peace, serenity, and a healthy body.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

Her health was failing fast: asthma, diabetes, multiple medications, physical agony...not to mention depression, isolation, and shame. “Now I ride horses! I ride bikes! Thanks to FA, today I enjoy a life second to none.”द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

Living a childhood of uncertainty, she constantly sought out food and the people who would give it to her. Nothing stopped her addiction until she got serious about Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA).द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

Anxious, defensive, and suspicious of everyone, she self-medicated with food. And it worked. . . until it didn’t. When she said, today is the day, Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) gave her back her life.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

From 3rd-grade gym class weigh-in humiliations to multiple serious adulthood health issues, she was afraid of what was coming next. At 22 years old and 280 pounds, addicted to food, cigarettes, and unhealthy relationships, she found Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA).द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

A former chef with multiple addictions, this food addict hit bottom and found his solution in the tools of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) and a life guided by a power greater than himself.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

Magical thinking around food led to wild mood swings and self-hatred. Today he’s honest about who he is, a food addict in recovery.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

This former bulimic was a “troubled youth” and lived years as a person she didn’t want to be. Today, honesty, gratitude, and loving relationships mark her journey to recovery.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous

To avoid any kind of pain, this Australian spent many years and thousands of dollars trying to battle her active addiction. When she found Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), she said These are my people. I belong here.द्वारा Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous