Hi Everyone!!

Many years ago [the mid to late 1980's] I went to a LOT of O.A. meetings. At first I was terrified. Every time the 'book or promises' [or whatever it was called] was passed to me - I'd pass on IT. I never said a word [basically] for the first 6 month. One year later - I was LEADING meetings. For that - I will always be grateful to O.A. I also went to a lot of CODA meetings. [Co-dependent's Anonymous] I even co-created one. I was even interviewed once by a reporter for the Vancouver Province Newspaper. A whole page was dedicated to CODA meetings and I was a guy named 'Alex' spilling his guts. [well - as best I could - back then] Never really lost weight on O.A. But that was because of my fear of anyone finding out that I was gay. And as some gay or lesbian people know [or anyone else - for that matter - who is afraid that they will lose everything IF their 'secret' gets out] the FEAR of blurting out THE 'secret' makes us feel safer if we keep ALL things 'secret'. [lest anyone put our pieces of a puzzle together and discover our 'secret' all by themselves!!]

I've gone to a few O.A. meetings since those days. One just a year ago. But I was upset by THAT meetings willingness to TALK about their favourite foods. In MY O.A. days - specific mention of foods was a no - no. [lest the food we were talking about was someone else's 'trigger' food] I haven't gone back since.

[this IS somewhat on topic - isn't it? I've forgotten where I am!! lol]

Take care of yourselves.

Craig!!