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Matt S. speaks candidly and straight from the heart about his devastating experience growing up in a family of alcoholics, drug users, mental illness, and sexual abuse, leading him to compulsive eating. He grew up thinking the world is against him, how he hated everyone, including God, and how he ballooned in weight, especially in college.

He tells how his life was transformed when he joined AA at the young age of 22 years old to help with compulsive eating, and eventually joined OA and earned six years of abstinence, dropping 160 pounds from a height of 340 pounds.

He tells how he learned to love his family and communicate with them. He shares wisdom beyond his years, such as how he can go through difficult times without being corrupted by what’s happening to him, how he can abstain through craziness happening around them, how you don’t have to believe your thoughts because they’re not all real, how he works the steps to survive, and how he still does all the things he did before OA but now he doesn’t act upon thinking.

Matt shares what his biggest fear is, the most difficult thing in life he is going through, why he flew to Los Angeles with no future money and what happened as a result, why his sponsor was very special, what he does that makes him feel normal eating in a group, his favorite pages in the Big Book, what he thinks “being relieved of the bondage of self” really means, how making an inventory makes him feel significant, and how OA offers to make you better.

You’ll want to take notes on his ideas, especially in the second half. Matt shares each of the 12 steps from his viewpoint.. He shares a touching story of healing between him and his brother. He finishes by sharing some of the most powerful things he discovered in OA that keep him abstinent.

Matt’s story is great for anyone to hear, and especially for a young person struggling with compulsive eating.