OUR EXPERIENCE

All Stories

These are the stories of how some of our members came to find a solution to their food obsession in Addictive Eaters Anonymous.

Some suffered from anorexia, bulimia or binge eating, some didn’t know how to stop emotional eating, and some exercised compulsively. Many of us have experienced different combinations of these conditions during our time as active addictive eaters. However the disease of Addictive Eating manifested, whether we did not know how to stop eating, or how to start, we were unable to sustain any control over our eating behaviours. Even if we did manage to control our eating or weight for a period of time, we were not happy, and inevitably slipped back into old food patterns. In these stories of recovery you will hear the solution, we in AEA have found to the food obsession: Surrender, and a peaceful, joyous way of life based around the Twelve Steps of AEA.

This way of life is available to you, too. We suggest you read these stories of eating disorder recovery with an open mind. Focus on the similarities, rather than the differences. Whatever your problem with food, AEA can help.

Paralysed by denial, now living free

I didn’t think I had a problem with food. I just needed to get my life together. I was a recent college graduate and uncertain about my...

I love our way of life

I started dieting when I was 12 years old. I wasn’t overweight but I felt pudgy and I wanted a new boy at school to like me. Somehow, I...

I am no longer looking in from the outside

I had a sense of isolation and loneliness which had been with me from childhood. As an overweight child I went on to be an obese adult. I...

I have also been relieved of depression

I believe I was born with this disease. As a child I ate more than what I was comfortable with on many occasions; eating the biggest...

I was spiralling out of control

I don't have many memories from my childhood, but the memories I do have relate to food - picnics with bacon and egg pie, my mother’s...

Fourteen years of bingeing hell

I have noticed and been aware of food as early as I can remember. Even now, as an adult, I can recall different types of food at friends’...

Finding the answer

I have lived in New Zealand for the last twelve years, after being born and raised in Somerset, England. My parents ran a playgroup in...

A new way of life

I have a sneaky feeling that I was born with a twisted and gaping open mouth! That I came from my mother's womb already upset, irritable...

I had to surrender

“As far back as I can remember, I was fascinated by food.” This is what I heard the young woman who carried this message of recovery to...

To get well I had to give up the food

I was 37 years old when I found our Twelve Step fellowship. All my life I had a number of secrets of which I was very ashamed. The first...

AEA Stories

Our membership is diverse with people coming to the fellowship from a variety of backgrounds, and these stories represent the experience, strength and hope of individual AEA members. Any opinions expressed in these stories are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of AEA as a whole.

Please see our Meetings Page for details of face to face meeting times and venues. We also have regular AEA Web Events where AEA members share their experience, strength and hope online. Participants can join the web event from their phone, desktop, mobile and tablet devices. All are welcome. See details of the next AEA Web Event.

Our primary purpose is to recover from addictive eating and help others to achieve sobriety.