I had been attending meetings of Overeaters Anonymous for three months and, amazingly, was starting to lose weight. OA is a self-help group similar to Alcoholics Anonymous but for people who have a problem with overeating and issues around food, such as anorexia or bulimia, rather than with alcohol.
SHUTTERSTOCK
This was a difficult thing for me to accept. I didn’t want to believe my problems were that serious. For a while I judged all the people at the meetings as nutcases and losers, but as I began to let my barriers down I realised I was just like them. The reality was that I’d tried to control my eating on my own for decades — and failed.