Food Addicts In Recovery Anonymous

My earliest recollection is from the age of four – being shy and awkward, always afraid to join other kids at play. I was a picky eater and would take a long time to get through what was on my plate. Still, I began to put on the pounds, and I got it in my head that losing weight would change everything. I’d be confident, outgoing, and finally feel like I fit in. So, I went on a diet. Then, I binged. At first, it was just Friday nig...

From a young age, she learned that food could quiet her inner storms. As a teenager, desperate to control her weight, she experimented with appetite suppressants—only to find that quick fixes led to deeper pain. She cycled through restricting, bulimia, and over-exercising, each attempt a futile escape from an overwhelming addiction that robbed her of being the mother and wife she longed to be. She lived a double life of promiscuity...

From a young age, her life was doom and gloom. Food was her reprieve, protecting her from uncomfortable emotions. She endured sexual trauma as a young child, a difficult family, and mental illness. In elementary school, she began dieting and eventually tried restricting food. It was unsustainable over the long-term. At the age of 21, she found Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA). There, she saw people change their relationship ...

At 78, he’s lived through war, marriage, career highs—and a 30-year secret battle with bulimia. Although he was raised in a middle-class family with healthy eating habits, he internalized early messages that “thin is good” and “fat is bad.” He grew up with food scarcity, body shame, and pressure to be thin, which led to a decades-long cycle of bingeing and purging, hidden even from his closest loved ones. For years, he felt alone, ...

I didn’t grow up on a farm, but when I married at 19 years old, that’s where life took me. My husband and I built our lives there, raising four daughters amidst long days and hard work. It was a beautiful place to raise a family, but as the years passed, depression crept in and food became my escape. Over time—through isolation and the exhaustion of motherhood—food became more than just fuel. It was comfort, distraction, and relief...

For as long as I can remember, I was either too much or not enough – too thin or too heavy. At 5’7”, I’ve been as low as 105 pounds and as high as 220. I ran, played tennis, and tried to disappear into thinness, but no matter how much weight I lost, I still saw flaws. I obsessed over food, swinging between control and chaos. My addiction manifested in bizarre ways: while studying at college, I’d reward myself with a treat after eac...

In 2013, weighing 193 pounds, I was caught in an endless cycle of gaining and losing the same 20 pounds despite exercising six hours daily. At my heaviest, I had reached 309 pounds. Food was my solution for everything—my way of stuffing down emotions in a family where we never discussed feelings or learned healthy communication. As a child, I soothed myself by sucking my fingers until age 12. I had no stable identity, defining myse...

At the age of 58, I am grateful to have been in recovery from food addiction for the last eighteen years. I came from a loving, yet dysfunctional family, with a rage-oholic father and a mentally ill sister, and food allowed me to escape my stressful surroundings. Considered a “husky” kid, I was eating constantly. In our family, unhealthy eating habits were normalized – I remember ordering soda and dessert for breakfast at restauran...

I was born two months early, weighing just 3.5 pounds, and from the start, life felt like an uphill climb. My mother couldn’t nurse me due to complications, and I never got the kind of nurturing I longed for. My first "drug" was my thumb, which I sucked well into high school – a secret sedative that calmed me. Food became my next source of solace. By the time I was 3, my parents were worried enough to take me to a pediatrician afte...

From a young age, food was my escape—a source of comfort and control in a chaotic world. Growing up in public housing, with a dysfunctional family and an alcoholic father, I turned to eating as a way to soothe my emotions, hide, and find peace. But as I got older, food stopped working the way it once did. Fear of judgment and feelings of inadequacy began to weigh on me, affecting my relationships, my work, and my sense of self. Hea...

She grew up in a loving family, but she often felt like an outsider because her family was thin and ate in moderation. Despite good grades boosting her self-esteem, the stress to excel led her to overeat. Food and fantasy novels became her escape. In college, she used food to push through the stress and cope with life. Afterward, she spent decades yo-yo dieting, and struggled with the pressures of being a working wife and mom. By h...

Una adicta a la comida codependiente comparte su experiencia, fortaleza y esperanza en la recuperación a través de Adictos a la Comida en Recuperación Anónimos (FA). Comparte su historia de disfunción familiar, pensamiento desordenado y derrota. Sobreviviente de abuso físico, emocional y sexual, ha aprendido a afrontar sus emociones en lugar de reprimirlas con harina, azúcar, cantidades, alcohol y compras. Ha abrazado su identidad ...

I am 79 years old and have been in recovery for 16 years. At my heaviest, I reached 267 pounds. My journey with food addiction began in childhood when I remember stealing food while my grandmother was cooking and hiding in the closet to eat it. My first binge was at age ten. Throughout my twenties, I developed habits like visiting multiple fast-food restaurants on my way home from work and isolating myself to eat. Extreme measures ...

From an early age, she struggled with sneaking and bingeing on food. At just five years old, she went on her first real diet. Despite a structured food plan and supportive parents, she could not stop eating. She never felt full, turning eating into a game to see how much she could consume. As she grew older, the game lost its fun. By junior year of high school, she weighed 250 pounds, felt isolated, and did not fit in with her peer...

I grew up in El Salvador during a time of economic hardship and civil war. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was young, and my early years were filled with separation and constant upheaval. My father was an alcoholic, and his drinking left deep scars. What I didn’t realize for a long time was that I had become just like him, not with alcohol, but with food addiction. I was pregnant at 14, a mother of three sons by my early tw...

This story is about a woman who spent years chasing control, yet felt lost in her own life. Despite a loving upbringing, she struggled with feeling like she was “not enough.” Many of her childhood memories were centered around food, but she was able to maintain a normal weight until college. There, her food addiction took off, and she picked up cigarettes and alcohol. As she kept eating and growing bigger, she found her life shrink...

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 athletic.  For confidence, I relied on drugs, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and, most of all,...

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 constant desire to be thin, leading her to avoid eating all day, just to come home ...

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 alienated. As a child, I was trained by Olympian swimmers to be on the national team, but I ...