I made an outreach call several weeks ago; it turned out that the person I was calling was no longer in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. Phone lists are ever changing because the reality is that people come and go. At meetings fellows who used to be regulars suddenly become memories, or the mention of their name is followed by the phrases, “Have you seen him lately?” and “Oh, she left the program.” This invariably leads me to sigh: We are an FA family, and when family members leave there is a loss. Have I ever considered leaving program?  In

Ten years ago, I bought a car, resigned from my job, packed up my most important belongings, and headed west. After seven years of living in Philadelphia, I was ready for a change. Mostly, I was just tired of being overweight. I wanted to get away, and I hoped to find a fresh (thin) start somewhere new. Without a job, without a clear destination, and without very much money, I said goodbye to my family, popped my favorite CD into the car stereo, and started driving. Two months later, after a 10,000 mile cross-country adventure, I landed in San Francisco

My father-in-law has six siblings. He and another sibling are in AA, and the rest are active alcoholics. He has a sister who is morbidly obese. His sister hasn’t left the house all summer, since she’s becoming more and more immobile and her panic attacks are increasing daily. During our visit, the siblings had a meeting to discuss and plan an intervention for the sister. They weren’t planning an addiction intervention (since the active addicts don’t believe in addiction), but a medical intervention that would involve a rehab. I happened to be in the room when the actual intervention was