Goodness Hangover

'Tis the season for Goodness Hangovers.  Beware. These bothered me the first few years of abstinence on the greysheet, because I had not yet recovered fully from Career Dieting. The Goodness Hangover was the last phase of my Dieting Syndrome.  It usually happened when I had done very well on my diet, and then had to make an heroic effort at some event where all my binge foods were spread out in front of me.  I was very very strong and did not partake of this spread of goodies, and returned home congratulating myself on my will power and strength of character.  At that point, I was in the full bloom of the Goodness Hangover - I was just a magnificent, terrific person, completely changed - the eating problem was solved, and I would march into the sunset a thin woman at last. The next day dawned on terrible hunger.  I was literally clawing the walls for anything sweet, and never lasted longer than breakfast, where I began wolfing down anything sweet I could find.  By that evening, I was completely drunk on sugar, and knew I was a complete and total failure, never to rise from my fat again.

Thus would begin what the Big Book calls 'the sorry round' of food addiction. The first time in greysheet abstinence that I 'did lunch' with my old friends [I had been abstinent on the greysheet for over a year - I was a Seasoned Greysheet Veteran], I felt confident that this kind of thinking was a thing of the past.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up the day after 'doing lunch' wanting to eat everything in sight.  However, by then I knew what to do in any emergency: I called my sponsor, committed my food, told her about my cravings, and listened to her advise me to pray. What a concept!  I had forgotten . . . I could pray, and God would take away the craving.  God had been doing this for me for many months, and in one day, I had completely forgotten that there even was a God, much less that God was with me and could relieve my suffering. This is a God program.  Don't forget.  DENMW.
Love, Anonymous