By Pamela Masshardt
I’m Pam from Auburn, Mass., a recovered Food Addict and founder of Full of Faith, a 12-Step community that was built to help and encourage people who struggle with overeating.
In maintaining a 75-pound loss for over 35 years, I have learned that experience has been my best teacher. My trials and failures have taught me that what I think I know is not necessarily what’s true, and that still applies today.
Before walking into the 12-Step halls, I spent most of my life trying to find ways to control my eating.
I believed food was my friend. My mother taught me that food fixed a problem, soothed my pain, and helped me to celebrate my victories! When I was hurting, I’d hear, “Here, Pammy, have a cookie; that will make you feel better.”
One cookie didn’t make me feel better. A couple of cookies didn’t make me feel better. A box of cookies didn’t make me feel better, but oh, how I tried to feel “better.”
Celebrations came with a luscious, sweet treat. The smell of cookies in the oven felt like love to me.
I have quite a drastic eating history that I describe in detail in my first book, “Sweet Surrender, Christian 12-Step Recovery from Food Addiction and Sacred Journey, Christian 12-Step Study for Food Addicts.” But to be brief, I hid food, stole food, even ate out of the trash. When I fell off the diet of the day, I started to eat and couldn’t stop. I ate anything and everything.
In 1985, I joined a 12-Step recovery group for compulsive overeaters.
I had stretches of freedom but then fell back into compulsive overeating again…and again…and again. But in 1988, I learned that for me, sugar and flour products were like alcohol to the alcoholic. Even a bite, sip or taste could lead to a binge.
It was like a light in the darkness.
I found a sponsor who was living in the solution, and I asked her to help me. That was July 23, 1988 — 37 years ago. It wasn’t easy to drop my preconceived notions about managing my life and weight, but my ongoing success came from swallowing my pride and accepting help from those who had gone before me.
In 2000, God called me to take yet another step. I believed that people in the 12-Step rooms needed to hear about Jesus and people in the church needed to hear about Food Addiction; quite often, Christians balk at joining 12-Step programs. I built the bridge now known fully as Full of Faith, Christian 12-Step Recovery from Food Addiction.
For me, the 12 Steps are a map to Biblical truths: self-discovery, acceptance and surrender, living in a place of peace and even joy.
Masshardt founded Full of Faith, whose members struggle with overeating, interact via fulloffaith.com, private Facebook groups, phone meetings, video conferencing, and one-to-one communication with the message of hope. All are welcome — Christians and people who are not sure how they feel about their relationship with God.