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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1985-12-18, Page 34Regional Value Spotter, December 181, 1985 Pagel l ilstrlibuted with The Goderich Signal -Star, Clinton News Record, Mitchell Advocate, Seaforth Huron Expositor, Sxeter Tinges -Advocate. St. Marys Journal -Argus. Parkhill Gazette and Strathroy Age -Dispatch, Wednesday, December 18. Overeaters Anonymous: .."� A Lifesaver 0 vereaters Anonymous (O.A.) was formed over 20 yews ago in the U.S. by a few ' women who felt that they identified completely with alcoholics and found that by. adapting the Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) program to aid their compulsive overeating problems, they had finally ;found a solution to their desperation. Like A.A., O.A. is a fellowship, not a diet. club. One membe., Anne, first walked tentatively through the doors of O.A. in 1979, but she became an active member of the program in 1981. She had attended several diet clubs with little success.. "As a matter of fact," she says, "after three weeks at Weight Watchers, I found that I had gained weight. 1 couldn't stop eating. From the' minute I oined, I found that 1 had lost ability to diet. Before, when as a member of these diet clubs,ueven though 1 was dieting and 1'd lose.15 to 20 pounds, I'd gain it all back, plus." O.A, maintains that compulsive overeating is a progressive illness. That concept is becoming. widely accepted within the medical profession. Compulsive overeating is being treated as a disease by • more and more doctors around the world. Where once, before the emergence of A.A., alcoholism had been treated as a hopeless sentence for many people, compulsive overeating is now being recognized for the crippling toll that it takes on its victims. Anne's case is fairly typical of most people who enter the program. O.A. is usually the last stop before hospitalization or suicide. Most of the people who walk through O.A.'s doors have already tried everything else available to them. The horror stories go on and on: jaws. wired, operations, staples in the ears, acupuncture, starvatio yn q, fastings and binging. n.'.''..i':.'3'i'9;u".`3'"ISI:R':n5.:.'�.S'+n:: n'iso;'N'.'.'.i`:i+'MF.n•'.,•. friends and p atrons., a all svery merry . pMay your joy Christmas. everlasting. From all of at the value Spotter. O.A. also has may members who are also plagued. by anorexia and bulimia. Many people recognize in this compulsive behavioi the symptoms of their problem and nip it in the bud by joining O.A. in the earlier stages of the disease. Like alcoholism, compulsive eating in many begins iri early childhood. But 'today's diet- and fashion -conscious youth are more apt to pinpoint their behavior as abnormal, thus O.A. has many younger people at its meetings. Anne, who was a teen-ager when she joined, adds, "1 called to see what they had to offer. Because 1 was desperate at that point, I joined. I've lost about half the weight 1 need to lose," she says. "More importantly, I'm definitely more serene. Obviously, I'm a lot happier now. Because I went through a couple of years where I was extremely depressed, I wanted to kill myself. 1 couldn't understand how I managed to walk to the bus every day to.go to work — 1 couldn't understand why. I had bothered to live, why 1 hadn't killed myself the night before," She continues, "Those sever depressions aredefinitely a very rare phenomenon, if they happen. at all now. A lot of the time now, I'm happy, which I•never experienced before, except maybe as a child." She recalls .a situation that is typical of the compulsive overeater's dilemma. "My father once made a contract with me," she says. "He'd give me $l00 if lose the weight. I couldn't do it. 1 was a young kid of 15 with only 15 pounds to lose: l simply could not do it." At 22, she now says, "I'm very glad that I found this program as a teen-ager. if I'd, waited, or worse, if I hadn't found this program, I could weigh over 300 pounds by , now...or I could he dead•" 'As well as the women who have joined, there is a growing Please.turn to page 3 EXPERIMENT — Harold Talbot shows the piece of _copper ;wire he spliced for well witching. Although one length of copper wire in a V-shape will detect water, he says the joined switch will not work. Witching for Water When it comes to witching for water, Harold Talbot is quick to point out that what he knows has been learned through a combination of trial and error and talking with other people. "I'm no authority and I don't pretend to be." Mr. Talbot adds that he was skeptical about witching for water until he tried his hand • at it 20 years ago. The first time the Granton resident actually witched a well was about 10 years later. A friend's recently dug well was yielding only "soaky water". It was winter, so Mr. Talbot went to the basement of his friend's home, where his switch indicated water at the side of the house opposite the dr'y well. Excavations the following spring were rewarded with an underground stream. Since then he has "done quite a few little ones for•fun _Just for people who wanted to see." Ile's also witched four more' wells for people in need of water,, and onlyone was Unsuccessful. In that particular case, Mr. Talbot says, the problem lay. in an' abundance of stone rather than a lack of water. Switches from willows and fruit -bearing trees, like apple, cherry and pear, are suitable for witching, he says. The switch must be sym- metrical, Y-shaped, and of a branch not too 'thick around, or it will take the skin right off your hands." It is held horizontally in front of the diviner, who graps each arm of the switch with palms facing upward and thumbs pressed firmly against the ends of the branch. Elbows are held close to the body, and a slight pressure is applied to the switch. Traditionally, as the diviner advances, the item of the Y turns toward the ground when water is sensed, but when Mr. Talbot witches the whole switch moves up toward him. ,He describes the force ex- erted on the switch by water as being "like a magnet"; but adds; "I don't quite unders- tand it myself." And he .•notes that not everyone can witch for water. "Perhaps," he says, "some people have more electricity in them than- others." Mr. Talbot has found that a length of copper wire bent in a V-shape_' can be used to divine for water. But it will not work if two lengths are joined. "It works for hydro," he says; "but the current won't go through" for well witching. Aluminum wire will not work at all, he notes. Mr. Talbot has also ex- perimented with a piece of. coat -hanger, and the reaction from that "will pretty well lift you off your feet." The quality of the water he witches .is something he can- not determine. "But you can't with a drilled well either," he points out, "it could be sulphur water." Well witching, says . Mr. Talbot,' is used when a shallow well is desired, as op- posed to a drilled, well. And the depth of the witched well is supposed to be the distance between the first response of the switch and the greatest response. "I've nevertried that," he says, "but it's what I'm told." A bachelor farmer, Mr. Talbot retired to Granton 15 years ago from his Highbury Avenue farm. He's a member of the Happy Gang, a seniors' group in the village.