Dear Abby: I want you to know that you saved my life. I was a lonely, desperate woman, dying a slow and painful death. I had an eating disorder and weighed more than 400 pounds. I was taking many different medications and suffering from depression, high blood pressure and other ailments. Most of them were the result of my addictive eating. I wore a size 52 dress and had 89-inch hips. I had trouble caring for myself and I wanted to die.

One day, I saw a letter you had printed from a woman who seemed to know what I was feeling. She had gone to a 12-step program and was happy, successful and free from her addictive eating disorder.

Seeing her letter gave me a spark of hope. I sought and found a program called Overeaters Anonymous and began attending meetings. I took a sponsor and am in recovery from the food addiction. I lost more than 300 pounds and have lived in a normal-sized body for eight years. (It took a long time to lose that weight safely and sanely.)