A Common Solution.pdf - Overeaters Anonymous

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Program Diversity
Mutual Acceptance
A COMMON SOLUTION:
DIVERSITY AND RECOVERY
Telephone Meetings: Diversity Around the World
One Answer, Many Paths
Cultural Diversity
Embracing Cultural Diversity
Poverty Is No Barrier
Three Cultures, One Home
Jewish Lesbian Finds a Home in OA
Twisted Symbol of Love
Found OA Through a Mexican Posada
Recovering in a Non-English Speaking Country
Sexuality and Gender Diversity
Life Diversity
Sexual Orientation and Working the Program
One Gay OA Experience
Being a Man in OA
Dear Son…
Different Ages, Like Minds
An Anorexic Perspective
Males Can Be Anorexics Too
Taking My Medicine
My Appetite: the Best Part of Me
Bipolar and an Honest Program
Pregnant and Abstinent
The Twelve Steps of OA
The Twelve Traditions of OA

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INTRODUCTION
As Overeaters Anonymous grows, our Fellowship becomes more diverse. The AA Big Book
observes, “We are people who normally would not mix” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4 th ed., p 17). Yet
mix we do, under the wisdom of Tradition One that reminds us “personal recovery depends upon OA
unity.”
We share a common problem of compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors, and
together we seek a common solution—recovery. The stories in this pamphlet illustrate how OA
members have found recovery amid the diversities of program, culture, gender and sexuality, and life.
Our stories disclose that within our diversities—sometimes because of them and sometimes
despite them—we have found a solution that works for us: practicing the Twelve Steps of Overeaters
Anonymous. By working together, we find unity in diversity and gain recovery.
We hope you are able to identify with and learn from these stories and to find hope for your
own recovery from this disease.
PROGRAM DIVERSITY
While the Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous show the path to recovery from
compulsive eating, a visit to any OA meeting will show ways of working the Steps that vary
significantly. How can this be?
“Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues . . .” (Tradition Ten of Overeaters
Anonymous). Working the Steps is the only path to recovery that OA endorses. Each member decides
when and how he or she will work the Steps, usually with the guidance of a sponsor. Sponsors share
their experience of working the Steps, and this experience varies widely. Some members recover with a
very structured program, abiding by strict sponsorship, while others benefit from a more flexible
approach. What works for some may not work for others. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of
Overeaters Anonymous, The Twelve-Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous, and the AA Big
Book are our guiding texts.
Specific eating plans are considered outside issues and therefore are not cited in meetings. OA
addresses this issue in the pamphlet Dignity of Choice and suggests that members may want to consult
a nutritionist or medical professional to develop plans appropriate for their individual health situations.
Compulsive eating can manifest itself in many ways: overeating, bingeing, grazing, bulimia or
anorexia; but we have a common solution in the Twelve Steps. The following stories illustrate the
diversity of program approaches to recovery from compulsive eating.
Mutual Acceptance
Three years ago, I moved to a neighboring state from a state where I had been actively
involved in OA for more than two years. I loved the meetings in my old state. I knew many people,
held many service positions, and was involved in the intergroup. It was hard starting from scratch with
a new OA community. What was worse, this new community did everything wrong (that is, different
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from what I was used to). I constantly compared my old meetings to the meetings in my new town.
They (the people in the new meetings) sat in rows facing the front; we (the people at my old
meetings) sat in a circle. They stayed seated while saying the closing prayer; we stood and held hands.
They had suggested lengths of abstinence for speaking; we allowed anyone to speak. The most
shocking difference of all was that they all followed the same strict food plan, while we encouraged
members to find individual food plans that worked for them.
I felt unaccepted. I couldn’t find a sponsor who would take me while I followed my old food
plan. I discovered later that their sponsors forbade some people from calling me. I was outraged! How
dare they judge me this way? What happened to “principles before personalities”? But when I was
honest, I had to admit I was doing as much judging as they were, if not more. I was driving an hour
back to my old meetings and complaining about “those people.” I dismissed anything said by anyone
who followed “that food plan.” I refused to participate actively in the meeting. I tried to convert
people to my way of thinking. I was contributing as much as anyone in any of the meetings to my
feeling of being cast out and rejected.
Then, because of an injury, I was unable to make the hour-long drive to my old meetings. I
knew I had to make the new OA meeting my home, because I had learned long ago there was nowhere
other than OA for me to go. So I opened my mind. I started listening to what “those people” said and
discovered that many of them said wise and insightful things I needed to hear. I discovered that
following the same food plan doesn’t make people all the same. Instead of trying to convert people, I
started sharing honestly at meetings about everything, including food and food plans.
And a funny thing started happening: as I became more accepting of other people, they
became more accepting of me. People started asking me to qualify at meetings. People called me.
People asked me to sponsor them. People shared with me that they had also felt like outcasts because
they didn’t follow the food plan, and they were grateful I had the courage to say so in front of the
group. People told me they had never realized that it was possible to successfully do OA a different
way. It was a wonderful, mutual process. I changed them, they changed me, and we all ended up the
better for it.
Now I’m moving back to my old town, and I will genuinely miss this OA community. But I
am looking forward to the chance to share with my old groups all that I learned by opening my mind
to a new community.
— Lifeline, September 2004
Telephone Meetings: Diversity Around the World
I’m a 100-pound (45-kg) loser and senior citizen, living in a rural coastal area in the United
States, and I am grateful that HP introduced me to OA telephone meetings. Every day I attend at least
one telephone conference meeting and get to hear experience, strength and hope from OA members
across the United States and around the globe. I’ve listened and shared with a teacher in Israel;
graduate students in Korea, Spain and England; a young wife in Panama; a woman in Australia;
multiple Canadians; soldiers on field-training maneuvers; a scientist in an isolated part of a Navajo
reservation; mothers nursing infants inside New York City apartments (child noises are not considered
unwanted background sounds in OA phone meetings); and members phoning from sheep and horse
barns somewhere on the great plains.
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Several members phone while commuting to work. I can sit in my small Pacific Northwest
coastal cabin and listen to New York City subway doors open and close as a fellow tells how he
handles his food cravings. A traveling clergyman calls from highway rest stops to share about making it
through the church potlucks he attends. One mother phones in on her morning walk and apologizes
when her speech slows down while pushing a baby stroller uphill. A woman in Florida walks outside
on her patio to speak while her sick husband sleeps undisturbed.
These members are my family-of-choice. A woman in Sweden leads one of the meetings;
another is often led by a forest ranger in a remote national park. Several leaders are legally blind and
use adaptive vision aids to read the format; others are housebound due to physical limitations,
including obesity. Some call from nursing homes, and many are full-time caregivers for disabled loved
ones. Meetings have been held while leaders read the format by candlelight during electrical outages.
We are a family of folks with food behavioral eating challenges. We are together, and we are equal.
The conference calls are free, but not toll-free. My phone company offers a good monthly
price for unlimited USA long-distance calls. I dial the conference number, give my pin (conference
identification number), and voila! I’m at an OA meeting! Most members offer the option to exchange
first names and phone numbers, and we phone each other after the meeting for outreach calls. Usually
there is time after the meeting closes (called “the parking lot”) to chat with each other and ask
questions. I’ve been told that two daily relapse meetings leave their parking lots open 24/7 for
members to call before bingeing. This can be a lifesaving service. Some OA members from other
countries use parking lots to chat with USA members by arranging a time to meet (similar to “meeting
for coffee somewhere”) and avoid outside-the-country long distance expenses.
Holiday phone marathons are a special bonus where meetings run all day for food-centered,
emotionally challenging days. These telephone events are announced in the regular meetings, and fliers
are emailed around.
The coolest meeting I ever attended was a phone marathon meeting held from midnight to 1
a.m., New Year’s Eve. Fifty-five OA members attended, and while more than half were in the new
year, the rest of us were attending the same meeting in the old year! How is that for diversity!
— J.Z., Seaview, Washington USA
One Answer, Many Paths
I came to OA five years ago and have been abstinent for the past year. Diversity in the OA
meetings has made this possible. Although the groups in my city are different in their format,
atmosphere and spirit, the same message is conveyed. The Twelve Steps are the answer to my disease
of compulsive overeating.
When I first joined OA, I couldn’t relate to the Big Book. I felt men had written it for other
men. We women think differently and deal with problems differently. So I attended meetings that
primarily used the OA “Twelve and Twelve.” Gradually, I began reading the Big Book, and some
passages started to make sense to me. Still, the language in the OA “Twelve and Twelve” was gentler,
and I could relate to it better. I decided to take what I needed and leave the rest.
Four years into OA, I had reached a plateau and needed something else, but I didn’t know
what it was. Then one day I heard a speaker talk about her need for more structure in her food plan
and that HOW meetings had helped her. At first, I thought HOW groups took a drastic approach, but
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the word “structure” made sense to me. For four years, I had struggled with my abstinence and
couldn’t figure out what the problem was. After sharing with this speaker, I realized I had nothing to
lose except more of the excess weight I had been carrying.
A month later, I started the OA/HOW program with a new sponsor and did my first three
Steps in 30 days. I had decided to commit for 30 days no matter what. It happened. The daily contact
with my sponsor and the plan of eating I had received began unraveling the mystery behind my
inability to stay abstinent. During this time, I found an old issue of Lifeline with an article about sugar
and flour, and that put the last pieces of my puzzling disease together. I finally saw what my body had
been trying to tell me. I had an allergy, not only to sugar, but also to white flour. I lost the cravings.
What a blessing to know there is a solution.
I feel strongly that God has made each of us different with different needs. Whether it’s the
Big Book or the OA “Twelve and Twelve,” an individual plan of eating or the HOW plan of eating,
we are all looking for the same solution to this disease of compulsive overeating. The solution is the
Twelve Steps, but we take different paths toward healing. Since Higher Power is different for each of
us, why should his will be the same for everyone? His will is an individual affair, just as our likes and
dislikes are individual. Diversity in OA has made it possible for me to enjoy life more fully. Thank
God, OA was there for me.
— Lifeline, February 2005
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Compulsive eating knows no geographic boundaries, speaks every language, and is no
respecter of peoples, heredity, poverty or prosperity. Using the OA globe that divides the world into
10 regions, a member can find many similarities and differences within and between the regions.
Thus, some regions speak one national language while others require that OA literature be
translated into five, 10 or even 35 languages. Within the same region, some cultures may experience a
scarcity of food while others have access to nearly unlimited food. In addition, religious traditions
often require navigating food and behavior choices. Overeaters Anonymous helps members find
recovery through the Twelve Steps, regardless of cultural diversity. Further, culture happens all around
us; whatever culture we are living within, our concern is to heal the disease inside us, to become
abstinent, and to recover from compulsive overeating.
When we focus on our differences, the disease grows bigger. When we focus on what unites
us, we find strength and recovery beyond our wildest dreams. These stories of recovery provide hope
by sharing the solution of healing our disease regardless of our cultural identities.
Embracing Cultural Diversity
According to one definition, culture relates to customs of a particular group or area. When I
went to my first meeting, all I knew was that I was different from you. I attended my first meeting in
California, but I was not born or raised in the USA, and English was not my first language. My
customs were not the same as yours; for example, I measured my weight in kilos and my food in
grams, rather than pounds and ounces.
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That was almost nine abstinent years ago. Today I know we have an equal-opportunity
disease. It doesn’t matter what language I speak or where I live, so long as I desire to stop eating
compulsively. In the OA rooms, I have learned to focus on our common solution (the Twelve Steps
and Twelve Traditions) rather than on the things that might pull us apart.
English is still my second language, and I still measure my food in grams. However, you have
taught me that if I focus on our differences, they grow bigger. When I focus on what unites us, that
becomes the guiding light in my life.
Today I feel a part of you, not apart from you.
— R.B., Tucson, Arizona USA
Poverty Is No Barrier
Despite being OA members, it is still easy for some compulsive eaters to believe our disease is
a byproduct of affluence—that we have too much money and too many materialistic choices in our
lives, are too greedy, have no willpower and should just rein in our appetites and control ourselves.
I am a British woman living in Namibia, southern Africa. Being here for several years has
provided me with an opportunity to learn much more about how our illness can affect people who live
in a developing country where people are desperately poor and have little access to food, but where the
problem still very much exists.
Of all the countries in the world, this country has the highest disparity between poverty and
wealth. When I set up an OA meeting here, I thought the only people attending would be wealthy and
would clearly have eating and body-image issues. I was wrong. Inquiries about OA also came from the
poorest of the poor, even those living in the “squatter area” of the former township and having no
fixed address.
The very poor compulsive overeater has enormous practical obstacles to recovery. Few can
afford to make a phone call (my mobile phone constantly shows missed calls from people who had
heard of OA but who could not afford to place a call and wanted me to call them back). Bus fares for
the six-mile trip from the poorest end of town were also too expensive for many.
As for food planning, developing countries often do not have access to healthy food choices.
Fresh fruit and vegetables may not grow because of climatic conditions, and imports can be
horrendously expensive. Before moving here, I thought if I had hardly any food choices, perhaps I
would not be able to binge. But I’ve learned that living in a poor country, lacking choice and money,
does not free one from food obsession.
The stories heard in our little meeting have been heartbreaking. Many compulsive eaters—and
their families—don’t know from one day to the next if they can get money to eat. All they know is that
if they do get food, it won’t be the healthy food many of us in the West rely on in our food planning.
It will be a stodgy maize meal or bread—maybe red meat if they are really lucky. Planning food can be
impossible. Our meeting has heard from compulsive eaters who, when food finally arrives in the
house, cannot stop themselves from eating the family’s entire allocation. Imagine the torture that
would go on in your mind if you knew your children needed to eat, but you simply couldn’t stop
eating the portions meant for them; and if you could manage to stop eating, the obsessive thoughts
remained, tearing your mind apart. Imagine thinking that not only are you poor and have no power or
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say in life, but that you also suspect you are crazy and secretly addicted to the one thing in life you
know you must share and be grateful for.
Despite this sadness, I feel amazingly encouraged by the things I have heard and seen here.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced here in OA is that in a country where the
legacy of apartheid is still all too recent (even churches are not racially mixed), in our OA meeting, rich
and poor, black and white hold hands, hug and care for each other. That is the power of this
Fellowship.
Our world is full of people suffering with this disease in places where we would never dream a
person could be as sick as we are. I believe we should look beyond our own countries and borders to
do our best to carry the message to those who still suffer; perhaps we can be more creative about how
we provide this support. For those of us who can afford to buy healthy food and choose from more
than one food substance, let’s thank our HP every day for that privilege!
—Lifeline, July 2006
Three Cultures, One Home
Although I was born in the United States, I grew up in a multicultural
(Russian/Ukrainian/Latvian) home. All celebrations had strong cultural food norms. Special foods;
rules about what is polite when people offer you food; and even cultural identity were defined by what
one ate (“How can you be Russian and not like . . . ?”).
These habits and rules became intertwined with my disease, and clarifying the separate parts
has been part of my recovery journey. How can I keep my cultural identity and yet be abstinent? Have
I been using the food habits from the people around me as an excuse to overeat, calling this behavior
loyalty to my clan? How can I attend major family celebrations and remain polite? Will abstinent
eating marginalize me from the inner core of the family? In what ways can I still belong?
I have found these things to be true: (1) my abstinence is more important than my culture,
and (2) no one is asking me to give up my cultural identity in the OA rooms. Further, no one in my
family is so focused on my eating behavior (as if I am the center of everyone’s world) that they pass
judgment or send me “into the outer darkness.” Mostly, family members are hospitable and curious
about what they can prepare for my meals when I go visit.
The Twelve-Step program has given me the ability to discern what I find truly important as
well as what I value and find precious. Having the blessing of my cultural roots, yet still very much an
American Baby Boomer, I can “take what I need and leave the rest.”
With the clarity of an abstinent mind, I have identified parts of my personality that are
prominent in the different branches of my family. The Russian part of me loves quiet, meditative
spirituality and prayer. I get to bring that home to OA. The Ukrainian part of me loves connecting
with people, playing, and feeling deeply. I get to bring that home to OA. The Latvian part of me loves
order, routine, rationality and predictability. I get to bring that home to OA. And all parts of me love
to cook from scratch, making healthy food taste delicious!
What a homecoming I have allowed myself! Welcome to OA; Welcome Home.
P.S. My family likes me better now that I have sanity, too.
– K.S., Olympia, Washington USA
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Jewish Lesbian Finds a Home in OA
I am a grateful compulsive overeater and member of OA who has moved from a size 22 to a
size 10. I have maintained a 70-pound (32-kg) weight loss for over eight years, thanks to the grace of
this program. But, as a Jewish lesbian, I have also had difficulties and challenges in OA.
Feeling so different from other members was very hard for me as a newcomer. I was usually the
only Jew and the only lesbian in my meetings. Having grown up in a narrow-minded, anti-Semitic
community where I experienced an atmosphere of hostile discrimination, I felt alienated from any
Christian content in the program. This was during the time when the Lord’s Prayer was an acceptable
program prayer.
Members also assumed I was heterosexual, and I had to find the courage to come out as a
lesbian as well as a Jew in order to feel honest and present rather than secretive.
Nevertheless, I needed the program desperately, and something wonderful happened over the
years as I persisted in attending meetings and working a program of recovery. The common problem
of compulsive eating created fellowship in spite of the differences. The relief, joy and forgiveness I
experienced from doing this spiritual Step work, plus the physical recovery and abstinence I was
granted as a result, connected me more and more to my OA sisters and brothers. I made true friends
who supported and accepted me just as I am.
Now, although I still enjoy being with Jews and lesbians, I choose to spend much of my time
with people in recovery—with whom I have the deepest, most grateful bond.
— L.S., Santa Rosa, California USA
Twisted Symbol of Love
When someone suggested I write an article for Lifeline as an African American
and address it to African Americans, I felt conflicted. The disease of compulsive
overeating is cunning, baffling and powerful, and it does not discriminate. It will cripple
and maim, regardless of race, sex, age, education or financial status. My disease was not
concerned about my race when I retrieved food from the garbage, stole food, ate seven to
eight meals a day, gained back the 70 pounds (32 kg) I lost, hid my “sugar fixes” in the
trunk of my car away from my family, ended up with a cholesterol count of 300, was
prescribed medication for acid reflux, and limped daily in pain because of the damage
done to my knees by the excess weight.
At the same time, I understood that food was often a twisted symbol of love in my
family and community. Celebrations usually included tons of spicy and fried foods, fat-filled starches
and vegetables, and a too-wide variety of binge-producing desserts. I ate to intoxication and bemoaned
being out of control.
In September 1987 I came to Overeaters Anonymous after hearing the warning
that many of the meetings would be predominantly white. My low bottom of pain and
degradation rendered me willing to go to any lengths to recover from this illness. That
was my first step toward ending my daily physical, emotional and spiritual suicide with
food. I still cringe at the use of the word “suicide” in describing my abnormal relationship
with food. Any lesser term would only collaborate with my denial.
I cannot brag about working this program 100 percent. There is no such thing. I
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will never be cured, fixed or perfect. However, I am recovering. I am not stupid, bad or
weak. I am powerless and suffer from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual malady.
My healing comes one day at a time, based on my fit spiritual condition.
Working the Twelve Steps of OA with a sponsor and using the tools is the
foundation of my restoration. I don’t have to do everything today, and I can’t do it alone.
Believe me, I’ve tried. Also, I am a recovering self-hater. Today I am coming to believe
that the God of my understanding loves me and wants me to have all the abundance in his
universe. I am willing to be humble. I cannot do God’s job.
— Lifeline, February 2007
Found OA Through a Mexican Posada
Approximately three and a half years ago, I received a miracle in these rooms. My mom had
passed away a few months before from complications of diabetes. One of her legs had been amputated,
and she weighed more than 225 pounds (102 kg). The saddest part was that I was headed in the same
direction. I weighed over 200 pounds (91 kg). I was depressed, my diabetes was out of control, and
my kidneys were beginning to fail. I had to inject myself with insulin several times a day.
I was 63 and had tried every diet known to me, including laxatives, injections and
amphetamines. My doctor refused to renew my amphetamine prescription because my blood pressure
was too high. Therefore, my friends and I would take my mom to Mexico to get amphetamines and
binge on Mexican food.
In December 2006 our church was getting ready to have a Mexican Posada (a nine-day
observance in anticipation of Christmas) with lots of food, when some young ladies came to talk to us
about a new OA meeting. I thought, “How silly of somebody to talk to us about OA just before
Christmas.” But the first meeting would be in Spanish, and I was desperate enough to go. I have been
in the US over 50 years, but I still prefer to speak my native language and thought I would be more
comfortable with persons from my same culture.
I learned that the beauty of OA is in our differences: it does not matter what culture or
background we come from, if we are working or retired, or even what language we speak. We are all
here because we have the same illness and compulsion for food.
When I started working with my sponsor, I used to tell myself, “She is so young and so
Anglo. What can she possibly teach me about diets?” Now I know I needed to find humility, leave my
fears and pride behind, and ask for help. My sponsor told me I had to attend three meetings a week
and call three people a day, but we had only one meeting in Spanish. Again I asked myself, “What if
they don’t like me, or don’t understand me or my accent?” or “I am not going to be accepted because
of my culture.” Now I realize my sick mind wanted me to continue with my isolation.
I find a lot of love and acceptance at the meetings. I have heard wonderful stories of recovery
and have received great benefits from hearing the stories and experiences from the many new friends
I’ve made.
After attending OA approximately 18 months, I received a miracle: my doctor took me off
insulin and cholesterol medication after I let go of approximately 68 pounds (31 kg).
I will always have diabetes and will always be a compulsive overeater, but I have oral
medication for my diabetes and OA for my compulsive eating.
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Thanks, OA.
—G. M., San Antonio, Texas
Recovering in a Non-English Speaking Country
Being in recovery has demanded a great deal of willingness, determination and perseverance. I
started my recovery on May 5, 1992. I was 26 years old and completely desperate with my food
obsession. Some months earlier, I had learned about OA in Costa Rica thanks to an article in a
newspaper. But they didn’t mention the contact information. After unsuccessfully looking for them, I
started a self-help group for food addicts. Some weeks later I got OA’s phone number, and my little
group was absorbed by OA.
OA in Costa Rica started in 1989. Members from the US, Israel and Mexico got it started,
and in 1992 it was bigger than it is now. The cofounders worked hard on translations. The problem
was that we had translated a lot of non-Conference-approved literature without knowing it. We didn’t
have the Twelve Traditions in Spanish, so you can imagine the mistakes we made.
We understood abstinence as “you measure your food, you call a sponsor, and you have a
food plan that can include the amount of food you want. If you plan to eat a big pot of rice, it’s OK as
long as you don’t eat an extra bite.” It sounded great, so for several years I ate big portions of food as
long as they were in my plan. Although I stayed thin, the discomfort in my stomach told me
something was wrong with that definition. When I started learning English and communicating with
other fellows, I discovered different definitions of abstinence and recovery.
My first trip to the US was August 1993, when I attended the OA Convention in San
Francisco. My current English is far from perfect, but at that time it was almost non-existent. I had the
courage to go because I was eager to learn more about our program. At the Convention I bought
literature we didn’t have in Costa Rica, and that’s how I realized we were using outside literature.
I stopped eating refined sugar, white bread and white rice on March 2, 1993, and I’ve been
abstinent from those items ever since. But I was still bingeing on “healthy” foods like tortilla chips,
granola or whole wheat cakes and cookies. I learned that I had to avoid many “healthy” items in order
to stay abstinent. My last binge was in November 1997, and I’ve been abstinent ever since.
In the meantime, OA almost died in Costa Rica. When meetings don’t follow the Traditions,
the result can be a disaster. Our fellowship became like a social club with a lot of fun but little
recovery. Serious fights divided us, and I was part of them. Some members and I defended the use of
Conference-Approved literature only, but our cofounders had worked so hard translating outside
literature they didn’t want to give it up. Finally, the lack of physical recovery shown by many of our
members gave us little credibility.
Tiny meetings were held for several years; one meeting died and another one was created. But
I always kept coming back. I remember when I had to take two or three buses to go to a meeting, and
I was fully pregnant! Other times I invested a lot of money on taxis and babysitters just to go to a tiny
meeting. HP always provided for my needs.
Compared to those times, I live in paradise now. My home meeting is five blocks from my
house. We have 15 regular members, and many of them are abstinent and recovering on all three
levels. There are still some who don’t get a sponsor, don’t work the Steps and are not abstinent. But
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they are always welcome as long as they meet the only requirement stated in Tradition Three. Now we
have plenty of approved translations, so we have a better idea of what our program is about.
I’ve always worked my program with a sponsor and have had several sponsors over the years,
both Costa Ricans and foreigners. I have worked all the Steps in depth several times. My home
meeting regularly studies the Steps and Traditions throughout the year, and we begin again every
January.
My food plan is simple and repetitive. I have a clear list of the foods (I’m vegetarian) and
behaviors that are allowed and not allowed. I measure my food most of the time and have certain
hours when I know I can eat. I usually serve the food for a meal all at once so I can avoid seconds. I
eat nutritious meals in moderate amounts, which were recommended by a nutritionist according to my
age and gender.
I use all the tools. I have a sponsor, and I am sponsoring four people at this time. I also give
plenty of service. Abstinence for me is to live in moderation, which applies to everything in my life.
It’s not easy, not just with food, but also with my defects of character. And just for today, I
keep doing my footwork.
—A. L., Santa Ana, Costa Rica
SEXUALITY AND GENDER DIVERSITY
OA members come in many sizes and shapes, and from many backgrounds. While we span the
spectrum of gender identity, sexual orientation and sexuality, we have a common purpose: to recover
from compulsive eating. Women and men, no matter what sexual orientation they have, may have
different approaches for achieving recovery.
As compulsive overeaters, we are usually people with an insatiable appetite for food. For many
of us, this also extends to our sexuality. Yet our disease can also be one of isolation. As limited or
excessive as our experiences may be, concerning sexuality we take our cue from the AA Big Book: “We
do not want to be the arbiter of anyone’s sex conduct” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4 th ed., p. 69). We
study the Steps and do the work they recommend to become right-sized in all our affairs. For many of
us, practicing the Twelve Steps not only gives us a daily reprieve from compulsive eating, but also
provides a program that improves our lives and relationships.
In this section, we present stories of how OA members navigate gender, sexual orientation and
sexuality as they travel on their recovery journeys. The stories illustrate some specific challenges and
program solutions.
Sexual Orientation and Working the Program
I am a food addict, bulimic and lesbian. At 23, I was married to a wonderful man and had a
nice home and career. Perfection? Not quite. Even though I loved my husband, I knew something
wasn’t right. At 26, I found out something new about myself: I was a lesbian.
Coping? I thought about suicide but instead used food to stuff my feelings down. That’s how
I had dealt with most of life. Death by food or by suicide—what was the difference?
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At 29, I came out to my husband, family and friends. I found new freedom in telling the truth
about being a lesbian, even though there were consequences, a divorce, family “banning” and loss of
friends.
I had tried OA at age 26 and thought the people were whiners. I just needed to lose weight
on my own. I grew fatter and the pain became unbearable. Fast forward 19 years: two more failed
relationships; diabetes with complications; asthma; arthritis; diet clubs; up to 297 pounds (135 kg),
down to 209 pounds (95 kg) and back up to 225 pounds (102 kg). Results were nil. I saw another
lesbian who had what I wanted—serenity, peace and a sustained weight loss. She shared her story, and
I was desperate enough at age 45 and 225 pounds (102 kg) to enter the rooms.
Since I lived in a conservative part of the country, I was afraid of how I would be received by
OA members. No problem! I was welcomed and loved, and I could even share some of my issues.
Is there a difference in how I work the program since I’m a lesbian? None that I have noticed.
I have a wonderful sponsor and great home meetings. I give service. I work the Tools, do the Steps
and sponsor. When a person wants me as a sponsor, I am up front about my sexual orientation. No
one has cared; they only want what I have. Anonymity has allowed me the freedom to not be
concerned about someone sharing information outside the OA rooms that would affect my livelihood.
Results? OA has saved my life! Physically, I now weigh 167 pounds (76 kg), my diabetes is
under control, I am off all diabetic medications, and my arthritis doesn’t flare up as much.
Emotionally, I am healing and dealing with life—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awe-filled
moments. Spiritually, I am closer to God and know that God loves me.
Life is still life. What made the difference? My Higher Power, OA members and my sponsor,
who gave me gifts of acceptance, love, health, freedom from fear, and courage to be who God made
me. What a blessing to be seen as a human being who is worthy of God’s love.
– V.J., Richmond, Virginia USA
One Gay OA Experience
When I first walked through the doors of Overeaters Anonymous, I didn’t know what to
expect. I knew OA was a place where I could find help with my overeating and my weight and I was
finally desperate enough to try recovery.
I found the members of the Fellowship friendly and supportive. They told me there was a way
out of the pain. I believed them as I saw the joy of recovery in their faces and the physical recovery on
their bodies. The love I felt at the meetings created a sense of safety I’ve never experienced anywhere
else. In fact, I felt so safe that I divulged a lifelong secret.
In my fifth OA meeting, I shared that I am a gay man. It was the first place I publicly declared
my sexual orientation. This happened 20 years ago, at a time when being “out” in the area where I
lived was potentially dangerous. Religious condemnation, social discrimination and physical assault
were commonly realized threats. Yet the meeting warmly embraced me as I was and am. The members
thanked me for my courage and offered their full support. They were true guardians of the Twelfth
Tradition as they respected my anonymity and allowed me to divulge that part of my persona as I saw
fit.
With recovery, abstinence and Twelve-Step work in my life, I have discovered my true self and
fully embraced my sexuality. I surround myself with people who accept me fully. I made Ninth-Step
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amends to my family; it included a long talk about my homosexuality and growth as a person. I
abstinently dated several men and among them found the love of my life. Many of my OA friends
celebrated our commitment ceremony in 1994 and our legal marriage in 2008 in Canada.
I am privileged to be a member of the gay and lesbian community, with whom I share a
special spirit, plus I enjoy blessings beyond belief as a member of Overeaters Anonymous. I bring a
unique view to issues facing compulsive eaters. It’s an honor to carry the message of recovery to other
gay and lesbian people who see that, like everyone else, they can recover from this disease.
Is my experience really any different from that of other OA members? It is in some ways,
perhaps, because we each have unique experiences. Our common bond as recovering compulsive eaters
transcends our differences as we share our experience, strength and hope through the Twelve Steps and
Twelve Traditions. We help each other find a better life without the pain of compulsion and addiction,
no matter who we are.
– M.B., Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Being a Male in OA
I felt great trepidation when I walked into the rooms of OA 14 years ago. I didn’t want to be
there at all. I didn’t want to admit I was powerless over food, but at 427 pounds (194 kg) the evidence
was stacked against me. Summoning all my courage and putting up huge walls around myself, I went
to my first meeting. The meeting had mostly women, but a few men were there as well. At the next
meeting I was the only man in the room; as I expected, I was the biggest person there.
I didn’t want to be there. I kept thinking, “Be a man—you can do this on your own; you
don’t need to be here.” Unfortunately, my experience up to that point had proven otherwise. Trying to
do it on my own always ended in failure.
I knew I needed to do something different, and I heard the Twelve Steps were the way out of
where I was. I needed to put down the food and work the Steps to stay abstinent. I thought I had to
have the “perfect” sponsor before I could get started. I wanted someone just like me. He had to be a
man, around my age, with 100 or more pounds (45 kg) to lose. He had to be straight; he had to be
white. Also, I preferred that he be of the same faith I was. How else could he understand me?
Of course that made my list of potential sponsors rather small, and I learned I was identifying
out. I needed to recognize everyone in the rooms had the same fatal disease I did. We were all
compulsive overeaters. Then I realized how alike we were after all.
Over the years I have had sponsors who were male, female, gay, straight, black and white.
They have been older than me, younger than me, married and single. I’ve learned something about
recovery from each of them. I could easily have used my beliefs about “being a man” to identify out of
the program. Instead, I am grateful my disease has brought me to a place where I can identify. I’ve
learned to ask for help from my Higher Power and from all those around me with whom I share this
disease.
—R. H.
Dear Son . . .
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You just left for your home a few minutes ago and there are so many things I want to talk
about.
It doesn’t bother me that you are fat. What saddens me is that you are hurting.
Seeing you follow in my footsteps makes me feel guilty and frustrated: guilty because I helped
establish your pattern of behavior; frustrated because sharing like this is the only thing I can do about
it, and I don’t think it’s enough.
My whole life was centered around food. I overate to cover my feelings and compensate for
my inadequacies. It didn’t take much to send me to the icebox.
When I went to Overeaters Anonymous, my only thought was to shed a few pounds. It
turned out losing weight was not my problem. Almost anybody can lose weight on any one of
thousands of diets. How do I feel about myself? That is the big one!
I always thought I was a well-adjusted person—happy, friendly, creative and active. But the
fact is I was carrying around frustrations and guilt that I could forget about while I was eating. I still
have feelings of frustration and guilt, but at least I don't overeat about them now.
Mind you, I never knew all this until three years ago. One night shortly after I joined OA, I
received a telephone call that disturbed me greatly. When I hung up, my reaction was to open the
refrigerator. The food was halfway to my mouth when I checked myself—or more correctly, I felt my
Higher Power resisting and winning.
Even if I had not lost a pound, finding as much of myself as I did during my first few months
in OA would have been worthwhile. I discovered that the only really important things I need to know
in this life are truths about myself. Getting a little insight into myself and doing something about it is
quite invigorating.
It is not impossible I could have learned all this some other way, but in my case OA must take
the credit.
Son, I know you pretty well and can hardly see you participating in any kind of program. If
you went to an OA meeting, you would probably be turned off by some of the references to God. But
OA is in no way a religious organization. If some groups try to make it out to be a Christian-oriented
outfit, they are completely out of line.
Many people who come to OA never return after the first time. The program isn’t tough, but
newcomers sometimes get the wrong impression. The truth is you have to want to succeed pretty
badly to stick it out. If a person isn’t ready for OA, they can find all kinds of excuses to avoid it.
There is no disgrace in asking for help. Everybody needs it. I only regret that it took me so
long to find out about the help that was available.
At 30, you are still young. There is so much you can do with your life. Please don’t throw it
away just to satisfy your craving for food. It isn’t worth it.
I suppose I sound like a fanatic. If so, I’m sorry. Unless you bring up the subject, I promise
never to mention it again.
All my love, Dad.
—Lifeline, May 1981
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LIFE DIVERSITY
Compulsive eating is a threefold disease: physical, emotional and spiritual. Regardless of our
status in life, our ability to be healthy and successful is undermined by the presence of this disease. The
following stories demonstrate that despite our powerlessness over events such as medical conditions,
chronic disease, pregnancy or aging, we still have a common bond and a solution that unites us in
recovery. Working the Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous is that solution.
Different Ages, Like Minds
I first came to OA at 23. I live in a small retirement town. At my OA meetings I was usually
the youngest person by at least 30 years. When I walked into my first meeting, I thought, “How am I
going to relate to these people? They’re all twice my age!”
I couldn’t have been more wrong! I have learned many things from the “old” people. I was
able to see how special I am, how special we all are. I spent most of my life afraid the world would eat
me alive, ashamed of who I was and how I looked. The knowledge and experiences of older OA
members gave me the courage to believe in myself.
I was embarrassed to join OA and admit I had an eating disorder. I viewed compulsive
overeaters as older, retired women. Boy, was I humbled when I saw I was a compulsive overeater, yet
nothing like the stereotyped image I had. Most importantly, the elderly members showed me how
fortunate I was to realize I have a crippling, deadly disease.
I understand and appreciate how lucky I am to have found OA at 23, not 63. I have a lifetime
ahead of me where I don’t have to obsess over food and my weight. The people in my meetings always
tell me how lucky I am to be getting help at a young age. I don’t have to go through a lifetime of pain
and misery at the hands of this disease.
Thanks to these extraordinary people, I know I can have a fulfilling and happy life, the life HP
wants me to lead, a life free from the obsession with food. I thank God every day for sending these
wonderful OA members my way. I couldn’t have achieved and maintained abstinence without them!
— Lifeline, March/April 2006
An Anorexic Perspective
I am an anorexic, and I was concerned that in sharing details of my story, others in the
Fellowship would not immediately identify. I have never overeaten or binged, only restricted and
starved. However, as I prepared my words, I realized that many people in OA might identify with
some of my thinking. Furthermore, I realized that for me, as an anorexic, it’s the thinking behind the
behaviors that lets me know I’ve come to the right place and I belong in OA.
I’ll be honest that even the name “Overeaters Anonymous” can feel exclusive to me—if I let it.
As I hear other peoples’ stories, I don’t identify with many of the behaviors they describe. I don’t
identify with eating bags and boxes and gallons of stuff; I don’t identify with gaining 20, 50, or 100
pounds (9, 22, or 45 kg). I don’t identify with spending tons of money on weight-loss products.
But I do identify with the feelings. I identify with the isolation. I identify with feeling notgood-enough
and less-than. I identify with the pain this disease inflicts, the emotional void and
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spiritual vacuum. That identification lets me know I’ve come to a place that can help me, where I do
belong.
Fortunately, the Twelve Steps do not care about my size if I choose to work them thoroughly
and honestly. The Steps will deliver the promises to me as equally as they will to my overweight
counterparts in the rooms.
I worked hard for those promises. I used all the tools of this program every day, including
sponsorship, meal plan, reading and writing, anonymity, service, making recovery-based phone calls
and attending meetings. And I heard the stories of others. I heard the messages other people had the
courage to share. I heard others share their feelings, insecurities and pain as well as their joy, peace and
love. I heard other peoples’ mistakes and imperfect program work and, through their examples, they
gave me permission to be perfectly imperfect. That liberated me from the death-grip of all-or-nothing,
black-or-white thinking that ruled my old anorexic life.
If I had wanted to, I could have easily isolated in this Fellowship. I could have easily used the
excuse “no one can understand me because no one else is anorexic,” and I could have made myself
terminally unique. But my Higher Power gave me the willingness to look for the similarities and not
the differences; to look past the obvious behaviors of overeating and weight gain; to see the mental
obsession and emotional pain most of us share.
If people are struggling in this program and feel like no one understands them, I would ask,
“Do you look for the similarities or the differences?” I believe we will find whatever it is we look for.
Today I look for recovery, and I find it all around me.
— S., Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Males Can Be Anorexics Too
I came into OA in Miami 25 years ago as the result of a makeshift intervention. A dear friend
invited me to her house; I was always going there anyway. Once there, four ladies confronted me: my
friend, her rabbi and two other ladies. They told me what I had not heard before: my obsession with
diet and exercise was not normal; eating nothing for an indefinite period was not normal; and
weighing half of normal weight was harmful and potentially fatal. They told me I had a disease with a
name, anorexia nervosa; they had a solution called Overeaters Anonymous; and they wanted me to
join them in that solution.
Once in OA, I met wonderful people from many backgrounds who had a common goal: to
stop abusing themselves with food. They gave me a warm welcome, and I fit well into the Fellowship.
Although most were compulsive overeaters, they understood my pain quite well, and I understood
theirs. Together we began a journey toward recovery, one day at a time.
Today I tend to be the only recovering anorexic at any given meeting. But I also have been the
only male, the only white person, the only gentile, the only English-speaker. The differences are
irrelevant. I have never been the odd person out. I am still a valued member of an enormous
Fellowship of people recovering from eating disorders. OA is a diverse Fellowship, but we all have one
thing in common: a journey toward recovery, one day at a time.
— M.S., Louisville, Kentucky USA
Taking My Medicine
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I returned to OA in March of 2000 after a 10-year relapse. I became abstinent immediately
and have been abstinent ever since. I had come back to OA feeling hopeless that I would ever be able
to return to my normal weight and stay there. I was desperately seeking spiritual and emotional
healing.
How delighted I was to discover that God was now doing for me what I could not do for
myself! I slowly lost all the excess weight. In 2003, however, after fainting several times and dealing
with other unpleasant symptoms, I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia.
My doctor told me to start eating several more times a day at three-to-four hour intervals. My
initial reaction was fear. I was happily maintaining a 60-pound (27-kg) weight loss and enjoyed my
food plan. How could I start eating every three to four hours?
The next morning during my quiet time I put that question into HP’s hands. Like a lightning
bolt the answer came, almost like a voice: “My child, I said you had to eat more often; I did not say
you had to eat more food.” And just like that, relief washed over me. That was nearly six years ago,
and I am now maintaining a 70-pound (32-kg) weight loss.
Rarely do I exhibit hypoglycemic symptoms because I “take my medicine” every three to four
hours. I don’t have to eat compulsively anymore, and for that I am grateful to the OA Twelve-Step
program of recovery.
— G.V.B., Haymarket, Virginia USA
My Appetite: The Best Part of Me
This week, as I celebrate 13 years’ abstinence from bingeing and unpredictable spirals of
weight gain and loss, I revel in a recovery that has given me a life rich with experience and healing.
Along the way, I have released 60 pounds (27 kg) of physical, spiritual and emotional weight.
After 10 years’ abstinence, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My life changed forever. I
sat surrounded by friends, with the edge of a cracker in my mouth, unable to bite, chew or swallow a
morsel of it. Chemotherapy had erased my taste for food; my appetite was gone.
The chemotherapy successfully shrank the cancer enough to make it operable. But in the
recovery process, a stomach fistula (hole) formed and made normal eating impossible until it healed 14
weeks later. Consequently, for 23 days post-surgery, I ate nothing by mouth whatsoever: no food, no
water. After that, the doctors inserted a feeding tube into my small intestine, bypassing the stomach.
Then they said, “You are losing your salivary mechanism. Since we all swallow a quart of saliva every
day, food or no food, we want you to have hard candy.” Hard candy! After ten years’ abstinence from
white sugar!
Even in my narcotized state, I called my sponsor. She said to me, “We had a woman on a
strict food plan who was told ‘no vegetables, no fiber,’ and the woman replied, ‘No way! I must have
vegetables, I must have fiber.’ In the end, we buried her.” She then insisted, “M_, you are in Rome.
When in Rome, you do as the Romans do. You will eat hard candy; that, and a feeding tube, is your
food plan for today.”
During my 47 days of hospitalization, the OA members who slipped into my curtained-off
area nightly helped my healing process. Two or even 10 members at a time (exceeding the visitor
limit) came for quiet meetings and stayed to massage and comfort me. This illness has created lifelong
friendships with OAers I had known only casually before this time.
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When my stomach healed, it took four months to relearn how to eat while I slowly weaned
myself off the hard candy. When I asked for a new “doctor-approved” plan of eating, I heard, “You are
now on the Trial-and-Error Plan. Try it. If you vomit, it’s an error.” Thus, I learned to live with this
new stomach that has been irreparably scarred to save my life.
The miraculous fact that I still live is in no small way due to the teachings of this program:
together we can do what we could never do alone. We have no opinion about outside issues, including
food plans. What would be extreme under any normal circumstance became lifesaving for me at a
particular time and place. By sticking close to my sponsor, my fellows and my program, my life
blossomed once again. All it took was honesty, openness and willingness; and then life forced me to sit
back and allow Higher Power to orchestrate the rest.
While working with incredibly dedicated doctors and sponsors to heal from two very physical
diseases—cancer and compulsive overeating—I learned that my appetite is the best part of me. By
grace of Higher Power, my appetite—my élan, my joie de vivre—has returned to me within a program
that gives it appropriate boundaries and a full life in which to express that energy.
— M.R.D., Brooklyn, New York USA
Bipolar and an Honest Program
Hi, my name is M__ and I am a compulsive overeater. I also have a diagnosis of bipolar
disorder. I think that having a co-occurring psychiatric diagnosis is a common form of diversity in the
Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous, and having bipolar disorder definitely affects how I work my
program.
For a long time, I used my psychiatric diagnosis as an excuse for overeating and being
overweight. I blamed the weight gain on my medications, and I would overeat to deal with the painful
emotions I felt when I was manic or depressed. I would think, “My life with bipolar disorder is so
crummy; I deserve to overeat. I need something as a treat, and there’s nothing else in my life.” I
isolated and ate alone to comfort myself.
I had gotten sober in another Twelve-Step fellowship years earlier, but I had to get really
desperate to be willing to work a Twelve-Step program on my eating habits. Finally, in January 2008,
I was so fed up with being obese and with my crazy eating habits that I turned to Overeaters
Anonymous. I was blessed with abstinence early on, but I found that when I abstained from
overeating, the painful emotions I had been trying to avoid came roaring to the surface. I had to learn
to use the tools and the Steps to deal with my emotional ups and downs. I used the tools of writing,
literature, telephone, meetings and sponsorship, in particular, to cope with my feelings.
Getting abstinent and working an active OA program have not cured my bipolar disorder, but
I have gained a new set of skills to use in coping with difficult feelings and tough life situations. My
professional mental health providers support my involvement in OA, and they can see how I’ve grown
and changed over the past few months.
I have been coming to OA for a little over six months, and I have about six months of
continuous abstinence. I go to four meetings a week and try to write and make phone calls every day.
These aspects of the program helped me a lot recently, when I was going through a change in my
medications. The Twelve-Step program can work wonders for those of us with co-occurring
psychiatric disorders. As it says in the AA Big Book “… those, too, who suffer from grave emotional
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and mental disorders … do recover if they have the capacity to be honest” (Alcoholic Anonymous, 4 th
ed., p. 58). Honesty with ourselves, plus willingness to put the program’s tools to good use in our
lives, can bring us great joy and serenity.
I wish every person with a “dual diagnosis” peace, joy and abstinence for today.
— M.A.H., St. Louis, Missouri USA
Pregnant and Abstinent
I know pregnant women in OA have had varying experiences with their food, so I’d like to
share mine. Before becoming pregnant I had been in OA for six years and abstinent for five years. My
disease history included a little anorexia, a little bulimia, a lot of compulsive overeating, calorie
counting and obsession with the scale. My food plan consisted of three weighed and measured meals
with one snack. I adhered to it strictly, going to restaurants for two meals a week tops and trying my
best to get meals to fit my plan. It worked great! I maintained a weight of 120 pounds (54 kg) on my
5-foot 5-inch (165 cm) frame for those years.
Things changed when I got pregnant. I planned to use my food plan and add a 300-calorie
snack, as much of the pregnancy literature recommended. However, I had not planned to lose weight
my first trimester because of extreme nausea. When I finally came out of the nausea, “famished” does
not begin to describe the way I felt. My food sponsor, a wonderful member whose flexible thinking
complemented my strict thinking, suggested I listen to my hunger and make food decisions with my
Higher Power. This suggestion petrified me. But I was desperate to find a way of eating sanely and
healthily, and for the sake of my baby, not denying myself.
I gave the suggestion a try. I stayed in close touch with my sponsor and used my original food
plan, but added snacks when I got especially hungry. Sometimes I called or emailed my sponsor twice
a day to get feedback on what would be sane choices. I also learned to pause and pray, asking my
Higher Power to help me listen to my body and to be honest about my emotions. Using these
strategies, I was able to make food decisions in a sane manner.
My subsequent two pregnancies were much the same, with an added challenge of getting the
stomach flu three times with my third pregnancy and finding it challenging to come through the
sicknesses with sane food choices. However, my strategies worked, and again I got through the
pregnancy (and nursing), gaining a healthy amount of weight and refraining from bingeing and
compulsively eating.
Little did I know that besides three healthy children, I would receive an added gift from
program and my Higher Power. I discovered that my body does know the difference between real
hunger and emotional hunger, if I stay in close touch with my HP and my fellow OA members while
praying and meditating often. I discovered I wanted to be free of the scale; my body knows its healthy
weight. After pregnancy and nursing were over, I discovered that although some flexibility was good, I
needed structure.
Making the decisions about food during the day, in a way, caused me to think about food
more than I wanted to. I went back to my nutritionist, and we created a food plan with three optional
snacks, which eventually we whittled down to two. We also agreed that she would weigh me twice a
year so I could concentrate on what my body was saying and not on what the scale was saying. My
weight has not fluctuated more than a pound (0.5 kg) in the three years since my last pregnancy. What
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freedom! I now feel closer to my Higher Power and more in touch with my body and spirit than ever
before.
Thank you, HP, for these growing opportunities.
— Anonymous
THE TWELVE STEPS OF OA
1. We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure
them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that
out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to
compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Permission to use the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous for adaptation granted by AA World Services, Inc.
THE TWELVE TRADITIONS OF OA
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OA unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express
Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the compulsive overeater
who still suffers.
6. An OA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OA name to any related facility or
outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary
purpose.
7. Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may
employ special workers.
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9. OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees
directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA name ought never be
drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always
maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public
media of communication.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.
Permission to use the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous for adaptation granted by AA World Services, Inc.
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