We of Overeaters Anonymous have made a discovery. At the very first meeting we attended, we learned that we were in the clutches of a dangerous illness, and that willpower, emotional stability and self-confidence, which some of us had once possessed, were no defense against it.
We have found that the reasons for the illness are not what is important. What deserves the attention of the still-suffering compulsive overeater is this: there is a proven, workable method by which we can arrest our illness.
The OA recovery program is patterned after that of Alcoholics Anonymous. We use AA's twelve steps and twelve traditions, changing only the words alcohol and alcoholic to food and compulsive overeater.
Can we guarantee you this recovery? The answer is simple. If you will honestly face the truth about yourself and the illness and follow the H.O.W. requirements of the program; if you will keep coming back to meetings to talk and listen to other recovering compulsive overeaters; if you will read our litterature and that of Alcoholics Anonymous with an open mind; and most important, if you are willing to rely on a power greater than yourself for direction in your life, and to work with a sponsor to take the twelve steps to the best of your ability, we believe you can indeed join the ranks of those who are recovering.
To remedy the emotional, physical and spiritual illness of compulsive overeating we offer several suggestions, but keep in mind that the basis of the program is spiritual, as evidenced by the spiritual preocccupation in the twelve steps.
We are not a Diet Club. We believe that once we become continuously abstinent, the preoccupation with food diminishes and in many cases leaves us entirely. We then find that, to deal with our inner turmoil, we have to have a new way of thinking, of acting on life rather than reacting to it, in essence, a new way of living that requires a one hundred and eighty degree turn around in our thinking.
From this vantage point, we begin the twelve step program of recovery, moving beyond the food and emotional havoc to a fuller living experience. As a result of praticing the steps, the symptom of compulsive overeating is removed on a daily basis, achieved through the process of surrendering to something greater than ourselves; the more total our surrender, the more fully realized our freedom from the food obsession......
