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Web Address: www.seattleoa.org
24 Hour Help and Information Line: 206 264 5045
Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a fellowship
of compulsive overeaters. There are no dues, no fees, no weigh-ins.
Meetings are on an ongoing basis.
About OA
What is OA?
Overeaters Anonymous
is a fellowship of men and women from
all walks of life who meet in order to help solve a common problem--compulsive
overeating. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop
eating compulsively.
How did OA start?
In January 1960, three
people living in Los Angeles, California, began meeting for the purpose
of helping each other with their eating problems. They had tried everything
else and failed. The program they followed was--and continues to be--patterned
after the Alcoholics Anonymous program. From that first meeting, OA
has grown until today there are thousands of meetings in the United
States, Canada, and other countries throughout the world.
How do OA members lose
weight and maintain their normal weight?
The concept of abstinence
is the basis of OA's program of recovery. By admitting inability
to control compulsive overeating
in the past, and abandoning the idea that all one needs to be able
to eat normally is "a little willpower," it becomes possible
to abstain from overeating--one day at a time.
OA offers the newcomer support
in dealing with both the physical and emotional symptoms of compulsive
overeating. For weight loss, any medically approved eating plan is
acceptable.
How is OA funded?
Overeaters Anonymous has no
dues or fees for membership. It is entirely self-supporting through
contributions. Most groups "pass the basket" at meetings
to cover expenses. OA does not solicit or accept outside contributions.
Why is OA "anonymous"?
Anonymity allows the fellowship
to govern itself through principles rather than personalities. Social
and economic status has no relevance in OA; we are all compulsive
overeaters. Anonymity at the level of press, radio, television, and
other public media of communication provides assurance that OA membership
will not be disclosed.
Is OA a religious organization?
Overeaters Anonymous has no
religious requirement, affiliation, or orientation. The twelve-step
program of recovery is considered "spiritual" because it
deals with inner change. OA has members of many different religious
beliefs as well as some atheists and agnostics.
Are You A Compulsive Overeater?
This series of questions may help you determine if you are a compulsive
overeater. Many members of Overeaters Anonymous have found that they
have answered yes to many of these questions.
- Do you eat when you are not hungry?
- Do you go on eating binges for no apparent reason?
- Do you have feelings of guilt and remorse after overeating?
- Do you give too much time and thought to food?
- Do you look forward with pleasure and anticipation to the time
when you can eat alone?
- Do you plan these secret binges ahead of time?
- Do you eat sensibly before others and make up for it alone?
- Is your weight affecting the way you live your life?
- Have you tried dieting for a week (or longer), only to fall short
of your goal?
- Do you resent others telling you to "use a little willpower"
to stop overeating?
- Despite evidence to the contrary, have you continued to assert
that you can diet "on your own" whenever you wish?
- Do you crave to eat at a definite time, day or night, other than
mealtime?
- Do you eat to escape from worries or trouble?
- Have you ever been treated for obesity or a food-related condition?
- Does your eating behavior make you or others unhappy?
© 1986, 1989, 1995 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved
The OA Preamble:
"Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through
shared experience, strength and hope, are recovering from compulsive
overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively.
There are no dues or fees for members; we are self supporting through
our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations.
OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political
movement, ideology, or religious doctrine, we take no position on
outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive
overeating and to carry this message of recovery to those who still
suffer."
© Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved
The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous
- We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become
unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care
of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to
make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when
to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly
admitted it.
- 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.
- 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 Overeaters Anonymous
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends
upon OA unity.
- 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.
- The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating
compulsively.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other
groups or OA as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to
the compulsive overeater who still suffers.
- 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.
- Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside
contributions.
- Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but
our service centers may employ special workers.
- OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service
boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the
OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- 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.
- 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.
Last updated
July 7, 2007
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