Greater Omaha Intergroup of Overeaters Anonymous

Is OA For You?

Only you can decide that question...no one else can make this decision for you. We who are now in OA
have found a way of life which enables us to live without the need for excess food. We believe that
compulsive overeating is a progressive illness...one that, like alcoholism and some other illnesses,
can be arrested.

Remember, there is no shame in admitting you have a problem; the most important thing is to do
something about it.

In working Overeaters Anonymous' Twelve-Step program of recovery from compulsive overeating, we
have found that there are a number of tools available to assist us. We use these tools-a plan of eating,
sponsorship, meetings, the telephone, writing, literature, anonymity and service-on a regular basis, to
help us achieve and maintain abstinence. In Overeaters Anonymous abstinence is "the action of
refraining from compulsive eating." Many of us have found that we cannot abstain from compulsive
eating unless we use some or all of OA's eight tools of recovery.

A Plan of Eating
As a tool, a plan of eating helps us to abstain from eating compulsively. Having a personal plan of
eating guides us in our dietary decisions, as well as defines what, when, how, where and why we eat.
It is our experience that sharing this plan with a sponsor or another OA member is important.

There are no specific requirements for a plan of eating; OA does not endorse, recommend or distribute
any specific food plan, nor does it exclude the personal use of one. For specific dietary or nutritional
guidance, OA suggests consulting a qualified health care professional, such as a physician or
dietitian. Each of us develops a personal plan of eating based on an honest appraisal of his or her
own past experience; we also have come to identify our current individual needs, as well as those
things which we should avoid.

Although individual plans of eating are as varied as our members, most OA members agree that some
plan-no matter how flexible or structured-is necessary.

This tool helps us deal with the physical aspects of our disease, and helps us achieve physical
recovery. From this vantage point, we can more effectively follow OA's Twelve-Step program of recovery
and move beyond the food to a happier, healthier and more spiritual living experience.

Sponsorship
Sponsors are OA members who are living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their
ability. They are willing to share their recovery with other members of the Fellowship and are committed
to abstinence.

We ask a sponsor to help us through our program of recovery on all three levels: physical, emotional
and spiritual. By working with other members of OA and sharing their experience, strength and hope,
sponsors continually renew and reaffirm their own recovery. Sponsors share their program up to the
level of their own experience.

Ours is a program of attraction; find a sponsor who has what you want, and ask that person how he or
she is achieving it. A member may work with more than one sponsor and may change sponsors at will.

Meetings
Meetings are gatherings of two or more compulsive overeaters who come together to share their
personal experience, and the strength and hope OA has given them. Though there are many types of
meetings, fellowship with other compulsive overeaters is the basis of them all. Meetings give us an
opportunity to identify and confirm our common problem and to share the gifts we receive through this
program.

Telephone
The telephone helps us share on a one-to-one basis and avoid the isolation which is so common
among us. Many members call other OA members and their own sponsors daily. As a part of the
surrender process, it is a tool with which we learn to reach out, ask for help and extend help to others.
The telephone also provides an immediate outlet for those hard-to-handle highs and lows we may
experience.

Writing
In addition to writing our inventories and the list of people we have harmed, most of us have found that
writing has been an indispensable tool for working the Steps. Further, putting our thoughts and
feelings down on paper, or describing a troubling incident, helps us to better understand our actions
and reactions in a way that is often not revealed to us by simply thinking or talking about them. In the
past, compulsive eating was our most common reaction to life. When we put our difficulties down on
paper, it becomes easier to see situations more clearly and perhaps better discern any necessary
action

Literature
We study and read OA-approved pamphlets; OA-approved books, such as Overeaters Anonymous, The
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous and For Today; and we read Lifeline,
our monthly magazine on recovery. We also study the book Alcoholics Anonymous, referred to as the
"Big Book," to understand and reinforce our program. Many OA members find that when read on a daily
basis, the literature further reinforces how to live the Twelve Steps. Our OA literature and the AA "Big
Book" are ever-available tools which provide insight into our problem of eating compulsively, strength
to deal with it, and the very real hope that there is a solution from compulsive eating.

Anonymity
Anonymity, referred to in Traditions Eleven and Twelve, is a tool that guarantees that we will place
principles before personalities. The protection anonymity provides offers each of us freedom of
expression and safeguards us from gossip. Anonymity assures us that only we, as individual OA
members, have the right to make our membership known within our community. Anonymity at the level
of press, radio, films and television means that we never allow our faces or last names to be used
once we identify ourselves as OA members. This protects both the individual and the Fellowship.

Within the Fellowship, anonymity means that whatever we share with another OA member will be held
in respect and confidence. What we hear at meetings should remain there. However, it should be
understood that anonymity must not be used to limit our effectiveness within the Fellowship. It is not a
break of anonymity to use our full names within our group or OA service bodies. Also, it is not a break of
anonymity to enlist Twelfth-Step help for group members in trouble, provided we are careful to refrain
from discussing any specific personal information.

Another aspect of anonymity is that we are all equal in the Fellowship, whether we are newcomers or
seasoned long-timers. And our outside status makes no difference in OA; we have no stars or VIPs.
We come together simply as compulsive overeaters.

Service
Carrying the message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers is the basic purpose of our
Fellowship; therefore, it is the most fundamental form of service. Any form of service -- no matter how
small -- which helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery. Getting to
meetings, putting away chairs, putting out literature, talking to newcomers, doing whatever needs to be
done in a group or for OA as a whole, are ways in which we give back what we have so generously
been given. We are encouraged to do what we can when we can." A life of sane and happy usefulness"
is what we are promised as the result of working the Twelve Steps. Service helps to fulfill that promise.
As OA's responsibility pledge states: "Always to extend the hand and heart of OA to all who share my
compulsion; for this, I am responsible."

Is Overeaters Anonymous for you?

Greater Omaha Intergroup

Overeaters Anonymous