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 health and self-
confidence, which some of us had once possessed, were no defense against it.

We have found the reasons for the illness are unimportant. 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".

As our personal stories attest, the Twelve Step program of recovery works as well for compulsive
overeaters as it does for alcoholics.

Can we guarantee you this recovery? The answer is simple. If you will honestly face the truth about
yourself and the illness; if you will keep coming back to meetings to talk and listen to other recovering
compulsive overeaters; if you will read our literature 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 take the Twelve Steps to the best of your ability, we believe you can indeed join the ranks of
those who recover.

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 Twelve
Steps.

We are not a "diet or calories" club. We do not endorse any particular plan of eating. Once we become
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.

From this vantage point, we begin the Twelve Step program of recovery, moving beyond the food and the
emotional havoc to a fuller living experience. As a result of practicing 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
food obsession.

Here are the steps as adopted for Overeaters Anonymous:

  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.

"But I'm too weak. I'll never make it!" Don't worry, we have all thought and said the same thing. The
amazing secret to the success of this program is just that: weakness. It is weakness, not strength, that
binds us to each other and to a higher power and somehow gives us the ability to do what we cannot do
alone.

If you decide you are one of us, we welcome you with open arms. You are not alone anymore!  Welcome
to Overeaters Anonymous. Welcome home!
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