The following is excerpted from the WSO Pamphlet
Questions and answers
About compulsive overeating and the OA program of recovery1.What is Compulsive Overeating?
2.What Do You Mean By a "Compulsive Overeater"?
3.How Can I Tell If I Am a Compulsive Overeater?
4.Must I Be a Certain Amount Over My Normal Weight to Come to OA?
6.Will OA Help Me with a Diet?
11.What Is Meant By "A Power Greater Than Ourselves"?
17.What Are the Requirements for OA Membership?
18.How Much Does OA Membership Cost?
19.How Does OA Support Itself`?
22.What is the Twelve-Step Recovery Program?
24.What Are the Twelve Traditions?
25.Why Does OA Place Such Emphasis Upon "Anonymity"?
(Refer to OA pamphlet #170 Questions and Answers.)
What is Compulsive Overeating?
OA believes that compulsive overeating is an illness--a progressive illness--which cannot be cured but which, like many other illnesses, can be arrested.
Before coming to OA, many compulsive overeaters think of themselves as gluttons, social outcasts in appearance, or just plain "weak-willed." The OA concept is that this illness can be arrested if a person is willing to follow a simple program which has proven successful for countless numbers of compulsive overeaters. Once compulsive overeating as an illness has taken hold, willpower is no longer involved because the suffering overeater has lost the power of choice over food. It is important to face the facts of the illness and take advantage of available help. There must also be a desire to recover. Our experience has shown that the OA program works for all who sincerely desire to stop eating compulsively; it rarely works for those who are not absolutely sure that they want to stop.
What Do You Mean By a "Compulsive Overeater"?
By definition, "compulsion" means "an impulse or feeling of being irresistibly driven toward the performance of some irrational action." It isn't only how much we eat that makes us what we are, but the ways in which we try to control our food. Some overeaters eat in secret, while others publicly flaunt their overeating. Some binge and purge, while others alternate between overeating and starving. All compulsive overeaters have one thing in common, however: they are driven by forces they don't understand to eat more or less than they need, and they eat his food in ways that are not rational.
How Can I Tell If I Am a Compulsive Overeater?
Only you can decide. Many present OA members were previously told by family, friends, and even physicians that all they needed was a little self-control and willpower to lose weight and eat normally. Believing this, they experienced frustrating periods of dieting and losing weight, only to regain all the weight and more. These same people finally turned to OA because they felt that their eating habits had them licked, and they were ready o try anything to be freed from the terrible compulsion to overeat. Others with far less weight to lose, or with fewer overeating years behind them, have also turned to OA. They have discovered enough about compulsive overeating to recognize that it is a progressive illness.
In OA, compulsive overeaters are described as people whose eating habits have caused growing and continuing problems in their lives. It must be emphasized that only the individuals involved can say whether food has become an unmanageable problem.
Must I Be a Certain Amount Over My Normal Weight to Come to OA?
No. Experience has shown that OA works for almost anyone who wants to stop eating compulsively, no matter what size the individual may be. Some people who come into OA have already attained their normal weight; others may be underweight. They turn to OA to find a way of life where they can live comfortably without returning to compulsive eating habits. There are as many degrees of overweight as there are OA members, ranging from normal weight to those who have hundreds of pounds to lose. Whatever their weight, all who have a desire to stop eating compulsively have equal advantages in coming to Overeaters Anonymous. Their common bond is stated in step one: "We admitted we were powerless over food, and our lives had become unmanageable."
Will OA Help Me with a Diet?
For those who seek help with a diet, OA recommends consulting a qualified professional. The OA program enables compulsive overeaters to abstain from excess food one day at a time. Overeaters Anonymous, therefore, supports any member who wants to follow a professional's nutritional advice. OA is not a diet club. Members recover by practicing OAs spiritual program. They find, among other things, freedom from food obsession, power to act rationally in difficult situations, and a better way to live.
What Is Meant By "A Power Greater Than Ourselves"?
Before coming to OA, most compulsive overeaters already realized they couldn't control their eating. Food had become a power greater than themselves. OA experience has taught that to achieve abstinence from compulsive eating and to maintain recovery, overeaters need to accept and depend upon another Power which they acknowledge is greater than themselves. Some overeaters, choose different interpretations of this Power, such as initially considering the OA group itself as the Power greater than themselves. But most OAs adopt the concept of God, as God may be understood by the individual.
Is OA a Religious Society?
No. OA is not a religious society, since its requires no definite religious belief as a condition of membership. OA has among its membership people of many religious faiths as well as atheists and agnostics.
The OA recovery program is certainly based on acceptance of certain spiritual values. Members are free to interpret these values as they think best, or not to think about them at all if they so choose. Many individuals who first come to OA have definite reservations about accepting any concept of a Power greater than themselves. OA experience has shown that those who keep an open mind on this subject and continue coming to OA meetings will not find it too difficult to work out their own solution to this very personal matter.
What Are the Requirements for OA Membership?
There are no "requirements" in the usual sense of the term. The third tradition states, "The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively." Nothing else is asked or demanded of anyone. The acceptance and practice of the OA recovery program rests entirely with the individual.
How Much Does OA Membership Cost?
There are no financial obligations of any kind in connection with OA membership. This recovery program is available to all who want to stop eating compulsively, no matter how much or how little money they may possess.
Most local groups "pass the basket" at meetings to cover the cost of the meeting place, literature, and other incidental expenses. Whatever exceeds the group's current expenses is sent to the intergroup, the regional office, and the World Service Office, whose service to compulsive overeaters depends primarily on these regular contributions. At all times, OA is entirely self-supporting through its own contributions. No outside donations are ever accepted.
What is the Twelve-Step Recovery Program?
The twelve steps are the heart of the OA recovery program. They offer a new way of life which enables the compulsive overeater to live without the need for excess food. The steps are suggestions only, based on the experience of recovering OA members. OA experience has shown that members who make an earnest effort to follow these steps and to apply them in daily living seem to get far more out of OA than do those members who seem to regard the steps casually. The ideas expressed in the Twelve Steps, which originated in Alcoholics Anonymous, reflect practical experience and application of spiritual insights as recorded by thinkers throughout many ages. Their greatest importance lies in the fact that they work! They enable compulsive overeaters and millions of other twelve-steppers to lead happy, productive lives. They represent the foundation upon which OA has been built. Here are the twelve steps which are suggested as a program of recovery for compulsive overeaters:
What Are the Twelve Traditions?
The twelve traditions are the means by which OA remains unified in a common cause. These twelve traditions are to the groups what the twelve steps are to the individual. They are suggested principles to ensure the survival and growth of the many groups which comprise Overeaters Anonymous. Like the twelve steps, the twelve traditions have their origins in Alcoholics Anonymous. These traditions describe attitudes which those early members believed were important to group survival. OA members ensure group unity so essential to individual recovery by practicing the attitudes suggested by the following twelve traditions.
Why Does OA Place Such Emphasis Upon "Anonymity"?
Anonymity is essential within the Fellowship but in no may prevents members from knowing each other's last names. It means that within each group, OA principles are placed before personalities. Anonymity offers members assurance that their confidences will not be revealed. Anonymity is also vital at the public level of press, radio, film, and television. By its practice, members ensure that egotism and self-glorification will not be the undoing of the OA fellowship. Humility is fundamental to anonymity. In practicing these principles, in giving up personal distinction for the common good, OA members thereby ensure that the unity of Overeaters Anonymous will continue. According to the first tradition, "personal recovery depends upon OA unity". . . and anonymity is essential to the preservation of that unity.
(Refer to OA pamphlet #170 Questions and Answers.)
© July 25, 1996 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.; World Service Office. Copyright may not be reproduced in any manner without written permission of OA Inc.
