For Newcomers

Is OA for You?

Only you can answer that. Here’s what so many of us have found we have in common.

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 eating is a progressive illness, one that, like alcoholism and some other illnesses, can be arrested. There is no shame in admitting you have a problem; the most important thing is to do something about it.

In Overeaters Anonymous, you’ll find members who are extremely overweight, even morbidly obese; moderately overweight; average weight; underweight; still maintaining periodic control over their eating; or totally unable to control their compulsive eating.

Our symptoms are as varied as our members

OA members experience many different patterns of food behaviors. Among them are:

Obsession with body weight, size and shape
Eating binges or grazing
Preoccupation with reducing diets
Starving
Laxative or diuretic abuse
Excessive exercise
Inducing vomiting after eating
Chewing and spitting out food
Use of diet pills, shots and other medical interventions to control weight
Inability to stop eating certain foods after the first bite
Fantasies about food
Vulnerability to quick-weight-loss schemes
Constant preoccupation with food
Using food as a reward or comfort

Our symptoms may vary, but we share a common bond: we are powerless over food and our lives are unmanageable. This common problem has led those in OA to seek — and find — a common solution in the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions and nine tools of Overeaters Anonymous.