Next OAUKEB Intergroup meeting: Thursday 4th July 6pm BST
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is compulsive eating?
A: “Compulsion” is defined as an irresistible desire to take an often irrational action. The word
“irresistible” means we are unable to resist the urge, no matter how many promises we have made to ourselves or others. In our case, we have the compulsion to indulge repeatedly in destructive eating behaviours.
In OA, we believe compulsive eating is a disease with physical, emotional, and spiritual components. A disease causes some aspect of the body to act abnormally. In our case, it’s the complex system that governs food behaviour. The body mechanisms that allow normal eaters to push the plate away, or otherwise control their food behaviours, don’t function properly for us. For some, the disease acts much like an alcohol or drug addiction; except in our case, it is food, rather than drugs or alcohol, that stimulates an insatiable craving for more. The OA definition of compulsive eating covers all facets of unhealthy eating behaviours. It’s not only how much we eat or how much we weigh, but also the ways in which we try to control our food. Some of us hide our food and eat in secret. Some binge and purge, while others alternate between overeating and starvation. All compulsive eaters have one thing in common: whether we’re struggling with overeating, undereating, bingeing, purging, or starving ourselves, we are driven by forces we don’t understand to deal with food in irrational and self-destructive ways. Once compulsive eating as an illness has taken hold, an individual’s willpower alone cannot stop it. The power of choice over food is gone.
We in OA have discovered that this illness can be arrested - though never completely cured - if a person is willing to follow the Twelve Step recovery program that has proven successful for countless numbers of us. We believe that compulsive eating is a progressive illness from which we can have freedom, one day at a time. Whether OA will work for you depends on your sincere desire to stop compulsive food behaviours and your willingness to take the actions suggested in the program.
The OA recovery process is one of action.
Q: How can I tell if I am a compulsive overeater?
A: Only you can decide if you suffer from compulsive eating. Many of us have been told by family, friends, and even physicians that all we need is a little self-control and willpower to eat normally. Believing this, we experienced frustrating periods of abnormal eating and fluctuation in weight.
Q: I’ve failed at every diet. How can OA prevent these “slips”?
A: No one fails in OA. As long as a person is willing to work the OA program, recovery is possible. “Slips” into compulsive eating do not need to happen in OA, but some of us experience them. Although slips may sometimes be brief, they can also lead to eating binges and weight gain. Whenever a slip occurs, members are encouraged to reach for all the help available to them through OA.
We who have been through these periods can often trace a slip to specific causes. We may have
forgotten we were compulsive eaters and become overconfident. Or we may have let ourselves become too preoccupied with business or personal affairs to remember the importance of abstaining from compulsive eating. Or we may have let ourselves become tired, letting down our mental and emotional defences. Whatever the cause of a slip, the solution can be found through practicing the Twelve Step recovery program of Overeaters Anonymous.
Q: Can OA help me if I am bulimic or anorexic?
A: Yes. All who struggle with compulsive food behaviours are welcomed in love and fellowship. Overeaters Anonymous supports each person’s efforts to recover and accepts any member who desires to stop eating compulsively. When individuals ask about medical matters, OA always recommends they seek professional advice.
Q: Can’t a compulsive overeater just use willpower to stop excessive eating?
A: Before turning to OA, many of us tried with all our might to control our food intake and change our eating habits. Usually we tried many methods: drastic diets, appetite-suppressant pills, diuretics, and injections of one kind or another. In other cases, we also tried dieting “gimmicks”: eating only at mealtimes, cutting food portions in half, never eating desserts, eating everything but sweets, never eating in secret, splurging only on weekends, skipping breakfast, never eating standing up … the list could go on forever.
Of course, each time we tried something new, we made a solemn oath “to stick to the diet this
time and never go off it again.” When we could never keep these promises, we inevitably felt guilt and remorse. Through such experiences, many of us have finally admitted lacking willpower to change our eating habits. When we came into OA, we admitted we were powerless over food. If our willpower didn’t work, it followed that we needed a Power greater than ourselves to help us recover.
We were powerless, but not helpless.
Q: What is meant by “a Power greater than ourselves”?
A: Before coming to OA, most of us had already realised we couldn’t control our eating. Somewhere in the progression of our food problem, we found that food began to take over our lives. In essence, we had become defenceless to our compulsion. Food had become a Power greater than ourselves.
OA experience has taught us that to achieve abstinence from compulsive eating and maintain recovery, we need to accept and rely on a Higher Power, which we acknowledge is greater than ourselves. Some of us consider our group or OA itself as a Power greater than ourselves. Some of us adopt the concept of God, as we individually understand and interpret God. However we choose to interpret a Power greater than ourselves is fine.
There are no right or wrong concepts. What’s important to our recovery from compulsive eating is that we develop a relationship with this Higher Power. The focus and intent of the OA program is to help us do this.
Q: Is OA a religious society?
A: No. OA is not a religious society because it requires no definite religious belief as a condition of membership. OA has among its membership people of many religious traditions, as well as atheists and agnostics.
The OA recovery program is based on acceptance of certain spiritual values. We are free to interpret these values as we think best, or not to think about them at all if we so choose.
When we first came to OA, many of us had definite reservations about accepting any concept of a Power greater than ourselves. 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 a personal solution to this very personal matter.
Q: Can I stop eating compulsively on my own just through reading OA literature?
A: OA literature is a powerful Tool that helps members learn more about the disease and helps us to stop eating compulsively, one day at a time.
However, the OA program works best for those who recognise and accept that they can’t stop eating compulsively on their own and that it is a program involving other people. We have found that communicating with other members is essential for us to stop eating compulsively.
Attending OA meetings and associating with others who suffer in a similar manner brings us hope and awareness. Because we are neither judged nor ridiculed, we can share our past experiences, present problems, and future hopes with those who understand and support us. Working with other compulsive eaters, we no longer feel lonely and misunderstood. Instead, we feel needed and accepted at last.
OA members whose living situations or health problems prevent attendance at face-to-face meetings can attend online, telephone, or non-realtime meetings.
Q: What are the requirements for OA membership?
A: The OA 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.
Q: How much does OA membership cost?
A: There are no financial obligations of any kind in connection with OA membership. Our recovery program is available to all who want to stop eating compulsively, regardless of personal financial situations. While there are no dues or fees for members, according to Tradition Seven we are fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. Members may make a Seventh Tradition contribution when they attend meetings, either face-to-face, by telephone, or virtually.
Q: How does OA support itself?
A: OA is entirely self-supporting through membership contributions and literature sales. No outside donations are accepted. Most local groups “pass the basket” at meetings to cover the cost of rent, literature, and meeting expenses, and to support OA as a whole. Meetings keep enough money to meet their own expenses and send the balance to their intergroup or service board, their regional office, and the World Service Office. The financing of all OA service bodies depends on these regular contributions from meetings.
Q: Who runs OA?
A: Volunteers! OA is truly unusual in that it has no central government and a minimum of formal
organisation. It has no officers or executives who wield power or authority over the Fellowship or
individual members.
In even the most informal organisation, however, certain jobs obviously need to be done. For example, in local groups someone has to arrange for the meeting place, account for group finances, make sure adequate OA literature is available, and keep in touch with local, regional, and international service centres. On the international level, people must be responsible for the maintenance and smooth functioning of the World Service Office.
All of this means that OA at the local, regional, and international levels needs responsible people
to perform certain duties. It is important to understand that these members perform services only. They make no individual decisions and issue no individual judgments affecting other groups or OA as a whole. Persons who accept these responsibilities are directly accountable to those they serve, and service jobs periodically rotate among members.
Q: What is the Twelve Step recovery program?
A: The Twelve Steps offer a new way of life that enables compulsive overeaters to live without the need for excess food and foods that cause us to eat compulsively. Members who make an earnest effort to follow these Steps and apply them in daily living get far more out of OA than do those members who merely come to meetings and don’t do the serious emotional and spiritual work involved in the Steps. The Twelve Steps are listed at the beginning of this pamphlet.
Q: What is meant by “sanity” as used in the Twelve Steps?
A: The word sanity derives from the Latin word “sanus,” meaning “sound, healthy.” The word sanity as used in OA means “sound or rational thinking and acting.”
Most of us admit to irrational behaviour, including our attempts to control food and other areas of our lives. A person with sound thinking would not repeatedly engage in self-destructive behaviours. A person with sound thinking would not repeatedly take actions that had not worked previously and expect different results. The words “restore us to sanity” in Step Two do not imply that compulsive eaters are mentally deranged, but that where our actions and feelings toward food and other areas of our lives are concerned, sanity cannot be claimed.
By turning to OA and expressing a desire to return to rational behaviour, we are taking a step toward achieving sanity.
Q: What are the Twelve Traditions?
A: The Twelve Traditions are to OA groups what the Twelve Steps are to the individual. The Twelve Traditions are one of the means by which OA remains unified in a common cause. They are suggested principles to ensure the smooth functioning, survival, and growth of the many groups that comprise Overeaters Anonymous.
Like the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions have their origins in Alcoholics Anonymous.
These Traditions describe attitudes that those early AA members believed were important to group survival and that have proven to be effective.
OA members ensure group unity - which is so essential to individual recovery - by practicing the
attitudes suggested by the Twelve Traditions.
Q: Why does OA place such emphasis upon “anonymity”?
A: Anonymity at the most basic level says we don’t disclose the identities of individual members, their personal situations, or what they share in confidence at meetings, online, or on the phone with us. This makes OA a safe place where we can be honest with ourselves and others. It allows us to express ourselves freely at meetings and in conversation, and it safeguards us from gossip. Of course, we as individuals have the right to make our own membership known and, in fact, must do this if we are to carry the message to other compulsive eaters (Step Twelve). We don’t use anonymity to limit our effectiveness within the Fellowship. For example, it’s fine to use our full names within our group or OA service body. The concept of anonymity helps us focus on principles rather than personalities.
Anonymity is also vital at the public level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication. By keeping our members anonymous at the public level, we help ensure that egotism and self-glorification do not adversely affect the OA Fellowship.
Humility is fundamental to anonymity. In practicing these Principles and in giving up personal distinction for the common good, OA members 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.
