In working the 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 (OA), 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 dietician. 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 oftennot 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.
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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 for us.
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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.
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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."