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OA welcomes anyone who has the desire to stop eating compulsively. Many compulsive overeaters have had periods of bulimia and/or anorexia as a part of the disease of compulsive overeating.

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 behavior; or totally unable to control their compulsive eating. OA members experience many different patterns of food behaviors. These "symptoms" are as varied as our membership. 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 & spitting out food
• Use of diet pills, shots and other medical interventions to control weight
• Inability to stop eating certain foods after taking 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 eight tools of Overeaters Anonymous.

Helpful Publications (free)

Is Food A Problem For You? Intended for use in libraries, doctors' offices, public information campaigns, outreach events, and anywhere prospective OA members might see it. Includes the Fifteen Questions, the OA Twelve Steps, member testimonials, and general information about OA. Provides a space for writing in your group or intergroup's contact information.

Helpful Publications (for purchase, either at OAsis or WSO Bookstore)

Focus On Anorexia And Bulimia Packet:Includes selected stories from OA literature on the topic of anorexia and bulimia

Dignity of Choice: This pamphlet provides guidance to both new and longtime OA members in devising their own plans of eating. The pamphlet also provides six sample plans of eating (reviewed and approved by a licensed dietitian) with which some OA members have had success.

OA Members Come In All Sizes: Welcome, Whatever Your Problem With Food: OA members who came to the program not necessarily overweight; including anorexics and bulimics, share their unique challenges and stories of recovery.

This page maintained by San Diego County OA Intergroup.
Last update: 26 July 2010
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