Who belongs In OA?
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 behaviour, or totally unable to control their compulsive eating.
OA members experience many different patterns of food behaviours. 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 and 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 nine tools of Overeaters Anonymous.