Our Invitation To You


    We of Overeaters Anonymous have made a discovery. At the very first meeting
    we attended, we learned that we were in the clutches of a dangerous illness,
    and that willpower, emotional health and self-confidence, which some of us had
    once possessed, were no defense against it.

    We have found the reasons for the illness are unimportant. What deserves the
    attention of the still-suffering compulsive overeater is this: there is a proven,
    workable method by which we can arrest our illness.

    The OA recovery program is patterned after that of Alcoholics Anonymous. We
    use AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, changing only the words
    "alcohol" and "alcoholic" to "food" and "compulsive overeater".

    As our personal stories attest, the Twelve Step program of recovery works as
    well for compulsive overeaters as it does for alcoholics.

    Can we guarantee you this recovery? The answer is simple. If you will honestly
    face the truth about yourself and the illness; if you will keep coming back to
    meetings to talk and listen to other recovering compulsive overeaters; if you will
    read our literature and that of Alcoholics Anonymous with an open mind; and,
    most important, if you are willing to rely on a power greater than yourself for
    direction in your life, and to take the Twelve Steps to the best of your ability, we
    believe you can indeed join the ranks of those who recover.

    To remedy the emotional, physical, and spiritual illness of compulsive
    overeating we offer several suggestions, but keep in mind that the basis of the
    program is spiritual, as evidenced by the Twelve Steps.

    We are not a "diet or calories" club. We do not endorse any particular plan of
    eating. Once we become abstinent, the preoccupation with food diminishes and
    in many cases leaves us entirely. We then find that, to deal with our inner
    turmoil, we have to have a new way of thinking, of acting on life rather than
    reacting to it -- in essence, a new way of living.

    From this vantage point, we begin the Twelve Step program of recovery,
    moving beyond the food and the emotional havoc to a fuller living experience.
    As a result of practicing the Steps, the symptom of compulsive overeating is
    removed on a daily basis, achieved through the process of surrendering to
    something greater than ourselves; the more total our surrender, the more fully
    realized our freedom from food obsession.

    1. We admitted we were powerless over food - that our lives had become
    unmanageable.

    2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
    sanity.

    3.Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
    understood Him.

    4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

    5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature
    of our wrongs.

    6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

    7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

    8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
    amends to them all.

    9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
    so would injure them or others.

    10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly
    admitted it.

    11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact
    with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us
    and the power to carry that out.

    12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to
    carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in
    all our affairs.

    "But I'm too weak. I'll never make it!" Don't worry, we have all thought and said
    the same thing. The amazing secret to the success of this program is just that:
    weakness. It is weakness, not strength, that binds us to each other and to a
    higher power and somehow gives us the ability to do what we cannot do alone.

    If you decide you are one of us, we welcome you with open arms. You are not
    alone anymore!  Welcome to Overeaters Anonymous. Welcome home!
Kansas City Overeaters Anonymous
Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of
Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.; World Service Office
Counter