About OA

Overeaters Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength and hope are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for membership. We are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine. We take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive overeating and to carry this message of recovery to those who still suffer.

OA offers hope to anyone who struggles with food and compulsive eating . We are not a “diet and calories” club. OA members come in all sizes and experience different patterns of food behaviors. We share a common problem and find a common solution in the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and nine tools of OA.

The OA program relies on the foundation built on certain spiritual principles.  Overeaters Anonymous offers recovery to youth and young adults and hope to the friends and family of those who suffer from the disease of compulsive eating.

Now that you have found Overeaters Anonymous, you may want to make sure our program is right for you. Many of us have found it useful to answer the following questions to help determine if we have a problem with compulsive eating.

Many OA Meetings share “Our Invitation to You” with newcomers. Consider this our OA Invitation to You.

The OA Twelve Steps are the heart of the OA recovery program. They offer a new way of life that enables the compulsive eater to live without the need for excess food.

The ideas expressed in the Twelve Steps, which originated in Alcoholics Anonymous, reflect practical experience and application of spiritual insights recorded by thinkers throughout the ages.

Their greatest importance lies in the fact that they work! They enable compulsive eaters and millions of other Twelve-Steppers to lead happy, productive lives. They represent the foundation upon which OA is built.

In order to strengthen OA unity and protect our primary purpose, Overeaters Anonymous has adapted by permission The Twelve Traditions first set forth by Alcoholics Anonymous. The OA Twelve Traditions help us stay united in our common cause.

These OA Twelve Traditions are to the groups what The Twelve Steps are to the individual. They are suggested principles to ensure the survival and growth of the many groups that compose Overeaters Anonymous.

From “The Tools Of Recovery” (abridged). Used with permission.

We use tools—a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, the telephone, writing, literature, action plan, anonymity and service—to help us achieve and maintain abstinence and recover from our disease. Many of us have found we cannot abstain from compulsive eating unless we use some or all of OA’s nine tools of recovery to help us practice the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.