Overeaters Anonymous offers a program of recovery from compulsive eating using the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA. Meetings and other tools provide a fellowship of experience, strength and hope where members respect one another's anonymity. OA charges no dues or fees, it is self supporting through member contributions.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively. So, no matter what your problem with food, compulsive food behaviors, body image and weight, you are welcome in OA. The video below shows some of the support we offer.
Come to a meeting; you can find out beforehand what to expect at an OA meeting. There is no limit to how many different meetings you can attend. Many members have found that attending more than one meeting a week has helped them to get and stay abstinent.
If you can’t find a Face-To-Face meeting in your area, or need more meetings than your area offers, consider an online, telephone meeting, or non real time meeting. These meetings can be located at the appropriate link on the Find a Meeting page on the main OA website (www.oa.org). These are a great resource when Face-to-Face meetings can’t be found in your area, you find yourself homebound, or just you just need additional support. You can find some additional options on our Homebound Support page.
If there are no Face to Face meetings you can attend and you're not comfortable going to an Online or Telephone meeting with strangers, please try the following:
To quote Our Invitation to You, "The OA recovery program is patterned after that of Alcoholics Anonymous." OA members achieve and maintain abstinence — OA's version of sobriety, defined as "the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight" — by "working the program". To work the Twelve Step program, you'll need a sponsor to guide you as you work the steps.
Sponsors are OA members committed to abstinence and to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience, and they strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how they are achieving it.
Greater Pittsburgh Intergroup does not maintain a list of members available to sponsor, but there are many other helpful suggestions given in OA's Best Suggestions on Finding A Sponsor. You can also reach out to contact people on our meeting list to ask about available sponsors in their groups, or email members of GPI to see if they or any of their sponsees are available to sponsor.
OA is a spiritual program, not a religious one. OA members are people of many religious faiths, as well as atheists and agnostics. A higher power of our own definition helps us to be free of compulsive eating. A higher power is different things to different people. There is no one right way, no one answer to the question of who or what a person’s Higher Power is. In OA, you sort it out for yourself.
The OA recovery program is based on acceptance of certain spiritual principles. Members are free to interpret these principles as they think best, or not to think about them at all if they so choose.
But what if I don't believe in God? Many individuals who come to OA have reservations about accepting any concept of a power greater than themselves. OA experience has shown that those who keep an open mind on this subject and continue coming to OA meetings will not find it too difficult to work out their own solution to this very personal matter.