In Overeaters Anonymous, you’ll find members who are extremely overweight; 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 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

• feelings of shame, remorse, or regret about the inability to control unhealthy eating behaviors

• vulnerability to quick-weight-loss schemes

• constant preoccupation with food

• using food as a reward or comfort

• being secretive about what and how much is eaten

 

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.