About Us

About OA

Though from varied backgounds, we in OA, share a similar past. We discovered that we had each been trapped on the treadmill of our minds... minds that encouraged us to eat inappropriately to "make us feel better" while, in actuality, eating this way ultimately made us feel tremendously worse, both physically, and about ourselves.

We suffered from irrestible cravings that inevitably lead to incredible binges. Some of us became anorexic, others bulemic, and others compulsive about exercise. Regardless of what we did with our food, we all shared the similar obsession with thoughts of food, we ate compulsively or we wouldn't eat, we acted out, we felt ashamed, our bodies suffered, and our minds were tortured with relentless regret and recriminations.

Sometimes, we'd be miserable after a bout with overeating and we'd decide to change-- to try and control our eating through various means: diets, exercise, pills, shots, etc. Unfortunately for our body size and emotional well-being, these periods of "control" never lasted long enough for us to lose the weight we'd gained from the previous round of eating.

The vicious cycle could start up again in a simple way -- "just one bite" we would say, and one bite became two and two became four and before we knew it, we were eating the whole thing. Then we found ourselves eating items like this more often and that's all it took to be back on the treadmill again. We craved, obsessed, ate compulsively, acted out, felt shame, and suffered intensely -- in our body, our mind, and our deepest self. Over and over, year after year, our lives repeated this destructive cycle. As any serious attempts to control eating grew less and less frequent, the periods of out-of-control eating grew more and more -- and so did our fears, our isolation, our compulsion, our obsession, our self-hate and, of course, our bodies. Somewhere deep within us we sensed the insanity of living this way and wanted to stop; we may even have honestly tried to stop; and yet, we could not.

Inevitably, we would use food again to ease tension, avoid unpleasant feelings or to prolong any "good" feelings we had. The person we were became increasingly larger in size while our inner confidence and self-esteem became smothered beneath the weight of our eating disorder.

To our great relief, when we finally found OA, we discovered others who had lived through the same cycles of despair that we had, but who now enjoyed a daily reprieve from that painful way of life. We could see their joy, serenity, and freedom from the compulsion, and were attracted to them; we kept coming back to meetings. There, we learned that compulsive eaters do not lack willpower but may have food problems because of physiological conditions within our bodies, underlying emotional issues, and/or the environment in which we were raised. Whatever the cause, though, it didn't matter. A daily reprieve materialized when these OAs worked the program to the best of their ability, one day at a time. Eventuallly, we tried to live this new way of life -- a way of acting on life rather than just reacting to it -- and our own recovery and serenity began.

Because it is not possible to experience Overeaters Anonymous by simply reading about it, we suggest that newcomers attend at least six face-to-face meetings with an open mind, before deciding whether or not you are one of us. Listen, ask questions, and think about what you hear here. To ease your mind, let us tell you that Anonymity, one of our eight Tools of Recovery, is a principle that is practiced at our meetings by each of us. In a simple way, Anonymity's philosophy can be summed up like this:

To discover more about OA, we offer you the Serenity Page. Here you will find many of the truths of our program that we have come to hold dear and some of the Slogans that help us to center and refocus throughout our day. When we apply this in all areas of our lives, we sense our hope increase and our despair of never being free from our compulsive eating/non-eating, bingeing, purging, exercising, food addictions, and bizarre food behavior, all diminish. When you read the OA Preamble you will see why it is beloved by every recovering compulsive eater. We ask you to read and believe that The Promises of this program will come true for you, too. Along with our mottos and meditations, we share the ultimate backbone of our personal program, the 12 Steps. Similarly, guidelines for Groups are found in the 12 Traditions and those for OA World Service in the 12 Concepts.

Spiritual-Not Religious

While among us you may find atheists, agnostics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other diverse cultures and lifestyles, we all find common recovery when we choose to live in the wisdom of the Third Step Prayer, the Seventh Step Prayer, and the Serenity Prayer. Though from different backgrounds, we gladly bond together because we have found joy in our mutual freedom from compulsive eating, when tapping into our own Higher Power (HP), however differently we each may interpret this personna and source of our energy, strength, and inspiration.

Other Resources

To read the Syracuse Area Intergroup newsLetter, click on the SAIL link at the top of the page. For dates of OA events such as Intergroup meetings, marathons, retreats, picnics, and conventions, click on the Syracuse OA Calendar link.

For additional news pertinent to us in the Syracuse area, go to the Region 6 website at http://www.oaregion6.org. You will find additonal information and inspiration. As you will see, our Intergroup is connected with several others here in the northeast. The Region 6 Messenger newsletter is also a great resource for special events.

Similarly, though on a larger scale, OA's World Service Organization (WSO) is found at http://www.oa.org. The site is packed with recovery information and guidelines and encouraging OA Literature such as the monthly OA periodical called 'Lifeline', the newsletter called 'A Step Ahead', and a myriad of OA pamphlets, meditation books, program workbooks, tapes, and other material to expand our experience and increase our knowledge of the 12 Step Program of OA. The details about attending Online or Telephone Meetings are offered to encourage us to listen, learn, and share the experience, strength, and hope (ESH) of OA, even if we can't travel to a face-to-face meeting.

Lastly, our program overview would be remiss if we didn't tell a bit about our connection to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). OA is built on the spiritual foundation that Bill W. and Doctor Bob built when they formed AA. We owe them our recovery and a tremendous debt of gratitude. The AA Big Book entitled, Alcoholics Anonymous, is the only non-OA literature that is approved for OA by the WSO and is suggested reading for all OAs.

Thank You!