Overeaters anonymous

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booknerd57
booknerd57 Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Has anyone here ever tried overeaters anonymous? What was your experience? Would you recommend it?

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  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    It's like all the other 12-steps...it works great for some people, utterly fails for many others.
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
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    I tried it in the 1980's when they recommended particular diet guidelines. To my knowledge, they no longer have diet recommendations. I didn't like the 12 steps, but went to meetings just to keep myself focused and stay honest with myself. I liked listening to people's strategies to avoid overeating and the success stories were inspiring and gave me hope. I never felt like I made friends at any of the meeting though, which was strange. People seemed stand-off-ish, so I never got that feeling of being in a support group. I also heard more than enough whining, and got the impression that too many people were wallowing in self pity, which was a turn-off for me. I have no idea if that's a common thing with OA groups.

    I ended up losing 50 pounds and kept it off mostly for 8 years, give or take 15 pounds.
  • 150poundsofme
    150poundsofme Posts: 523 Member
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    The meetings I have been to no one gave tips, success stories and not too motivating. When they would share, it was always about their problems. Some would say that they called their sponsors and shared these same problems with them or others would say they gave it to God or they would read from different books. I guess those were their tips. I think it might depend it you are outgoing. Definite cliques. And there would be a person timing how long you could speak - I think it was 3 minutes. So the timer person would let her friend speak 3 different times at the same meeting over 5 minutes each while another person needed to just finish their sentence but they were stopped at 3 minutes. Ok, but I do tend to see the negative in things. So I did get a sponsor and I thought at first she was great and helpful until I went off my plan and then she said I couldn't share any of the questions or readings with her until I became abstinent. Uh, if I could have continued to read and share with you my answers maybe I would have gotten the want and the why to become abstinent but she just shut me down. Hence, I no longer have a sponser. To be fair, some people have been going for years and years and are faithful going and they do seem to get support. And they say you really do not have to believe in God but it truly is a God based readings (that is what I have found).
  • PineconeWarrior
    PineconeWarrior Posts: 7 Member
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    I’m really sad to read these experiences. I have just joined OA just under 4 weeks ago, and my group is very supportive. Everyone talks for as long as they need, people share both positive and negative thoughts and their successes and failures. I am still new and have not got a sponsor yet, though I may have found one, thinking on it. My group is definitely the opposite of stand off-ish, all members have made a real point of being welcoming and encouraging, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so immediately accepted before.
    As groups are all self ruling and run, how they operate must vary a lot. But from my experience I’d definitely recommend it, I feel like it is already helping me make good positive changes that I couldn’t have done before.
  • nickssweetheart
    nickssweetheart Posts: 874 Member
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    I tried it, but it wasn't for me. I definitely have some compulsive behaviors around food, but I just couldn't quite buy in to the whole program. For support, I'd rather go online or pay for a Weight Watchers meeting. I would listen to the "steps" and the book and feel disheartened, not powerful.

    I am in no way knocking people that it works for. I've tried a lot of things over the years that I've struggled with my weight and firmly believe that there is NO "one size fits all." (Apart from CICO, of course.)
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
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    I would recommend trying it. It costs nothing but time to try it and see if it is for you. What I found was a group of people who shared my experiences in a way that even most people on Mfp do not. There was a lot of relief for me in knowing there were others. I also got a lot out of listening to others talk about how they worked through (not the right word exactly but that’s the idea) the emotions/scenarios/etc that would lead to compulsive eating.

    I ended up in treatment for an eating disorder and went with the program/group that was part of that rather than following the 12 steps so I can’t speak to that aspect. But just being part of the group, and finding “my people” was a hugely positive thing for me even if that’s ultimately the program I used for treatment.

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