The Twelve Steps are the heart of the OA recovery program. They offer a new way of life that enables the compulsive overeater 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 overeaters and millions of other Twelve-Steppers to lead happy, productive lives. They represent the foundation upon which OA is built.

The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
   
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
   
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
   
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
   
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
   
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
   
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
    
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

At www.therecoverygroup.org you can join the weight loss surgery list group for OA participants who have had or or thinking of having weight loss surgery. We have 3 weekly online meetings dedicated to OA just for weight loss surgery patients. They are 9 am Thursdays EST Sat 12 noon EST and Sundays 5 pm EST. Please join us and join our list to get weekly emails of love and support. As an individual who has been in OA for years before being banded it is a joy to find a safe and loving support group. The online meetings can be logged into at http://www.starchat.net/chat/?chan=RecoverySF

Please join us- together we can do what we cannot do alone :biggrin:

WOW Sage, thank you for this post.... I`ll keep the online meeting in minnd... I`ve been trying to find an OA meeting in my community to no avail...

Those few helpful people could be your higher power to whom you turn for inspiration and advice.

Part of the reason the 12 step program is so successful is because people come to the point where they realize they can't do it themselves. They've done everything they can and failed. Willpower and determination failed them over and over because this is an addiction. By ourselves we couldn't and can't do it. Having the humility to admit that is the first step to restoring our sanity. Ironically, its submission of our will, not willpower, that leads to freedom. Freedom from self, freedom from out pasts, freedom from our issues, freedom from our cravings. That doesn't absolve us from responsibility. We do the footwork, we leave the results in our higher power's hands. We trust that by working the steps, change will come. The steps are work. We have to come to believe that a higher power can restore us to sanity. We have to become ready to let our Higher Power restore us to sanity. We clean house, admitting to our Higher Power and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Admitting it only to ourselves doesn't get rid of it. You have to have the vulnerability to open up.

If that's not for you, then you're right. OA will not work for you. However, scientists have been working on creating drugs that target the addiction center of the brain. That may become a tool, which, like the band, can help us in that battle. I choose to believe that humankind, created in the image of God and inspired by him, come up with tools that can help free us from addiction. The 12 steps are some of the best, most proven tools God ever inspired men to create.

Right on ÌF, you said it better than I could.

and also for others who find HIGHER POWER a difficult concept....

You only have to become WILLING to beleive in a Power Greater than Yourself. or else FAKE IT, TILL YOU MAKE IT....

Yeah, maybe it isnt the place for me. Im not saying that on my own determination and will power are enough, or i wouldnt need to reach out to others for guidance. Im just saying that I would like to find a place where i get help from other people who have been through similar, rather than focusing on some being or drug above us all.

i believe in the power of people and friendship and support. not the power of becoming addicted to being saved by something.

if we are in "gods image" and god is a savior, surely the logic goes that we need to save ourselves?

Im just saying that I would like to find a place where i get help from other people who have been through similar, rather than focusing on some being or drug above us all.

i believe in the power of people and friendship and support. not the power of becoming addicted to being saved by something.

I can't speak for OA, but I've been a member of NA for fourteen years this month and I've heard these same sentiments expressed more times than I can count over the course of those years.

Whether you realize it or not, that first sentence describes a 12 step group quite nicely: a place to get help from people who've been through the things similar to those you are experiencing. As for the second sentence: isn't depending on people, friendship and support a form of addiction?

I'm not quibbling with you, dear, or trying to trip you up in a game of semantics. You would not be the first person to walk into a 12 step group with an absolute mind set against the idea of a higher power. What most people are really scared of is the "G" word.

We don't kick atheists out of NA and we don't try to convert them, either. I knew a woman who decided to make Sean Connery her higher power. Heard of another gal who decided since she couldn't stop the wind from blowing it would be her higher power. Lots of people regard the group conscience as their higher power.

Since you haven't been able to save yourself from over eating at this point, you don't have much to lose by declaring the door knob or your own dear inner bitch your higher power and working your way through the steps to get what you can out of them. What the hell- the process has worked for a bunch of us. Might work for you but you won't know until you give it a try. :biggrin:

greater than ourselves..it constitutes a source of help in areas where we fail. There is plenty of initiative that we have to take. A person in 12 step SHARES their experience, STRENGTH and hope with others to aid them in getting strong themselves. One relies where one is weak in order to become strong. It is not blindly following and giving up one's personality and living under food nazis or food police. There are extreme 12 step groups which have a very strict guideline which is not for all..some need that, but not all do..there are many avenues and branches of 12 step.

Please explore if you are interested, and find the group that is right for you.

I would recommend going to the OA website and the local library and securing some of the basic literature.

12 step teaches self control and also personal responsibility, yet with a mutual reliance , going hand in hand helping and receiving help. No way is it a 'palming off '. I think reading the basic literature of OA will give you more of a positive understanding of the average 12 step recovery program.

Is it possible to get a copy of the Overeaters 12 steps? Thanks

I think it is great what you are all doing.

Here is a helpful link:

http://www.aa.org/en...illustrated.pdf

I too have had experience with the first 4 steps. Those were the only ones that I completed - and that was like 20 years ago.

Good Luck - it is not an easy journey. It was always emotionally draining to me.

Step 4 was familiar to me, but I couldn't remember it - so I went in search of.

I found a website that offers the actual worksheets with instructional pages. This was pretty good - I almost forgot that I was posting here....lol.

12Step.org for Sobriety, Strength and Serenity - Tools

Enjoy - I hope this help for some of you. Good luck!

Hey I tried clicking on your link and it is not coming up...maybe it is an old link??? but you did inspire me to look for this..thank you!