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.

Hi

Just wondering where you stand now.... Icancelled my own surgery twice before I felt my head was anywhere near in the right place to be banded. Always new i could screw it up if I wasn't commited. About 16 years ago before I fell pregnant with my last child I lost about 50kg workinh the OA programme. I stopped when I fell pregnant thinking the weightloss had made me 'normal'.. putting back on those 50kg and another 20 on top over 16 yrs had me at my pre-op weight!! Went to my first OA meeting about 2wks ago - none in my home town 1.5 hr travel to the closest - though I have always played aroung the edges of a 12 step programme. I still find it hard but go back to OA if you have doubts - if it's a good non-judgemental group. The band is only a tool and 'let go and let God (or your HP)' is the only way to get throughthe 'impossible' times.

I had great fears of failing but I am lighter than I was 16 years ago!!!! You CAN do it.

All the best

Edited March 14, 200917 yr by noela31
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Thank you for starting this thread. I had stayed away from this site for awhile because I had discovered I really did have a food addiction. I never believed it until I got banded and then started fighting the band. I thought only "idiots" did that, but now I know the word is "addicts." Being a food addict felt so lonely. I tried to talk to a friend who is in NA and she dismissed my issues as being nothing compared to her addiction. I stopped talking to anyone but I wanted to say, I'd give anything just to stop eating. I know I have a compulsive nature but I stopped drinking and stopped shopping (gave up credit cards) and am very careful not to get addicted to my medications (although Xanax is a struggle). I have been roaming the Internet reading up on FA and then came back here and found this thread. The band helped me lose weight (30 pre-band and 20 post-surgery) and it stops the binge before it can get too out of control. I read last night that it takes 10 days to get out of the addictive behavior loop and today was Day 1 of no sugar. Tomorrow I add flour. I'm not ready to give up coffee, but I'll start looking for an OA meeting. I went to 1 about 20 years ago, but left because I was too proud to think I had anything in common with the OA group.

Thanks for reading this, but I had to get it off my chest. Thanks for letting me know others are fighting FA and balancing the band.

I really enjoyed reading your post. I too have experiance with OA and recovery (albeit for a while) I have gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the years..My best success for 3 yrs abstinance was going to OA meetings... Lots of meetings. I lived in a town then that had 4 -5 meetings on different days around town. SO that was great, Open meetings, Step Study meetings, Closed meetings... such a variety!

Then I moved and my new town meetings just didn't feel the same.. I didn't see a lot of folks with abst. or recovery... I felt let down... (really I was just comparing my old meetings to my new city, quite unfair)

Anyways, that was my excuse to stop going THAT time.

Several years later, after trying to Diet on my own... I admitted that I needed OA.. and started a meeting in my own town... I sat there for 6 mos each week - alone.... o.k. then here's another excuse to Quit OA ~ right? Ha!

A year and a half ago I got the band, tired of dieting, tired of talking abvout losing weight and not being able to. As I get older its harder and harder to kick start the metabolism ~ right???

So here I am 1 1/2yrs banded, down 60+ lbs... still have 35 to go,,, and I've remained at the same weight for a YEAR! Yes, a whole YEAR banded!~!!! What's up with that????:thumbup:

Its because I eat around the band, sugary foods slide right on thru - no restriction... now I can't eat a WHOLE bag of oreos at one sitting, the band does curtail the abinges.... but I can still get a lot of excess calories in there...... hence the stalled weight loss.

I have no control over my binge foods, the band stops my REGULAR food from becoming over eaten but icecream goes right thru...

I need help - I need OA.... "God, grant me the serenity to ACCEPT the things I cannot change"

My surgeon declined my lap-band surgery because of portal hypertention and liver diease. I going to look for another surgeon, because both my liver specialist and by primary doctors want me to have the lap-band. I am still going to OA and my group has been very supportive either way, maintaining that its all about a spirtual solution with the band or without it.

My surgeon declined my lap-band surgery because of portal hypertention and liver diease. I going to look for another surgeon, because both my liver specialist and by primary doctors want me to have the lap-band. I am still going to OA and my group has been very supportive either way, maintaining that its all about a spirtual solution with the band or without it.

Dear Rchief:

I would keep seeking a W/L surgery too... Have you thought of the SLEEVE? there are no after adjustments to be bothered with... Or now they have the GASTRIC BALOON... it gets inserted into your tummy (you swallow it) then the Dr. Expands it .... the balloon stays inside your tummy (taking up volume so that you can only eat tiny meals) for 6-9 mos. while you loose your weight.... its cheaper than lap band, and gastric sleeve and Roux=n=Y surgery...

Also, Mexico has some great surgeons and the cost there is considerably less than the US or Canada.

thanks for the tips I will look into the one you swallow. Sleeve may still be to risky with live diease. Again Thanks

hi everyone

I went to my first overeater's anonymous meeting today because, despite the band I still am addicted to food. I eat and eat when I can (that is when I'm not feeling restriction) It goes down all night. It went down tonight, about 700 calories of ice cream, after having a good day I blew it this evening. I know this addiction is real. They said today that it's not your willpower or strenth to diet, that I'm dealig with addiction. I could have really used someone to talk to tonight. That's why I'm on this site so late at night. I( need to stop eating.

Help me please, or I'll start regaining al the weight I lost with the lapband. Thanks for listening.

I went to my third OA meeting and so far each one was different. I will go to the Literature meeting tomorrow. I'm trying to help myself, but I'm not yet sure if it's going to help me.

Does anyone remember their first meeting and do you eventually get into it, or how does these steps help the overeater. Thanks

OA uses the same book and 12 steps as AA. Its about working the steps to clear a path to receive a higher power of your understanding, to get our power from, this gives us a daily reprive from complusion overeating. The key is that we have to do the process of the steps on a daily effort, go to meetings, get a sponser, and help others. The pamplets, the 12 x 12 OA book, Big Book of AA, Dignity of Choice pamplet are some that I study and use today. And yes it does work if you work it.

thank you so much for your wisdom. I've read chapter one of the 12 x 12 OA book and I know I'm powerless over food. I'm a food addict. It's just giong to be hard going to meetings, dealing with the good and bad days of the lap band and trying to fit in exercise (if I get my butt to the gym). It's all so much to do. Why can't life just be simple and I be a normal eater

I've been in OA now for 6 months. The one thing I had abstinence from for any length of time was coffee, I didn't drink it for 5 months and then last month started again.:wink2:

I had a period of 'half abstinence' as I call it during the month of jan this year, I was still eating trigger foods but my food obsession seemed to be lifted and I thought I was in control of my binge foods. I shed 13lbs in that month and was ecstatic. Then the obsession came back as quickly as it had left.

Since then I have struggled to get back into my daily routine of using the tools of recovery. This week I have made an effort to read the lierature, write, call/text other OAers etc but I still have trouble staying away from that first compulsive bite.

I am going to have wls as soon as I can get a date for it and use it alongside the programme. It's something I've been thinking about for the last 4 years and I think I should be brave and take the plunge now. It's just the pre-op diet I am dreading as I just cannot stick to a diet anymore but I am hoping getting a date for surgery will push me into it.

Like Bandana I wish I could be a normal eater.:w00t:

I binged tonight on sugar and choctolate. I was able to get in contact with another OA member for support and it helped to calm the tiger. For now. We;ll see. I need as much support as poswsible to deal with myself and not gaining weight back .

Anyone know of any OA meetings on the phone 'bridge' which are geared to those with WL surgery?

I know if you go to overeatersanonymous, they have phone meetings. you have to negotiate the site to find it. Sorry I don't remember the exact way to do this, but the phone call meetings are there. But I haven't seen any meeting that focuses on WLS issues. The people inthe groups I've gone to have been accepting of the fact that I've had WLS despite hearing from others that they will be unreceptive because they think it "cheating" with WLS. I think so many more people are having the surgery that they are more accepting, and I think some of them even toy with the idea of WLS also.

Here's a link to online OA meetings. There are several every day.

OA - 12 Steps for Compulsive Overeaters (COEs)

I spent a couple of years on the phone meetings, but never encountered one with a WL surgery focus.

One thng I know, before I had any thought of getting banded, the f2f groups were kind of mean to those who had any surgery. I was hoping things had improved and warmed in that area since w/l surgery is being chosen by the obese community now.