The quotes below are sections from the complete “Our Invitation to You” as found in OA’s Suggested Meeting Format. This is read near the beginning of most OA meetings.

Following the quoted sections, I give my personal thoughts, explanations, even questions, regarding the preceding quoted lines. I hope this will be helpful to some.

We of Overeaters Anonymous have made a discovery.  At the very first meeting we attended, we learned we were in the clutches of a dangerous illness, and willpower, emotional health, and self-confidence, which some of us had once possessed, were no defense against it.

Yes, I agree to having made a discovery at my first meeting.  It was the first time I’d ever considered that I had an illness that was making me overeat and unable to lose weight and keep it off – an illness I’d never heard of – compulsive overeating.  A “dangerous” illness it says. Not sure I could fully agree.  For my part, I wasn’t thatoverweight! When it came to emotional health and self-confidence, I knew I had those!  Willpower was another thing.  I felt bad about that and it seemed to be my downfall.  And that seemed in sync with what I was hearing at the meeting.  I couldn’t stay on a diet or stop eating crunchy things from bags and sweet things kind of ran my life.  Maybe I had “once possessed” willpower, but whatever willpower I ever had was not working now.  

We have learned that the reasons for the illness are unimportant. What deserves the attention of the still-suffering compulsive overeater is this: There is a proven, workable method by which we can arrest our illness.

How could the reasons for it be unimportant? I don’t get that. But I’ll keep listening. You got my attention with that “willpower” talk. Yeah – and because I am still suffering and eating out of control. A “proven” “method”? That sounds good. But what’s this “arrest” idea? Tell me about the “method”.

The OA recovery program is patterned after that of Alcoholics Anonymous. As our personal stories attest, the Twelve Step program of recovery works as well for compulsive eaters as it does for alcoholics.

Okay, I’ve heard of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Who hasn’t?  I don’t know anything about it other than its supposed to be successful for alcoholics. Does it make sense that I’m like an alcoholic – only with food? Hmmm. Twelve Steps – never heard of them.  But it works for compulsive eaters? Okay, I’m still listening.

“Can we guarantee you this recovery?” The answer is up to you. If you will honestly face the truth about yourself and the illness; if you will keep coming back to meetings to talk and listen to other recovering compulsive overeaters; if you will read our literature and that of Alcoholics Anonymous with an open mind; and, most important, if you are willing to rely on a power greater than yourself for direction in your life, and to take the Twelve Steps to the best of your ability, we believe you can indeed join the ranks of those who recover.

Slow down, you’re losing me here. So much I have to do? But it mentions “guarantee” and that it’s up to me.  I think I like those ideas. Okay, face the truth about my illness – well, I’ve faced the fact that I’m fat and I can’t change that.  That seems pretty honest already!  Check that one off! Come back to meetings, talk and listen.  I think I could do that, too! Check!  Read literature of OA and AA. I guess that’s not too tough an order. Maybe I don’t have to read it all at once?  Tentative check!  Rely on a power greater than myself for direction in my life.  Well, I don’t really know what that means.  I mean, I kind of believe in God and I know a couple prayers, but I don’t think I’m ready to be some kind of religious person or a missionary or anything.  I don’t really get what all that means.  Take the Twelve Step?.  Well, what are these steps?  How can I know if I’m going to be able to take them?  Well, if alcoholics have done it, surely I can do it, too, whatever it is. 

To remedy the emotional, physical and spiritual illness of compulsive eating we offer several suggestions, but keep in mind that the basis of the program is spiritual, as evidenced by the Twelve Steps.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Emotional, physical, spiritual?  Hey, I’m just fat! That’s all. Several suggestions? I guessI could listen to some suggestions.  That can’t be toooverwhelming. But what does this mean – the program is spiritual? It’s starting to sound churchy again! And then there’s those Twelve Steps again!!  I don’t know. Ugh!

We are not a “diet” club. We do not endorse any particular plan of eating. In OA, abstinence is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Once we become abstinent, the preoccupation with food diminishes and in many cases leaves us entirely. We then find that, to deal with our inner turmoil, we have to have a new way of thinking, of acting on life rather than reacting to it — in essence, a new way of living.

Ooh! I like that idea – not a diet club.  I couldn’t stand one of those again! So degrading! Expensive!  No diet plan – I like that.  But what the heck?  How would I lose weight?  Absti-what? Is that some kind of exercise thing? For your abs? Hmm. I guess not. Refraining from compulsive eating – obviously that’s what it’s all about! But doesn’t that take willpower? Working towards a healthy body weight? Well that is what I’m after. Preoccupation with food diminishes or goes away – that seems like an advertising ploy! Well, I don’t get it.  It’s more than I can understand.  I don’t know if I can take this on.  But it talks about new ways of thinking and living.  Does that mean I can live like a normal person? That sounds intriguing, even though I don’t get any connection to losing weight.

From this vantage point, we begin the Twelve Step program of recovery, moving beyond the food and the emotional havoc to a fuller living experience. As a result of practicing the Steps, the symptoms of compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors are removed on a daily basis, achieved through the process of surrendering to something greater than ourselves; the more total our surrender, the more fully realized our freedom from food obsession.

Okay, I need to step back.  This seems like something so different from what I’m looking for.

Here are the Steps as adapted for 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.

And all those steps!  Most of them don’t apply to me, I’m sure.  So maybe I can get by with just a few of them?

“But I’m too weak. I’ll never make it!” Don’t worry, we have all thought and said the same thing. The amazing secret to the success of this program is just that: weakness. It is weakness, not strength, that binds us to each other and to a Higher Power and somehow gives us the ability to do what we cannot do alone.

Yeah, I feel weak! I really do! Wait, there’s other people who feel that way, too? Being weak is okay? Weakness is better than strength? I don’t have to be strong? “Somehow” I get some ability that I don’t have now? Kind of vague, but – what other options are there?  Another diet group, another doctor’s disapproval? Maybe I should still give this a chance. 

If you decide you are one of us, we welcome you with open arms. Whatever your circumstances, we offer you the gift of acceptance. You are not alone any more. Welcome to Overeaters Anonymous. Welcome home!

Wow! I love that I could be welcomed and accepted!  It sounds too good to be true, though.  But if I don’t go to a meeting and see, I’ll just be stuck with nowhere, nobody, nothing – except where I am right now. I can’t stand this anymore.  I don’t want to try to fight this alone!  I’ve given up, so what more could I lose by giving it a try?