We are so glad you are here! You are welcome, wanted and needed; “together we get better.” There are no dues or fees for membership, we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Below you will find some helpful resources in getting started:
- In person, virtual, and hybrid meetings in Lane County
- In person, virtual, and hybrid meetings all over the globe
- From OA World Service: A Place to Begin
- This page answers frequent newcomer questions, including:
- Is OA right for me? Take a short quiz.
- What is a “program of recovery”?
- How do I get started?
- This page answers frequent newcomer questions, including:
- To buy literature: Visit the OA Book Store
What Brings us Together
We in Overeaters Anonymous (OA) are united through a shared experience – we came to OA unable to manage our food and food behaviors; most of us felt helpless, hopeless and defeated. Many of us had tried many strategies over the course of many years to try and solve our compulsive eating problems. Across members, our food difficulties manifest in different ways, such as binge eating, binge/purge cycles, dieting obsession, body image obsession, and so much more. For most of us, we felt ashamed, alone, out of control, and we did not know how to stop.
In OA, we found a fellowship of people who understand, who accept us just as we are. We came to see, reflected in the faces of friendly strangers, that we are not alone, and recovery is possible. Most of us started by attending our first OA meeting, and kept coming back. It is recommended to try 6 different meetings to find a meeting that is right for you. Through meetings and fellowship, we began to learn about OA’s program of recovery. In OA, the heart of our recovery is through working the 12 steps and using the Tools. The OA 12 steps are based on the program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Indeed we have come to realize that our food obsession and inability to control our compulsive eating was much the same as the alcoholic’s relationship with alcohol.
Members often begin to work with a sponsor, they may also seek nutrition counseling with a dietitian or physician as they begin their recovery journey. The beauty of OA is that each member gets to decide what recovery means to them, and to develop a program of recovery that meets their individual needs and preferences. Each day we come to realize that “together we can do what we could never do alone.”