Services Resources

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous

“Our way of life, based on these twelve steps and twelve traditions, has brought us physical, emotional and spiritual healing, that we don’t hesitate to call miraculous. What works for us will work for you, too.”

12 Steps

The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous

Step 1 - Honesty

We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2 - Hope

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3 - Faith

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Step 4 - Self Discipline

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 5 - Service

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.

Step 6 - Humility

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 7 - Integrity

Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 8 - Love

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 9 - Spiritual Awareness

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.

Step 10 - Perseverance

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Step 11 - Willingness

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 12 - Courage

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

12 Traditions

The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous

Tradition 1 - Unity

Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OA unity.

Tradition 2 - Trust

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

Tradition 3 - Identity

The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

Tradition 4 - Autonomy

Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OA as a whole.

Tradition 5 - Solidarity

An OA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Tradition 6 - Purpose

Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.

Tradition 7 - Responsibility

Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Tradition 8 - Fellowship

Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centres may employ special workers.

Tradition 9 - Structure

OA, as such, ought never be organised; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

Tradition 10 - Neutrality

Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence, the OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

Tradition 11 - Anonymity

Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication.

Tradition 12 - Spirituality

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

12 Concepts

The Twelve Concepts of OA Service help us apply the Steps and Traditions in our service work, which is an important part of the OA program. The Concepts define and guide the practices of the service structures that conduct the business of OA.

These Concepts depict the chain of delegated responsibility we use to provide service throughout the world. Although they focus on OA world services, the Concepts direct all OA’s trusted servants to well-considered actions for group participation, decision making, voting, and the expression of minority opinions. The Twelve Concepts support our primary purpose of carrying OA’s message of recovery to the still-suffering compulsive eater.

The Twelve Concepts of OA Service

  • Concept 1 - Unity

    The ultimate responsibility and authority for OA world services reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.

  • Concept 2 - Conscience

    The OA groups have delegated to World Service Business Conference the active maintenance of our world services; thus, World Service Business Conference is the voice, authority and effective conscience of OA as a whole.

  • Concept 3 - Trust
    1. The right of decision, based on trust, makes effective leadership possible. 
  • Concept 4 - Equality

    The right of participation ensures equality of opportunity for all in the decision-making process.

  • Concept 5 - Consideration

    Individuals have the right of appeal and petition in order to ensure that their opinions and personal grievances will be carefully considered.

  • Concept 6 - Responsibility

    The World Service Business Conference has entrusted the Board of Trustees with the primary responsibility for the administration of Overeaters Anonymous.

  • Concept 7 - Balance

    The Board of Trustees has legal rights and responsibilities accorded to them by OA Bylaws, Subpart A; the rights and responsibilities of the World Service Business Conference are accorded to it by Tradition and by OA Bylaws, Subpart B.

  • Concept 8 - Delegation

    The Board of Trustees has delegated to its Executive Committee the responsibility to administer the OA World Service Office.

  • Concept 9 - Ability

    Able, trusted servants, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are indispensable for effective functioning at all service levels.

  • Concept 10 - Clarity

    Service responsibility is balanced by carefully defined service authority; therefore, duplication of efforts is avoided.

  • Concept 11 - Humility

    Trustee administration of the World Service Office should always be assisted by the best standing committees, executives, staffs and consultants.

  • Concept 12 - The spiritual foundation for OA service ensures that:
    1. No OA committee or service body shall ever become the seat of perilous wealth or power;(Spiritual principle SELFLESSNESS)
    2. Sufficient operating funds, plus an ample reserve, shall be OA’s prudent financial principle;(Spiritual principle REALISM)
    3. No OA member shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority;(Spiritual principle REPRESENTATION)
    4. All important decisions shall be reached by discussion, vote and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; (Spiritual principle DIALOGUE)
    5. No service action shall ever be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy; (Spiritual principle COMPASSION) and
    6. No OA service committee or service board shall ever perform any acts of government, and each shall always remain democratic in thought and action.(Spiritual principle RESPECT)

Tools of Recovery

As we work the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program of recovery from compulsive eating, we have a number of Tools to assist us. We use these Tools—a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, action plan, anonymity, and service—on a regular basis, to help us achieve and maintain abstinence and recovery from our disease.

See the full Tools of Recovery pamphlet for more information.

Tools of Recovery

The 9 tools of OA

The 9 tools of OA

1/9

A plan of eating

As a Tool, a plan of eating helps us abstain from compulsive eating, guides us in our dietary decisions, and defines what, when, how, where, and why we eat. This Tool helps us deal with the physical aspects of our disease and achieve physical recovery.

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Sponsorship

We ask a sponsor to help us through all three levels of our program of recovery: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Find a sponsor who has what you want and ask that person how they are achieving it.

3/9

Meetings

Meetings give us an opportunity to identify our common problems, confirm our common solution, and share the gifts we receive through this Twelve Step program. In addition to face-to-face meetings, OA offers telephone and other types of virtual meetings that are useful in breaking through the deadly isolation caused by distance, illness, or physical challenges.

4/9

Telephone

Many members call, text, or email their sponsors and other OA members daily. Telephone or electronic contact also provides an immediate outlet for those hard-to-handle highs and lows we may experience.

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Writing

Putting our thoughts and feelings down on paper, or describing a troubling or joyous incident, helps us to better understand our actions and reactions in a way that is often not revealed by simply thinking or talking about them.

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Literature

We read OA-approved literature, which includes numerous books, study guides, pamphlets, wallet cards, and selected Alcoholics Anonymous texts. All this material provides insight into our disease and the experience, strength, and hope that there is a solution for us.

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Action Plan

Creating an action plan is the process of identifying and implementing attainable actions to support our individual abstinence and emotional, spiritual, and physical recovery. This Tool, like our plan of eating, may vary widely among members and may need to be adjusted as we progress in our recovery.

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Anonymity

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities (Tradition Twelve). Anonymity assures us that only we, as individual OA members, have the right to make our membership known to others. Anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication means that we never allow our faces or last names to be used once we identify ourselves as OA members (Tradition Eleven). Within the Fellowship, anonymity means that whatever we share with another OA member will be respected and kept confidential. What we hear at meetings should remain there.

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Service

Any form of service—no matter how small—that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery. Members who are new to OA can give service by attending meetings, sharing, and putting away chairs. All members can also give service by putting out literature, welcoming newcomers, hosting a virtual meeting, or doing whatever is needed to help the group. Members who meet specified requirements can give service beyond the group level by serving at the intergroup, service board, region, or world service level. As OA’s Responsibility Pledge states, “Always to extend the hand and heart of OA to all who share my compulsion; for this, I am responsible.”

As OA’s Responsibility Pledge states, “Always to extend the hand and heart of OA to all who share my compulsion; for this, I am responsible.”

Returning Member Resources

a list of resources available to members in the fellowship who still suffer and addressing relapse
and recovery of our members.

Returning Member Resources
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