January 11, 2007

By Lauren Heaton

The first thing the members of the Yellow Springs and Springfield chapter of Overeaters Anonymous say about themselves is that they are not a diet club. Rather, they are participants in a 12-step program that helps members gain peace and serenity in their lives. The second thing they say is that the group is anonymous, and that they take anonymity very seriously. The third thing they say is that OA has helped many people make permanent changes in their lives, particularly with regard to food, and they hope to help more.

This weekend the local assembly of Overeaters Anonymous is hosting an event to celebrate its 25-year presence in Yellow Springs and to welcome especially those who think they have a problem with food or compulsive eating. The celebration takes place on Saturday, Jan. 13, from 1-2:30 p.m. at the Yellow Springs Library, and features an OA member named Sherry, from Dayton, who will talk about her life before OA, what happened to convince her to finally join OA, and what her life is like now that she has a network of support for her addiction. Her talk will be followed by a panel discussion with two other OA members and a short film to raise awareness and spread information about Overeaters Anonymous.

At their meeting on Monday, members of the local OA group shared stories of how they came to OA and what the meetings have done for them. A member named Diana said that for a long time she didn’t want to come to OA because she liked what she was doing, which was eating too much. But after encountering health problem after health problem, she realized she was eating so much it was killing her.

“I knew I needed to get to OA if I wanted to save my life,” she said.

Another member, Bonnie, said she was so overweight that people began to treat her as if she were invisible, and she felt a deep sense of shame.

“This is a shameful disease. It’s very shameful not to be able to control your eating,” she said. “It’s shameful because it’s not the person we want to be.”

Others said they came to OA after they had “hit bottom” and realized they were out of control and in an unstable state mentally, physically and spiritually. Through the meetings and working the 12 steps toward honesty with themselves and the rest of the world, they gained peace, serenity and a new sense of self worth, they said.

“OA was good because I learned about why I was eating,” Tasha said. “The biggest step was step four, getting it off my chest, and after that I didn’t have to eat about my issues with relationships anymore.”

There are still bad days, Bonnie said, when she is still obsessed with food, but she has steps she can take, and a network of people she can call on now for help.

Her weight loss, she wanted to make clear, had nothing to do with dieting, which she feels only feeds the compulsion to eat.

“A diet is just that, die-it. It adds to your sense of shame, your inability to control food and your obsession with food,” she said. “With dieting I kept thinking I could control my eating, but the truth is I had to find resources within myself through that higher power.”

According to a member named Veronica, who is treasurer of the local OA service group, there is help in OA for obesity, one of the number one health problems in the country. She herself has maintained an 80-pound weight loss, and others in the group have been able to keep off 100 and 200 pounds for 20 years and more, she said. Though weight-loss is not at all the main goal of the program, losing weight should be a healthful side benefit of the steps, she said.

The 12 steps of OA are so similar to those for Alcoholics Anonymous and other addictions that, according to Veronica, one shouldn’t be able to perceive the difference between a good AA meeting and a good OA meeting.

“A good meeting is people talking about people getting well and maintaining a spiritual life,” she said.

The steps begin with admitting powerlessness over food, followed by placing one’s faith in a power greater than oneself. The steps continue through finding honesty within and dealing honestly with others all the way to maintaining sanity with continued prayer and meditation and finally to carrying the message to others with similar problems.

One OA member named Jim said that it took him a long time to become completely honest with himself and to know with his heart that his addiction was more powerful than he was. Only when he finally admitted to himself that he couldn’t quit smoking, eating, and engaging in a number of other addictions, was he able to get control of himself.

“I acknowledged that I am an addict and that there are a number of compulsive behaviors I indulge in, some of which are publicly acceptable and some of which are even praiseworthy, and it’s all motivated by a selfish desire to please myself,” he said. “Then I turned myself over to a higher power. This is a good fight, and I don’t expect it to end.”

OA meets at Friends Care Assisted Living on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m., as well as in Springfield on Florence Street on Mondays at 10:30 a.m.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com