OUR INVITATION TO YOU
 

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

     We have found 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.

     The OA recovery program is patterned after that of Alcoholics
     Anonymous. We use AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
     changing only the words "alcohol" and "alcoholic" to "food" and
     "compulsive overeater."

     As our personal stories attest,  the Twelve Step program of recovery
     works as well for compulsive overeaters as it does for alcoholics.

     Can we guarantee you this recovery?   The answer is simple .   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.

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

     We are not a "diet and calories" club.   We do not endorse any
     particular plan of eating.  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.

     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 symptom of
     compulsive overeating is 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.

     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.

     "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.

     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!