No dues or fees
OA is supported by voluntary contributions. There is no cost to attend and no one will ask you to buy anything.
New to Overeaters Anonymous
You Are Welcome Here.
You do not need a diagnosis, a certain body size, or a perfect explanation. If eating or food is causing pain in your life, you are invited to explore OA.
No weigh-ins or diets
OA is a Twelve Step fellowship, not a diet club. Members choose their own path with help from the fellowship.
Your privacy matters
Anonymity creates a safe place to listen and share. You may simply introduce yourself by your first name.
Your first meeting
Come as you are.
- 01
Choose any meeting
Virtual and in-person meetings each have their own personality. Try several to find where you feel at home.
- 02
Listen for similarities
Members share their own experience rather than giving advice. You never have to speak before you are ready.
- 03
Keep coming back
Recovery grows through connection. Members often suggest attending several meetings before deciding whether OA is right for you.
Read Here or Continue at OA.org.
Short and medium OA materials are available below in accessible text. Longer or frequently updated resources include a local orientation and a link to the current official version. Local summaries are not substitutes for OA-approved literature; use the source link for the exact current OA text.
Selected OA Text
To the Young Person: Questions About Food, Eating Behaviors, and Body Image
These fifteen OA questions give young people a private way to consider how eating behaviors and body image may be affecting daily life. The longer official resource also includes recovery stories.
Read the Selected OA TextShow or hide
If you’re reading this, you may already think so.
Asking yourself the following questions can help you see how food issues affect your life:
- Do my eating habits change depending on my feelings?
- Am I unhappy or frustrated with my eating habits or body size, or with my attempts to control them?
- Do I sometimes feel I can’t stop eating even though I want to?
- Do I often eat more (or less) than most people do at a meal or throughout the day?
- Do I eat large amounts of food even when I’m not physically hungry?
- Do I eat normally in front of others but eat excessively, or avoid eating, when I’m alone?
- Do I spend a lot of time thinking about my body size?
- Do I try to control my body size by fasting, purging, using laxatives, or exercising for long hours?
- Do thoughts of food or my body image take up too much of my time and energy?
- Do my eating habits, body size, or feelings of shame about how I look limit my social life?
- Do I avoid physical activities because of how I feel about my body?
- Do I sometimes sneak food or steal money to buy it?
- Do I lie about how much I eat or don’t eat?
- Have I been told that I really ought to eat more (or less)?
- Do I wish people wouldn’t comment about my body size or eating habits?
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you’re not alone. Many, including young people, suffer from the disease of compulsive eating, whether they are an overeater, a bulimic, or an anorexic. Whether you call the problem an eating disorder or a disease, the good news is that there is a solution.
Complete OA Text
Welcome Home (Abridged)
A welcoming OA reading for people who recognize isolation, secrecy, pain, or a feeling that they do not belong.
Read the Complete OA TextShow or hide
Have you ever wished you could lose ten pounds (5 kg)? Twenty (9 kg)? Forty (18 kg)? A hundred (45 kg) or more? Have you ever wished that once you got it off you could keep it off? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you sometimes felt out of step with the world, like a homeless orphan without a place where you really belonged? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever wished your family would get to work or school so you could get busy eating? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever awakened first thing in the morning and felt happy because you remembered that your favorite goodie was waiting for you in the fridge or in the cupboard? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered what an insignificant person like you is doing in the world anyway? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever cooked, bought, or baked for your family and then eaten everything yourself so you wouldn’t have to share? We know you in OA because we are you. Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever wanted to hide in the house, without going to work, without getting cleaned up or even getting dressed, without seeing anyone or letting anyone see you? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever hidden food under the bed, under the pillow, in the drawer, in the bathroom, in the wastebasket, the cupboard, the clothes hamper, the closet, or the car so that you could eat without anyone seeing you? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever been angry, resentful, defiant—toward God, your mate, your doctor, your mother, your father, your friends, your children, the salespeople in stores whose looks spoke a thousand words as you tried on clothes—because they were thin, because they wanted you to be thin, and because you were forced to diet to please them or shut them up or make them eat their words and their looks? We welcome you to OA; welcome home!
Have you ever sobbed out your misery in the dark night because no one loved or understood you? Welcome to OA; welcome home!
—A Taste of Lifeline, pp. xiii–xvi
Local Summary
A Place to Begin
OA’s official newcomer starting point explains the fellowship, what to expect, common questions, recovery, and how to find a meeting.
Local Summary
Diversity in OA
OA welcomes people of every age, race, religion, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, body size, and background who want to stop eating compulsively.
Local Summary
OA Is Not a Diet Club
OA does not provide diets, weigh-ins, medical treatment, nutrition advice, or counseling. It offers peer identification, meetings, sponsorship, and a Twelve Step approach to physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery while encouraging members to consult qualified professionals when appropriate.
Official OA Service-Body Link
Young Adults Virtual Intergroup
Visit another registered OA service body focused on helping young adults connect with OA.
Complete OA Text
To the Young Person — Audiobook
OA’s announcement provides audiobook information and purchasing links for To the Young Person. OA identifies the audiobook as using virtual voice narration.
Read the Complete OA TextShow or hide
Our pamphlet To the Young Person: Do you have a problem with food or body image? (#220) is now available as an audiobook with virtual voice narration.
To the Young Person includes real stories of OA recovery submitted by young OA members and covers a broad range of disease manifestations, including anorexia, overexercising, and compulsive food behaviors. These stories explore how compulsive eating behaviors have adversely affected the physical, mental, and emotional health of the authors and how they found recovery. A questionnaire preceding the stories can help a young person decide if they have a problem with food.
Find the new To the Young Person audiobook here. OA receives a royalty share from purchases made through these third-party vendors:
You can also find the audiobook links on the To the Young Person product page at bookstore.oa.org.
To the Young Person joins a list of seven other OA titles produced using virtual voice narration generated by artificial intelligence. The virtual voice option allows OA to produce audiobooks versions of our literature at a reasonable cost. World Service Office staff have reviewed and edited each narrative recording to produce the best quality narration, and we invite your feedback about your experience listening to these recordings.