1. We admitted we were powerless
over our obsession with weight,
size and
eating - 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 God.
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 God 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 God, praying only for knowledge
of God's 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 fellow sufferers, and to practise these
principles in all our affairs.
The
Twelve Traditions of Obsessive Eaters Anonymous
1. Our common welfare should
come first; personal recovery depends upon
O.E.A unity.
2. For our group purpose there
is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God
as expressed
in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants;
they do not
govern.
3. The only requirement for
O.E.A. membership is a desire to stop the
obsession
with weight,size and eating.
4. Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other
groups
or O.E.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one
primary purpose -- to carry its message to the
obsessive eater
who still suffers.
6. An O.E.A. group ought never endorse,
finance, or lend the O.E.A.
name to any
related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of
money, property
and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every O.E.A. group ought
to be fully self-supporting,declining outside
contributions.
8. Obsessive Eaters Anonymous
should remain forever non-professional,
but our
service centres may employ special workers.
9. O.E.A., as such, ought
never be organised; but we may create service
boards
or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10.Obsessive Eaters Anonymous has
no opinion on outside issues;
hence
the O.E.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11.Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than promotion;
we need
always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press,
radio,film,television
and other public media of communication.
12.Anonymity is the spiritual foundation
of all these traditions, ever
reminding
us to place principles before personalities.
The
12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous
THE STEPS OF AA
1. We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol - 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 God's 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 fellow
alcoholicss,
and to practise
these principles in all our affairs.
THE TRADITIONS OF AA
1. Our common welfare should come
first; personal recovery depends on A.A unity.
2. 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.
3. The only requirement for A.A.
membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary
purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse,
finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise,
lest problems of money,
property and
prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be
fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should
remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special
workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be
organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible
to those they serve.
10.Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into
public controversy.
11.Our public relations policy
is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12.Anonymity is the spiritual foundation
of our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
of Alcoholics Anonymous have been reprinted and adapted with the permission
of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc. [“A.A.W.S.”]. Permission
to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions does not mean
that A.A.W.S. is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program
of recovery from alcoholism only – use of A.A..’s Steps and Traditions
or an adapted version of its Steps and Traditions in connection with programs
and activities which are patterned after A.A. but which address other problems,
or use in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.
How
to Contact OEA
By mail @ P.O.
Box 7555
Glenageary,
Co. Dublin
Ireland
By email @ obsessiveeaters@hotmail.com
By phone @ 353-[0]1-289
1599 or mobile 087 2390595
Meeting
information
[The meeting information below is correct as at
1 Dec 2007]
Ireland
Dublin
Monday - 10.30am - Templeogue -
Dublin 6w
St Jude's Pastoral Centre
[adjacent to St Judes Church
beside Orwell Shopping Centre]
Tuesday - 7.15pm - Ranelagh - Dublin
6
Beechwood Community Centre
Mountainview Road
[Turn off Ranelagh Road up Beechwood
Avenue Lower – Ulster Bank and Coffee Society are on
either side of the corner – then
turn left along Beechwood Road and right up Mountain View Road
– the community centre is the last
building on your right-hand-side. Some Buses which pass along
Ranelagh Road are 44, 44C,48A and
11].
Limerick
Wednesday - 7.00pm
St Gerards Hall
Redemptorist Church Grounds
South Circular Road
Limerick
United Kingdom
Edinburgh
Saturday - 11.00am
St Catherine's Convent
4 Lauriston Gardens
Edinburgh
Fareham
phone for information 0044-[0]2392
751518
Glasgow
Tuesday - 7.30pm
Anderson Kelvingrove Church
759 Argyle Street
off Elderslies Street
Glasgow
Scotland
Leamington Spa
Wednesday - 8-9.30pm
St Marys Church
St Marys Road
Leamington Spa
CV31 1JW
Contact Jane 07765 493050
or Jandy 01608 644007
Manchester
phone - 0044-[0]161 881 3426
email OEA@ukgateway.net
North of England contact number
Call 0044-[0]1609-776013
Literature
You may print some of our literature
here - the leaflets are in PDF format
Just click on the item and it should appear on screen ....
OEA
Factsheet
OEA
on Sponsorship
OEA Welcome
'Stepping
Ahead' - our magazine for members
'Stepping Ahead’ is our quarterly magazine which we intend
to produce in March,June, September and December. Each issue mailed directly
to you costs £1.50.
If you would like to order ‘Stepping Ahead’ please contact
us at PO Box 7555, Glenageary, Co. Dublin.
Here is a sample article from our latest issue of the
magazine
"MY STORY BY A MEMBER OF OBSESSIVE EATERS ANONYMOUS
I don’t know whether I was born an obsessive eater or
simply became one, but I most definitely was a child with an eating disorder.
I have very few memories of childhood and most of them involve food. In
one I was sick with the measles ,and as a result had to miss my primary
school Christmas party. I was terribly disappointed and my mother offered
to make me anything I wanted to eat. I chose chips and they were very comforting.
Another memory is of being 8 yrs old and it was a Saturday morning and
my mother was having a lie-in in the double bed with my younger brother
and sister. She wouldn’t let me join them in the bed, she said I was too
big, probably meaning that she needed space for herself, but my reaction,
if I knew it ,was to feel frightened. Looking back I can’t say that I remember
any feeling except for the immediate comfort of food, but I would guess
today that I might have been eating to avoid feelings of rejection and
exclusion. I went straight from the uncomfortable situation to the food,
without identifying any feelings. I offered to make breakfast and I ate
as I cooked and I remember not being able to wait for the bacon to be fully
cooked and eating it half raw. So at a young age I was seeking comfort
in food for reasons unknown to myself. It was quite simply a coping mechanism
and I never questioned my need for food. I also remember that all spare
money that I had was always spent on food for myself and I dreaded having
to share any of my treats with anyone else.
I have memories of my mother’s frustration with
me when she would go shopping and try to get clothes to fit me. At this
stage I knew that I was a nuisance and that in some strange way I was on
my own. No one wanted to take responsibility or care for me exactly as
I was. So in my thinking I became convinced that there was something very
wrong with me. I continued to grow up in a neglectful environment. Secondary
school was very difficult for 5 years. I desperately wanted friends and
to be liked and loved, and the harder I tried to fit in, the more alone
I felt. I believed deep down that I would never be liked for myself. So
I kept trying to find ways to make people like me. If I only discovered
what it was that people wanted me to be then I believed that I had the
power to become that person. I also believed that losing weight would
allow me to take my rightful place in the world. I saw myself in all things
in comparison to everyone else that I knew, and I always came bottom of
the
ladder in my own eyes. In many ways this was an intensely difficult time
as my coping mechanism of food no longer shielded me from pain. The results
of my obsessive behaviour with food showed in my weight and size and this
caused me more emotional pain. I spent a lot of time trying to avoid being
criticised for my size and also avoid those who would try to help me and
suggest that I lose weight. When people who were well intended would take
me aside and offer helpful advice - all I felt was a sense of foreboding,
that what was happening was that someone else was pointing out my deficiencies
to me and confirming what I had already suspected. that I was unloved and
unlovable.
Adolescence brought the difficulties of relationships
with boys and sexuality. My belief that I would only be acceptable and
likeable if I made the other person like me got me into an emotionally
painful sexual situation. I had experienced rejection before, but nothing
prepared me for being used sexually and then rejected and scorned. At this
stage my low self esteem and self will had brought me to the brink of despair.
I decided that no one would ever get near enough to hurt me in this way
again. I felt as though I was building big brick walls all around me in
my head. I got a short term sense of security from convincing myself that
I was safe. I would keep the world at distance and never be hurt
again. I had one firm friend that never deserted me - food, and food was
all I needed. I could and would manage to live with no dependency or trust
in others.
With this need to control came the dieting days.
I loved the sense of power I felt at the first signs of weight loss on
a diet. I felt so superior - now I would show the world. I had arrived.
The diets were always of my own creation, as any sensible diet with it’s
suggestion that I might try to change my long-term eating habits was a
prospect I could not bear to think about.
I had no wish to give up food forever. I just wanted
to be thin for long enough to make things alright, and attract the people
who would make me feel alright about myself. The diets, sometimes aided
by slimming pills, were always successful in the short term. I would follow
a rigid regime for a while , and then the bubble would burst, and I would
begin to eat differently. In no time at
all I would regain the weight I had lost, plus a stone
or two more. When my eating would move from control to bingeing I would
have no consciousness as to how or when the change had happened. I would
all of a sudden realise that I had regained a lot of weight and the thoughts
of trying to control would surface again. I never seemed to learn from
my own dieting and regaining history.
Finding clothes was a nightmare, and I never felt
able to dress like others of my own age. I could never fit into jeans for
long, and often wore maternity dresses , as they were all I could
find in my size. During this time I went to university, and spent most
of my time believing that all would be well if I just lost the weight.
I completely ignored people who were interested in me because I suspected
that if they liked me, they were unworthy in some way. I missed out on
a lot of fun and love in those days. I also hated having to share accommodation
and food. I always felt deprived and hungry even when I was overeating.
After university my career progressed quite well, but
I was always reaching out, striving to attain the next thing that was going
to make me feel alright. I would have dieted and regained weight several
times , without seeing any pattern to my behaviour. The weight gain was
always the fault of some other person, place or situation. I needed to
blame others because I could not cope with my own feelings of failure.
I deeply resented myself and my life, but kept seeking the elusive fix
which would cure all of this. I had a comfortable home, a good job, no
major worries, and yet I wanted to die. I saw no point in living. At this
time, someone I knew gave me a leaflet about a 12 Step fellowship. Somewhere
in that darkness I knew I needed help. There were questions on that leaflet
that helped me to identify that I might have a problem, and at my first
meeting the sharing of one member really helped me to identify my feelings.
The conversational tone in which I heard feelings described was like learning
that there actually was a language to give expression to what was going
on inside my head. Eventually I felt safe and at home, amongst fellow human
beings at last. Sponsorship came soon in my first year of recovery. However
I still needed to rely on my own will, and saw no need for me to make any
amends whatsoever, despite coming away from steps 4 and 5 with a clear
list of people that I had harmed.
For a year or two in recovery. I was trying to do
it my own way, and not the way that is suggested in the Big Book[Alcoholics
Anonymous], and at the same time I was of course expecting to gain full
recovery immediately !!! It wasn’t long before I found myself back in despair
again, and this time the pain was excruciating because I was fully aware
of what was going on. I finally hit my rock bottom and saw that the only
way out was through the steps, and this time it would be all the steps.
I completed my amends in the next 6 months and finally came to the point
of feeling recovered. I finally listened and heard the message - the wonderful,
simple miraculous message of the 12 steps and I got on with living.
Step 3 is a decision that I acted upon together with God
in steps 4-9 and we continue this action in steps 10 and 11. He always
shows up for duty - I am a little less than perfect, but I plod away and
do my best and try to be always open to progress. The result of this has
been that I have developed a relationship with the God of my understanding,
and I have finally found a source of strength, love, care, hope and understanding
that makes everything and everybody, including little old me, more than
just alright. It makes me all that I can be for today. I feel that I have
become the person I always wanted to be, but that I could never have known
,prior to recovery, that it was possible for me to be the person I am today.
I know that I am a miracle and that all around me I see and know other
miracles in recovery.
In 1999, after 10 years of recovery I became a member
of Obsessive Eaters Anonymous. My years in recovery have given me deep
understanding of what my illness really is. I fully identify with the first
step of O.E.A. I am powerless over my obsession with weight, size and eating.
For many years I have had been blessed with recovery with respect to my
obsession with eating, but what I discovered in my recovery journey was
that my obsession with eating was partnered by an obsession with my weight
and size. Whilst eating is not a problem today I can still use my obsession
with weight and size as a coping mechanism to get me out of emotionally
difficult and confusing situations. It is occasionally a reflex reaction
to my own feelings of fear and low-self esteem - it’s much easier for me
to say that things would be better if I lost weight, rather than look my
fears about myself in the eye, in an open an honest and caring manner.
I am as powerless over this reaction today as I was when I was 8 years
old, the difference today is that the 12 steps give me a process that short-circuits
the reaction and restores me to sane thinking about myself and life and
others. I don’t need to continue punishing myself today. In the 12 steps
I have a coping mechanism that really works all of the time and which has
transformed my life into one which is more happy, joyful and free that
I would ever have dreamed possible." From "Stepping Ahead", Dec 2000
Forthcoming
Fellowship Events
Fellowship events are held for the
benefit of our members. Membership of OEA means that a person has a desire
to stop their obsession with weight,size and eating.
The events so far arranged
for 2008 are as follows
| Date |
Event |
Venue |
| Feb 9th |
Templogue Workshop |
Blackrock, Dublin |
| Mar 29th |
Communication and Service meeting |
Blackrock, Dublin |
| May 24th |
Workshop and Service meeting |
Limerick |
| Jun 21st |
Workshop |
Blackrock, Dublin |
| July 18th - 20th |
Retreat weekend |
Leamington area |
| Sept 13th |
Communication and Service meeting |
Blackrock, Dublin |
| Nov 15th |
Communication and Service meeting |
Blackrock, Dublin |
| Dec 13th |
Ranelagh workshop and pre Xmas
celebration |
Blackrock, Dublin |
For further details please contact
us by mail or email
Copyright - Obsessive Eaters Anonymous
2000-2008
