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Overeaters Anonymous Offers Hope

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Treatment starts with the admission that each individual is powerless over food and his or her life has become unmanageable.

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By MARY SHEDDEN

mshedden@tampatrib.com

Published: October 23, 2008

The popular media is obsessed with body image and dieting.

TV shows, magazines and, yes, even 4you, glorify the success stories of those who shed extra pounds.

Sometimes, however, we need to remember that battles with weight gain aren't just win or lose situations. Millions of men and women struggle with compulsive food addictions that can't be addressed with a simple diet.

Diets are, in fact, a big part of the problem, says a woman I'll call Margaret, a 54-year-old compulsive overeater from Temple Terrace who depends on the support and information offered by Overeaters Anonymous.

"Mass media promotes the image that thin is in. But thin is not well," she says.

It's been 24 years since Margaret walked into her first OA meeting. She was 31 and a doctor told her she was on a fast path to heart disease. She says she couldn't go a day without gorging on sugary, refined foods, though she knew she was eating herself to death.

A co-worker invited her to OA - a 12-step program modeled on the successful Alcoholics Anonymous design. There are no leaders or formal membership, just others who battle the same demons.

The format focuses on the steps, starting with the admission that each individual is powerless over food and his or her life has become unmanageable. OA is not a religious organization, but subscribes to the concept that compulsive overeaters can restore sanity if they surrender their care to "a higher power," however known.

Margaret says she knows people who attend meetings for months without saying a word. And yes, she's seen others who think it's a diet club. They instead find a discussion that revolves around the physical, emotional and spiritual obsession with food.

"We have nothing to sell," Margaret says. "People walk in expecting a meal and calorie club."

There are 18 OA meetings a week in the Tampa area, and dozens more in Pasco, Pinellas and surrounding counties. Phone and online meetings also are available. There are no rules about where or how many meetings you can attend. And there are no assumptions about the level or type of eating disorder a person faces.

A recent meeting I attended shattered every stereotype about people with food addictions. There were men and women, college students and professionals. Some fought compulsive overeating and were battling serious health problems. Others were anorexic or bulimic. And the group, gathered in a small church classroom, was filled with people of all age, sizes and weights.

The common thread was obvious: They share a painful physical and emotional addiction to food that they cannot control. One woman recounted a stressful work-related dinner she had to attend and survived thanks to the deliberate measuring of her meal. Another admitted that stress at work and talk of layoffs was making her want to escape in food. One young woman was miserable because her sponsor and others were being supportive, but she still loathed herself.

The meetings also help people find a sponsor who will help them stay accountable and develop a meal plan that allows them to succeed in the thin-obsessed world. Margaret, who admits she has struggled some over the last 24 years, now follows a plan that eliminates sugars, wheat and dairy. Her co-workers and friends who do not know about her addiction are used to her choices.

"They just know I don't eat those things. Other people don't care if I don't eat a doughnut or not," she says.

It's clear that OA isn't only a "misery loves company" gathering. Some share inspirational success stories or they're motivated by reading from the "Big Book," written decades ago by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. OA participants substitute the words food addict or compulsive overeater for alcoholic. Margaret often quotes from the book to explain why these gatherings work.

"We are people who would not normally mix," she says, quoting the book first published in 1939. "But there exists within us a fellowship, a friendliness, an understanding which is indescribably wonderful."

For information about Overeater's Anonymous, visit www.oa.org, oapinellas.org/oasuncoast, or call (727) 487-3207 or (727) 937-1964.

Want to share your health or fitness idea? Contact me at (813) 259-7365 or mshedden@tampatrib.com

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