Attending Meetings

Regularly attending OA and other support meetings adds structure to our lives. Meetings are a new social group from whom to draw hope and with whom to talk and get suggestions for recovery. Attending meetings helps with feelings of loneliness and isolation. We connect with other people who understand what we are going through—people who accept us just as we are. They understand us because many of them have gone through similar experiences and feelings.

Meetings are the best way to share our experience, strength, and hope. We also hear and share a little of what our lives were like before recovery. In part so the newcomer may relate better to us, but also so we don't lose sight of the difficulties and pain that compulsive overeating once caused in our lives.

Meetings are a source of believable hope. We can hear how other recovering people get started and are continuing to make healthy food choices. We can learn how they deal with difficult issues in recovery without binging. Meetings give us a safe place to voice our concerns and feelings about recovery. We can ask and listen for advice on how other people have endured their cravings without overeating again. We can constructively fill those voids of time that we once spent eating compulsively or obsessing over food. Meeting are the best place to develop a supportive network of recovering friends. 

Experience has shown that quality, long-term recovery improves through working the program along with others. By ourselves we may become complacent or slip into denial. Being part of the fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous helps up stay on course. It acts as a sounding board to help us recognize our successes and cope with our challenges in recovery.

How often should OA members attend meetings?

It is simply a matter of individual preference and need. There are no set rules or requirements. Most OA members arrange to attend at least one meeting a week. Most newcomers seem to benefit from a relatively large number of meetings and other recovery contacts during their first weeks and months in recovery. By multiplying their opportunities to meet and hear other OA members, they are able to strengthen their own understanding of the program.

The slogan "Keep coming back, it works!" so frequently repeated at meetings, is based on the experience of recovering people who find that the quality of their recovery suffers when they stay away from meetings for too long. Many find that if they do not attend meetings often enough, they greatly increase their risk of a lapse back to their old unhealthy eating patterns. They have found that when they regularly attend meetings, they seem to have a much easier time making healthy food choices and staying on their pathway to health and wholeness.