| The Twelve Steps are the heart of the OA recovery
program. They offer a new way of life that enables the compulsive overeater
to live without the need for excess food. The ideas expressed in the Twelve Steps, which
originated in Alcoholics Anonymous, reflect practical experience and application
of spiritual insights recorded by thinkers throughout the ages. Their
greatest importance lies in the fact that they work! They enable compulsive
overeaters and millions of other Twelve-Steppers to lead happy, productive
lives. They represent the foundation upon which OA is built.
The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous
- We admitted we were powerless over food—that
our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God as we understood
Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory
of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another
human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all
these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and
became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever
possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and
when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
- 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.
- 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.
Permission to use the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous for adaptation granted by AA World Services, Inc.
For an in-depth study of the Twelve Steps, read
The
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous,
available from the World Service online literature
catalog.
© Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by
permission of Overeaters
Anonymous, Inc.; World
Service Office. Copyright may not be reproduced in any manner without
written permission of OA Inc.
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