Elisabeth L. - Twelve Steps For Overeaters: An Interpretation Of The Twelve Steps Of Overeaters Anonymous

TWELVE STEPS FOR OVEREATERS

HAZELDEN BOOKS OF RELATED INTEREST

Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters, Elisabeth L.

Listen to the Hunger, Elisabeth L.

Fat Is a Family Affair, Judi Hollis

Feeding the Empty Heart: Adult Children and Compulsive Eating, Barbara McFarland and Tyeis Baker-Baumann

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: Interpreted by the Hazelden Foundation

TWELVE STEPS
FOR OVEREATERS

An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps
of Overeaters Anonymous

Elisabeth L.

Hazelden Publishing
Center City, Minnesota 55012-0176
800-328-9000
hazelden.org/bookstore

1993 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights
reserved. Published 1993. Printed in the United
States of America. No portion of this publication
may be reproduced in any manner without
the written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 0-89486-905-1

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-59285-934-4

Step One: When Willpower Is Not Enough is from the pamphlet Step One: When Willpower Is Not Enough by Elisabeth L 1982 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Two: You Are Not Alone is from the pamphlet Step Two: You Are Not Alone by Elisabeth L 1982 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Three: Giving Up the Game is from the pamphlet Step Three: Giving Up the Game by Elisabeth L. 1982 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Four: Face to Face with Yourself is from the pamphlet Step Four: Face to Face with Yourself by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Five: And the Truth Will Set You Free is from the pamphlet Step Five: And the Truth Will Set You Free by Elisabeth L 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Six: Getting Ready to Let Go is from the pamphlet Step Six: Getting Ready to Let Go by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Seven: Let Go and Let God is from the pamphlet Let Go and Let God by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Eight: Getting Honest is from the pamphlet Step Eight: Getting Honest by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Nine: Building Bridges is from the pamphlet Step Nine: Building Bridges by Elisabeth L 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Ten: Accepting Ourselves is from the pamphlet Step Ten: Accepting Ourselves by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Eleven: Centering Ourselves is from the pamphlet Step Eleven: Centering Ourselves by Elisabeth L 1983 by Hazelden Foundation. Step Twelve: Living the Program is from the pamphlet Step Twelve: Living the Program by Elisabeth L. 1983 by Hazelden Foundation.

The Twelve Steps are reprinted and adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, or that AA agrees with the views expressed herein. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism. Use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities that are patterned after AA, but that address other problems, does not imply otherwise.

Some of us say we found the program. Others of us say the program found us. Whichever way it happened, those of us who practice the Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous (OA) are very lucky. We have the blueprint for a way of life that can free us from the obsession with food.

Most of us struggled long and hard to control what we ate and to escape the binge/diet trap. We tried all sorts of ways to stop using food to solve emotional problems. We wanted to be rid of the compulsion to overeat, to undereat, to binge and purge. When the diets didnt work, and the exercise programs didnt work, either, and nothing else we tried worked, some of us were ready to admit our powerlessness over food and the unmanageability of our lives.

We felt an emptiness inside that no amount of food could fill. So when we came to the Twelve Step program, we were desperate enough to entertain the idea of a spiritual solution. For me, as for many of you, it was the only way left.

I knew that the Twelve Step program worked for alcoholics. As I began going to OA meetings, I saw those Steps changing the lives of people who had been obsessed with food. I was a compulsive overeater. Maybe the Twelve Steps could work for me.

Like most people with eating disorders, I knew what I should eat. Knowing was not the problem; that was easy. It was the doing that was difficult, if not impossible. One day I would eat twelve hundred calories worth of food, and the next day I would eat that much plus a half gallon of ice cream. No matter how much I ate, it was never enough.

When I got to the Twelve Step program, I was ready to concede that I was powerless over food. It took considerably longer to accept the fact that I was also powerless over people, places, and things, but in the process of getting to that point, I was slowly discovering a new way of life.

For me, the Steps have been the key to strengthening the spiritual dimension that is available to us all. Even though no amount of food fills my inner emptiness, no amount of willpower prevents me from bingeing. The way I can avoid trying to use food to solve problems food cant solve is by getting in touch with a source of strength beyond myselfa Higher Power.

Our program is a spiritual one, not a diet-and-calories club. Many of us start out thinking that if we could just eat normally and maintain an ideal weight, everything would be perfect. Before we get very far along, however, we begin to realize that simply not bingeing is not enough, and ideal weight is not enough, either. Lifes challenges are more complex. What we need is a program for living, a positive way of dealing with the ups and downs of everyday reality so that we dont need to escape into harmful dependencies.

For me, the Twelve Steps point the way to a healthy dependency on a Higher Power. I take them over and over again. I have been in the program for more than ten years, and each year gets better. The more thoroughly I practice the principles, the easier it is to cope with whatever comes my way, one day at a time. Amazing changes have taken place in my life. With a Higher Power in charge, I dont have to depend on excess food to see me through. Excess food didnt work. The Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, does.

The beauty of our program is that it gives us freedom of choice. Nothing is mandatory. The Steps are suggested, not imposed, and each of us who takes the Steps does so in the way that best suits her or him individually. We all have the benefit of other peoples experience, and most of us choose to work with a sponsor.

When I embarked on the Steps, it was with the help of my OA group, my sponsor, and Twelve and Twelve, the book describing the Twelve Steps for Alcoholics Anonymous. As I continue this rewarding journey, I am guided and nourished by the experience, strength, and hope of all of you, as together we do what we cannot do alone. What I have written down in the following pages represents my own interpretation of the Steps, based on the gifts I have received in the meeting rooms and what has come out of my personal experience.

I am very grateful to have found and been found by the Twelve Step program of Overeaters Anonymous. For me, abstinence from compulsive overeating is possible when spiritual growth is my first priority. Working the Steps is what keeps me on track. Because our program is a spiritual one, there is no limit to the progress we can make. Each day, each year brings new discoveries. It is my hope that each of you who reads this book will find it helpful as you develop and continue your own program of recovery and become happily and usefully whole.