Anonymous Overeaters Celebrate Their Losses

Natalie, one of the keynote speakers at the 25th anniversary celebration of Overeaters Anonymous, once weighed more than three times her current 115 pounds.

“I am now smaller around the waist than I used to be around the thigh,” said Natalie, who is in her 60s. Like most OA members, she goes by her first name only.

“My top weight was 365, but I can’t be sure, because I had stopped weighing myself at that point,” she said, adding that she has kept the weight off for 11 1/2 years through abstinence from compulsive overeating.

Co-keynoter Bill, who has maintained a 75-pound weight loss for nearly 14 years, said weight is not ultimately the issue with compulsive overeaters.

“You eat and are fat because it serves a purpose in your life,” he said. “When it doesn’t serve a purpose, you’ll be thin. We have an opportunity to change purposes in our lives. You can change the way you think and feel. You can change your lifelong programming. And if you can change that, there will be no need to overeat.”

Overeaters Anonymous uses the 12-step program of recovery developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and, if the the standing-room-only throng at the celebration is any indication, the program works for those who let it work.

Like AA, the OA program includes networking, or mutual help, among members who feel the compulsion to overeat. Members work closely with a sponsor they choose themselves and are encouraged to call as many other members for help as they feel they need, on the premise that the person receiving the call benefits as much as the caller.

Compulsive overeating is regarded by OA as a disease that may never be cured but that can be kept in check through the program--hence the title of the three-day program, “Progress, Not Perfection.”

Besides the keynote addresses, the celebration included an all-night panel discussion, an original musical comedy, “Where’s Max?” written by OA members and a dance at which only ice water was served.