Eating Disorder Support Groups
Twelve Step Programs Help People Recover from Disordered Eating
Mar 15, 2008
Eating disorders are notoriously difficult to treat and even more difficult to recover from. While there are a variety of treatment options available, the one thing that most professionals agree with is that it is imperative for patients to have a strong support system in place following treatment in order to experience long term or complete recovery.
Groups like Overeaters Anonymous (OA) and Eating Disorders Anonymous (EDA) can play an important role in an ongoing treatment plan and are effective with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Professional treatment teams are recognizing the importance of developing spirituality and healing the soul in eating disorder sufferers as a key to recovery and these groups can fill that role for people who are seeking help outside of a professional treatment setting.
Twelve-Step Groups
Overeaters Anonymous is one of several twelve-step groups that developed over the years to help people suffering with food addiction and other disordered eating. It is a self-help group based on the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), but the words “alcohol” and “alcoholic” are replaced with “food” and “compulsive eater”. The group is made up of people who come together to work towards solving their common problems with food.
Alcoholics Anonymous found that through the twelve steps, people who seemed beyond hope and help were getting sober and regaining their lives by the program they were setting forth. The founders of AA found that they could help other alcoholics by identification – no one understands what you’re going through like someone who has been there. The same principle applies in Overeaters Anonymous and the other twelve step groups for eating disorders. The meetings are a safe place for people to share about their problems with food and a place to find others who understand and experience these same problems. There is no professional moderation in these groups, just people with the same problems trying to recover and help each other. There are no dues or fees to become a member of the group, but members do typically make donations of $1 or $2 at each meeting, allowing the groups to remain self-sufficient.
The groups use the twelve steps to lead members through a path of identifying their problem and accepting they need help, deciding that a spiritual solution is necessary for recovery, and then doing an internal cleansing by way of a personal inventory and process of amends to clear away their past and begin a new life free of the obsession with food. People working through the steps often work daily to continue on a spiritual path and to remain in recovery.
Three-Fold Recovery
Twelve-step groups promise a three-fold recovery – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Many people come to OA meetings for physical reasons: they want to lose weight or to stop purging or to maintain their physical recovery they may have worked for in treatment. While many people come to these groups for physical reasons, the core of the program is spiritual and through that spiritual growth comes the process of physical and emotional healing.
Just like the AA pioneers were able to gain the confidence of their fellow alcoholics by relating their past and newfound sobriety, the twelve step groups for eating disorders also tend to bring people together on their pasts and their physical success. Like people then come together to work toward a common goal of a spiritual awakening. The groups maintain that a spiritual awakening is necessary to achieve and maintain physical and emotional sobriety.
It is important to note that these groups are not religious – they are spiritual. For those who decide to go through the twelve steps, they are invited to use a God of their understanding or to use a conception of any higher power that will allow them to embrace spirituality. Since twelve step groups are not religious, they are open to anyone of any religion or religious belief, including atheists and agnostics.
Meetings and Tools
Overeaters Anonymous groups utilize a variety of tools to help keep members connected to one another and participating in their own programs of recovery. One of the most important tools used in these programs are meetings. Meetings are groups of one or more people who are following the same path of recovery who gather to offer support for each other through sharing their experience, strength, and hope. Many treatment centers are incorporating twelve-step meetings into their programs as a vehicle to help patients make the transition from a more intense and observed treatment setting into the real world. Attending meetings while in treatment can make them familiar and more accessible as a support system as patients return to their lives outside of a professional setting.
Another tool, and where most twelve-step groups for food related issues differ, is a plan of eating. All groups encourage abstinence from compulsive eating, but the definition of abstinence differs between the groups allowing members to find the twelve-step group that meets their needs. Overeaters Anonymous doesn’t endorse any particular plan of eating, but defines abstinence as refraining from compulsive eating and personal binge foods. Eating Disorders Anonymous encourages balance, not abstinence and does not recommend any rigidity around food. Food Addicts Anonymous and Food Addicts both have very specific food plans that they recommend members follow.
Other tools include making phone calls to other members, reading program literature, journaling, using and becoming a sponsor, and respecting the anonymity of its members.
For more information visit www.oa.org.
