For Healthcare Providers
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For the Healthcare Professional

The Overeaters Anonymous (OA) program complements existing treatment programs for individuals under medical supervision.

OA began in 1960 and has grown to about 7,000 meetings in more than 80 countries—about 54,000 members. OA isn’t just about weight loss. The program offers physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery for people suffering from the effects of compulsive eating. The program uses a Twelve-Step framework patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous. By attending meetings and leveraging the OA tools of recovery, individuals experience recovery on all three levels—physical, emotional, and spiritual. 

“Symptoms” of Compulsive Eating

OA members experience many different patterns of food behaviors. These “symptoms” are as varied as our membership. Among them are: 
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• Obsession with body weight, size and shape
• Eating binges or grazing
• Preoccupation with diets
• Vulnerability to quick-weight-loss schemes
• Starving
• Laxative or diuretic abuse
• Excessive exercise
• Inducing vomiting after eating
• Use of diet pills, shots and other medical interventions to control weight
• Inability to stop eating certain foods after taking the first bite
• Preoccupation with food
• Using food as a reward or comfort

OA Works

OA members report experiencing many life improvements well beyond weight loss, including:

• Daily functioning  
• Mental/emotional health
• Spiritual connection 
• Overall physical health  
• Weight issues 
• Relationships 

Most members reach, and maintain, a healthy body weight: 

Read the full Membership Survey Report (2017) by clicking the images above to download the PDF. 

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When Do I Refer Someone to OA?

As a healthcare provider, you may want to recommend Overeaters Anonymous (OA) to your patients or clients.   

Consider recommending OA to your patients if they:

• continue to eat compulsively in spite of medical advice to control their weight.
• find that they cannot stop binge eating, purging, or restricting.
• find their efforts repeatedly end in demoralizing failure, despite firm resolutions.
• have weight concerns, body image issues, food attitudes, or behaviors that cause health problems.

Read more in the PDF, When Should I Refer Someone to Overeaters Anonymous?

The Best Time to Start OA

Your patient or client can start OA at any time, simply by going to a meeting. 

Feel free to print or email a link to our meeting list for Sonoma County on behalf of your patient or client. The meeting list includes Zoom links and addresses for the in-person meetings. 

We recommend that someone attend 6 meetings before making a decision about the OA program. 

Pamphlets for Patients 

You can order informational pamphlets for your office or waiting room by clicking on the links below. Alternatively, please feel free to request pamphlets and we can drop them off at your office. 
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• Where Do I Start? Everything a Newcomer Needs to Know about OA - also available as a free, printable PDF. ($2)
• To The Newcomer: You’re Not Alone Anymore ($2)
• The 15 Questions to help identify compulsive overeating ($0.50)
• A New Plan of Eating: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey ($2)

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Contact Us

If you have any questions about OA, want to visit a meeting, or find out how OA could help, please reach out to us at info@oasonoma.org