Overeaters Anonymous Essay

Next, my roommate and I attended Overeaters Anonymous. This meeting was also held at St. John’s Lutheran Church which is located in Westfield Massachusetts. We attended a meeting held on a Wednesday from 12pm-1pm. The meeting was held in the basement of the church and only a handful of people showed up to the meeting. The population consisted of all women who were of similar ethnic backgrounds.

The OA- Southern Colorado Chapter (Pikes Peak Serenity intergroup) has been active for years and it is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope are recovering from compulsive overeating. They welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; they are self-supporting through their own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organizations, political movements, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position

I went to an AA meeting at the First Congregational Church in New London, Connecticut on Monday February 22, at 7 pm. It was located in a larger room in the basement of the church. There were around fifteen members that attended. The individual’s came from an array of different ages and ethnicities, both men and woman. There was no one race or ethnicity that dominated another in the meeting, it was a very warm, accepting atmosphere. I noticed right away that there was more young adults around the age of thirty than elderly members. There was also around the same number of males and females in attendance.

The addiction I chose to write about this week is a food addiction/compulsive eating. A food addiction is obsessive-compulsive relationship people have with food. Eating food is both vital and important in our everyday lives to give our bodies the nutrients, vitamins and calories that it needs. “Compulsive overeating, also referred to as food addiction, is characterized by an obsessive-compulsive relationship to food” (Karim, 2012, p. 7, para. 2). When people overeat, they engage in episodes of uncontrolled eating and will often find themselves consuming so much food just to feel comfortably full. Compulsive overeaters usually eat even if they are not hungry. People who have a food addiction have excessive thoughts about food that consumes

According to The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website, eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses causing serve disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. People with eating disorders often have obsessions with food, their body weight, and their shape. There is, however, a difference between an eating disorder and a diet. It is important to know the difference. Eating disorders are a daily struggle for 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States (Eating Disorder Hope). An eating disorder is a compulsion to avoid eating in order to lose weight while a diet is cutting down eating or healthier eating in order to lose weight. The three types of an eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. All three disorders are important and they all deserve immediate treatment. No matter what eating disorder someone has, it can resort in organ damage and sometimes even death.

Overeater Anonymous (OA) is a support group for individuals who have problems related to food such as compulsive overeater, binge eating disorder, bulimics and anorexics. The meeting was located at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin at 133 West 46th Street, NYC on Friday at 6pm. The meetings are open to anyone who wants to obtain more information about the OA support group and/or ways to deal with overeating. The meeting was more lecture-based as it attempts to teach the individuals ways to deal with their compulsive disorder. The OA meeting is a non-profit support group collecting any contributions that that the group can make to fund its meetings.

This program is from thirty to ninety days. The clients work on the 12 - steps of addiction, complete assignments to understand their disease process, work the steps of addiction along with reading the big book, and discuss the different stories. These assignments are completed on an individual basis and each individual has two weeks before they process their first assessment in a group setting. The big book is also read and discuss in a group setting. The individuals explore there feeling, provide self-affirmation to themselves and others, while voicing a goal for that day, daily through the session group called Grateful.

For this assignment, I chose to attend an open group meeting for Overeaters Anonymous on 6/29/2015. The group participates in the H.O.W. program of Overeaters Anonymous. H.O.W. stands for the principles of honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness. The meeting took place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, located at 2535 East Broadway St. in Pearland. The format for this meeting was an open meeting. The meeting was an informal, but structured meeting, observing both the 12-Step recovery approach, and the Overeaters Anonymous 12 Traditions. The only requirement for Overeaters Anonymous membership is the desire to stop eating compulsively. My principle motivations for attending this meeting included the self-awareness,

Throughout the years, fast food is becoming more and more of an outlet for many people that are short on change, in a rush but still need to grab a bite to eat, or even who are just too lazy to cook a meal. Fast food is very cheap, yet when we eat it we don’t necessarily realize the price we pay when we are starting to gain weight. Who is to blame? The person that is addicted to fast food, or the fast food restaurants? I agree fast food is cheap, yet delicious. I understand that it may get addicting, I do not believe that it is the restaurants fault for your lack of self-control. Eating fast food all the time can put you up against some major health risks. As claimed by, “Fast Food and Obesity,” Every 4 out of 10 adults in the USA will

Competitive eating. When had it ever became, absolutely was necessary to have them? Even when, these competitions have cause so many problems? Lately in our community this has been a widely debated topic. The importance of this involves the lives of many others. Promoting wasting food is one of the results of this horrible tradition of eating competitively. In addition to this, people can be soon have a humongous controversy of overeating, as of which can cause stomach problems. Furthermore, life threats can be engendered (heart disease, obesity, and diabetes). Clearly, ruthless contests must be put into an end.

Another concepts wich are central to the MB-EAT program are the concepts of self-acceptance and inner “wisdom” , central aspects of traditional meditation practice. Alexandra will be encouraged to recognize her own internal strengths, and be open to her own understanding and solutions to future life situations, rather than judging herself for crossing self-inflicted norms of weight or behavior, which is typical for eating disorders.(Kristeller, 2011)

People suffering from eating disorders cannot solely help themselves. Although they may be able to stop for a short time, in the long run they will be back in the same path of self-destruction. Kirkpatrick & Caldwell (2001) state, "Because eating disorders are a complicated mix of physical and psychological abnormalities, successful treatment always includes treatment of psychological issues as well as restoration of a healthy diet" (p. 131). Trained therapists should treat eating disorders. The severity of the disorders will determine the need for outpatient therapy or an in-hospital program (Matthews, 2001, p. 178). There are many goals of therapy but the return to normalcy is the main goal. The eating disorder sufferer needs to restore and maintain a normal weight as well as develop normal eating and exercise routines. Kirkpatrick and Caldwell (2001) state,

Teen obesity is a major issue in the world that is rapidly increasing especially in the United States. It has now become one of the most serious health challenges of the 21st century according to unitypoint.org. In the last 3 decades, teen obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled among adolescents. Why you might ask. Well, children become overweight and obese for a variety of reasons. The most common causes are genetic factors, lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these factors. Only in rare cases is being overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem says webmd.com.

How does healthy eating affect your life? Many people really pay attention to the food they put in their bodies, until we get sick and need medical attention. I know that many of us love to eat fast food, but it catches up with us in the long run. While eating healthy would stop you from getting sick, and lower the cost of health care, healthy eating can enrich your body and prevent you from getting high doctor bills.

Kolodny, N, J, 2004, The beginner’s guide to eating disorders recovery, Gurze Books, Carlsbad, CA