Overeaters Anonymous Meeting Analysis

12 Steps in Overeaters
For my 12 steps paper I decided to attend an overeaters anonymous meeting in Lowell Massachusetts. The meeting was located in the basement of Lowell’s First United Baptist Church. I called ahead of time to speak with Diane who was the leader for the meeting. I explained that I was a student at William James college and was required to attend a meeting. She was more than happy to let me join the group. To my surprise, there was not too many people that attended the meeting that day. There was a total of seven people including me at the beginning of the meeting. The leader introduced me as a student to the rest of the individuals in the meeting. The group while quiet at first welcomed me as part of the group. Some individuals were able to open up and talk about their personal stories when it comes to overeating. The leader asked for people to identify how long they have been going to these meetings. Some individuals mentioned that they have been attending …show more content…
At the beginning of the meeting the leader mentioned that there are resources for those who have just started such as getting a sponsors as well as constructing an eating plan. From what I understood, the goal is not eating compulsively and to have a set and controlled diet and abstain from frivolous eating. Our texts describes that “The program is meant to be internalized and practiced throughout all of one’s life” (Miller, 2011, p. 340). Thus, it is a fundamental change in identity.
The 12 steps for overeaters anonymous were adapted from the the 12 steps used in alcoholics anonymous and implements the same level of spiritual insight. For example, the first step states that “We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable”. This is the same format used for alcoholics anonymous, but with the change of the word