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Relapse & Recovery Steps Twelfth Step Within

Reach Out: Support Within

By kmcguire@oa.org

Posted on November 1, 2020

2 min read

Every December 12, OA groups and service boards around the world are encouraged to plan events for Twelfth Step Within Day, a day to support the still-suffering compulsive eater within our Fellowship.

If you or a group would like to get started with something simple, here are a few ideas to make it happen:

Make outreach calls. How about twelve calls by noon?
How about using December 12 as a day of reflection on the strength of your own recovery? Write down twelve actions that will support your recovery and the recovery of others and then share the list.
Offer to drive someone to a meeting.
Reach out to twelve members who no longer attend meetings.
Write an article for your service body’s newsletter.
Call someone whose share caused you concern.
Call any sponsee who is struggling with the physical, emotional, or spiritual part of recovery.

What support and encouragement can you offer a member who is struggling in program? On December 12, reach out! Offer your honesty and support.

— Edited and reprinted from Out of the Cocoon newsletter, Milwaukee Area Intergroup, November/December 2016

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Bits & Bites

I found acceptance and empathy in the rooms of OA. My anger turned to laughter. The urge to control turned into acceptance.
— Body Image, Relationships, and Sexuality: Personal Journeys to Recovery in Overeaters Anonymous, pp. 64–65

If you worry, DON'T PRAY; If you pray, DON'T WORRY — OA slogan

13— Number of countries represented at WSBC 2020 (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, USA)

Ego is my disease talking. Humility is God talking.
— Anonymous

平安の祈り 神さま私にお与えください自分に変えられないものを受け入る落ち着きを変えられるものは変えていく勇気をそして二つのものを見分ける賢さを
— Serenity Prayer (Japanese Translation)

ISM stands for "I Sponsor Myself." In over twenty-six years in this Fellowship, I have not heard a longtime recovery bulimic or compulsive overeater admit that it works without a sponsor.
— Shirley S., Sunnyvale, California USA

About Us

Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.

History of Lifeline

   OA issued its first national publication, the OA Bulletin, in August 1963. Most of its twenty-four typed pages reported on OA’s second annual Conference.
   At that Conference, the Board of Trustees created the OA Bulletin as a bimonthly publication in which members could share stories of individual recovery and receive reports on board and Conference actions. Each of the forty-eight OA groups in existence at that time received two free copies of the first issue.
   The premier issue of OA Lifeline appeared in October 1965. Except for its reduced size of sixteen pages, it resembled its predecessor in format and appearance. The issue focused on food and weight, and subsequent early issues even included a page of recipes called “What’s Cookin’.” According to a tally on page seven of the first issue, OA then had eighty-nine groups. The early issues make no mention of circulation.
   In 1966, Lifeline began printing the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in each issue. Circulation climbed to 4,747 by January 1978, when Lifeline began monthly publication. One year later, that number nearly tripled to 11,660. Circulation reached a high of 25,116 in June 1990. Since then, subscription rate increases and declining OA membership have dramatically decreased the magazine’s circulation.
   In today’s information age, Lifeline online (oalifeline.org) brings the magazine into some subscribers’ homes by computer and mobile devices. This instant communication via the World Wide Web offers new hope for wider circulation of both the magazine and OA’s message of recovery.
   For copies of back issues of Lifeline, go to the OA bookstore (bookstore.oa.org) and select “Lifeline” from the drop-down menu.

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