My name is John and I am a compulsive overeater.

Actually, I’ve been an overeater, an undereater, a bulimic, an exercise bulimic, and for an incredibly brief time, an anorexic. I manipulated my diet and my exercise for years in a vain attempt to beat the disease of compulsive eating. Luckily, 30-plus years ago, I found the 12 Steps. My first program involved alcohol, but soon afterwards I realized I had to address something that had been a lifelong problem: food. Since that time, I have been a member of one of a number of different food programs. I will talk somewhat about the comparisons of some of these programs, but I will mainly talk about Overeaters Anonymous (O.A.), because it is – by far – the largest.

When I talked to people about doing a book about finding recovery from compulsive eating, they all thought it was a good idea. There are a lot of compulsive eaters who don’t know about the 12 Step solution that need help. “What about all those people who have already come to 12 Step programs and not been successful?” I asked. “Don’t they need help too?”

Does the 12 Step process work for food?

When people ask me, “do the 12 Steps work for compulsive eating?” I answer with an adamant “Absolutely!”

I live in Los Angeles, which was the birthplace for the first 12 Step program for food, Overeaters Anonymous. There are thriving meetings of as many as four different 12 Step programs for food addicts. At two of my home meetings, I see upwards of a hundred or so people a week in varying stages of recovery. Many have 20, 30 and even 40 years of abstinence.

When I say recovery, what exactly do I mean? Firstly, they are free from the bondage of food, so that it doesn’t consume their entire lives. They eat, they enjoy their food, but it is in right place within their lives. Moreover, they are maintaining a healthy body weight thanks to that freedom from obsession. Most importantly, they are happy. They maintain vibrant, full lives with fulfilling jobs, social lives, and families that love them.

In the end, isn’t that what we all want?

Recovery is not about getting thin, it’s about getting better – physically, emotionally and spiritually. We look to heal the wounds – some of them embedded very deeply – that had become dysfunctional building blocks for our personalities. It also often means changing the course of our lives. Somewhere in our past – whether thanks to our parents, or other adults, or possibly ourselves – we got pointed in the wrong direction. It’s not until we realize we’re not going where we want to be going that we can set about changing the trajectory.