Overeaters Anonymous meetings in Fallbrook

FALLBROOK – Local residents who have a problem with food are not alone.

Overeaters Anonymous (OA), a new weekly 12-step meeting based on the steps and principles of Alcoholic Anonymous (AA), will hold meetings on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. at the Hilltop Center basement (331 E. Elder St.). Currently, this is the only OA meeting in Fallbrook but more can be started as needed.

Attendees can park in the church parking lot and walk down the right side of the building to the room below. All are welcome and there are no dues, fees, weigh-ins, or diets. OA members experience many different patterns of food behaviors, and these “symptoms” are as varied as the membership.

Among them are obsession with body weight, size, and shape; binge eating or grazing; preoccupation with reducing diets; starving; laxative or diuretic abuse; excessive exercise; inducing vomiting after eating; chewing and spitting out food; use of diet pills, shots, and other medical interventions to control weight; inability to stop eating certain foods after the first bite; fantasies about food; vulnerability to quick-weight-loss schemes; constant preoccupation with food; and using food as a reward or comfort.

Anyone who has not been able to find relief from their unwanted food behaviors may find some answers in OA. For more information, visit https://oa.org/