Media Enquiries

Thank you for visiting the website of  Overeaters Anonymous (OA) in Great Britain. 

The first OA meeting was held in 1960 in Los Angeles, California. Since that time it has grown to approximately 6,500 meetings in over 75 countries. The OA programme offers physical, emotional and spiritual recovery for those who suffer from compulsive overeating. Members find recovery on all three levels by following a Twelve-Step programme patterned after that of Alcoholics Anonymous. Members who recover through the Twelve Steps find that yo-yo dieting is a thing of the past. They no longer wish to return to compulsive overeating.

OA is not affiliated with any public or private organisation, political movement, ideology or religious doctrine and takes no position on outside issues. In OA, you’ll find members who are extremely overweight, even morbidly obese; moderately overweight; average weight; underweight; still maintaining periodic control over their eating behaviour; or totally unable to control their compulsive eating. The only requirement for membership in OA is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

No membership dues or fees are required for participation in OA. The organisation is self-supporting through members' voluntary contributions and the sale of OA literature.

To hear OA members talking about their recovery, visit our Audio Shares page

Media and Anonymity

Overeaters Anonymous’s (OA) most valued Tradition is personal anonymity at the public level. This means that the Fellowship itself is not anonymous, but its members are. Overeaters Anonymous’s Eleventh Tradition states:

 “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication.”

Media professionals have always been partners in establishing a tradition of their own to help members of Twelve-Step fellowships preserve their anonymity. We hope you will continue to avoid identifying OA members in your articles and interviews when you cover our recovery programme. We ask that when covering OA, you use only first names or pseudonyms (indicated as such) of OA members and that you obscure the faces of those who identify themselves as OA members in on-camera interviews and photographs. Other methods to protect a member’s anonymity are as follows: shadow, silhouette, graphic scramble/mosaic wipe, out of focus/side angle, shooting hands, backs and feet, forced perspective and vocal distortion.