Overeating Anon meetings

[lotusisaddictive]

Can anyone tell me what happens at the meetings please? Will I have to introduce myself or can I just see what it's all about before I get properly involved?

Thanks

I went about a million yrs ago, but I don't think this has changed.

Every meeting is a bit different, and Sometimes there's a round of introductions, but more often there's one person who leads the meetings and indicates who speaks next (people raise hands to ask to speak). It's often possible to say nothing all meeting. When they speak, people introduce selves. There's a tradition of introducing self in the style "I'm Angie and I'm a compulsive overeater ": but it's not obligatory to say more than your name. You're there for your benefit to see if the support on offer is a fit for you.

There's a common tradition of finishing the meeting with the serenity prayer; again, you don't have to join in.

I second, yeOldeTrout, you don't have to say anything if you don't want. It's all very low key.

Thanks for the info, there's a meeting tomorrow that I'm hoping to attend.
I feel a bit less anxious knowing about it

Bottled it

It's obviously not the right time for you yet. Can I ask you to have a look at a website that I have found extremely helpful; www.eatingless.com. It will show you a different way of looking at your eating habits and ways to empower yourself to change self-destructive behaviours. There's a couple of books (I have them on my kindle) and the author does workshops too. Worth a look, anyway. Good luck.

I agree with stopfaffing, check out the website she linked and also you may find Isabel Foxen Duke's blog interesting. These differ from OA in that they give you the power of choosing how to eat/behave, (which also involves examining the reasons behind it, which can be tough) - there's less of a sense of overeating being something you can't help/are a victim of. Both this and OA approaches can work but it's worth seeing which resonates more for you.