15 Questions - WELCOME OA VIRTUAL

Are You a Compulsive Eater?

Is Overeaters Anonymous the right program for you? Many of us have found it useful to answer the following questions to help determine if we have a problem with compulsive eating.

Take the OA Quiz

This short, confidential quiz is here to help you take an honest look at your relationship with food and your body.

You’ll see a series of yes/no questions, each paired with a brief quote from OA literature. Simply answer based on your own experience—there’s no score and no “right” or “wrong” answer. Your responses are for you alone—no one else will ever see them.

Many people find that pausing to reflect on these questions is a gentle first step in deciding whether Overeaters Anonymous might be right for them.

15 Questions –

1. Do I eat when I’m not hungry, or not eat when my body needs nourishment?

“If there was food, I wanted it. If I wanted it, I needed it, so I ate it.”

– Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition (Deep Denial)

2. Do I go on eating binges for no apparent reason, sometimes eating until I’m stuffed or even feel sick?

““On Thanksgiving Day, a few chips with dip began a non-stop eating binge that didn’t really end until May.””

– Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition (My Doctor Insisted)

3. Do I have feelings of guilt, shame, or embarrassment about my weight or the way I eat?

“Everything I tried led me to the same place, back to the overeating, the sickness, and the shame.”

– Voices of Recovery, May 22.

4. Do I eat sensibly in front of others and then make up for it when I am alone?

“My false front was so exhausting, I had to make it up to myself somehow, and the one sure way to do that was to eat.”

– For Today, July 11.

5. Is my eating affecting my health or the way I live my life?

“I was certainly unhappy with my appearance, and I was bankrupt emotionally and spiritually, but it was the physical agony that brought me to OA.”

– Overeaters Anonymous Second Edition (It Gets Better, I Promise)

6. When my emotions are intense—whether positive or negative—do I find myself reaching for food?

“My tendency was to eat because I had a list of resentments and I was going to show you.”

– Voices of Recovery, Oct 17.

7. Do my eating behaviors make me or others unhappy?

“Life was too much for me. With more fat piling on every day. I couldn’t stop eating, and most of the time I wished I were dead.”

– Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition (Keep Coming Back: Rozanne’s Story)

8. Have I ever used laxatives, vomiting, diuretics, excessive exercise, diet pills, shots, or other medical interventions (including surgery) to try to control my weight?

“The war with ourselves, fought with diets, pills, shots and an array of formidable but useless weapons, brought us to OA’s door.”

– For Today, Dec 17

9. Do I fast or severely restrict my food intake to control my weight?

“’To eat or not to eat?’ That was my question, all day long. Whether I was bingeing or restricting, food was all too often at the center of my thoughts, even if I didn’t act on it.”

– Voices of Recovery, 18 Oct

10. Do I fantasize about how much better life would be if I were a different size or weight?

“Honey, if you have a 23” waist, everything else will be all right.’ My Mother’s words were to haunt me all my growing-up years.”

– Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition (Keep Coming Back: Rozanne’s Story)

11. Do I need to chew or have something in my mouth all the time: food, gum, mints, candies, or beverages?

“… my old idea that these foods and behaviours were “treats.” The key for me was getting honest enough to acknowledge that they really were causing me problems.”

– Voices of Recovery, July 8

12. Have I ever eaten food that is burned, frozen, or spoiled; from containers in the grocery store; or out of the garbage?

“I attended my first OA meeting alone. It’s hard to describe how moved I was to hear the stories of others who had used food as I did.”

– Overeaters Anonymous Second Edition (Saying Yes to Life)

13. Are there certain foods I can’t stop eating after having the first bite?

“I thought I could handle an occasional pig-out. I stubbornly refused to recognize the difference between myself and the normies: I could not stop.”

– For Today, Mar 17

14. Have I lost weight with a diet or “period of control” only to be followed by bouts of uncontrolled eating and/or weight gain?

“I started to diet at around fifteen… I was either on a diet, pretending to be on a diet, or planning to start a diet on Monday, the first of the month, or the first of the year.”

– Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition (It gets better, I promise)

15. Do I spend too much time thinking about food, arguing with myself about whether or what to eat, planning the next diet or exercise cure, or counting calories?

“I knew about calories, exercise, and nutrition. But all this self-knowledge could not stop me from eating compulsively; once I began, I could not stop.”

– Overeaters Anonymous Second Edition (Alive and Well and Living in the Real World)

If you have you answered “yes” to several of these questions, you may possibly have, or are well on your way to having, a compulsive eating or overeating problem.

These were situations we encountered too. You’ve come to the right place to get the help you need.