Overeaters Anonymous Observation

1056 Words5 Pages
I was recently able to observe an Overeaters Anonymous meeting in Scranton, PA. The meeting exceeded all of my expectations and was far more interesting than I had assumed it would be. From the moment I walked in to the moment I walked out, absolutely everyone had open arms and it was easy to see that they all cared for each other deeply. There were a total of 11 people at the meeting including the two staff members and excluding myself. There seemed to be no hierarchy of any sort; no one person was better than the next in any way. It was a very encouraging meeting, whether you are an overeater or not. There were able 10 to 15 minutes of mingling just before the meeting started. Many of the group members exchanged hugs and pleasantries. They all seemed to be very close, almost as if they were a part of one another’s family. There was coffee and water for everyone to enjoy, not surprising, there was no sort of food present at the meeting. What was somewhat of a shock to me is the fact that many of the members openly approached me and introduced themselves to me. I noticed two women on opposite sides of the room that seemed to be considerably quieter than the other members. My first thought was that these two women must be attending their first meetings. I later learned that my suspicions were correct. Neither of the women stood alone very long as other members, who I could only assumes were veterans to these meetings, promptly introduced themselves with big smiles and comforting remarks. As the mingling whined down, one of the employees (whom I could only distinguish because he was the gentleman I first contacted about the group) stood at the front of the class and spoke for about 10 minutes. He spoke of his tribulations to get to the point in his life where he is now comfortable with himself. He spoke of accepting the fact that he was on overeater

More about Overeaters Anonymous Observation

Open Document