12 step fellowship for recovering from the disease of food addiction. FA™ is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience and mutual support, are recovering from the disease of food addiction.
Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) is a program based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). There are no dues, fees, or weigh-ins at FA meetings.
FA™ was formally organized in 1998, although it began as part of another twelve-step program in the early 1980s. Some FA members have been continuously abstinent since that time. Abstinence in FA is equivalent to AA’s “sobriety” and is clearly defined: weighed and measured meals with nothing in between, no flour, no sugar, and the avoidance of any individual binge foods.
Who Joins FA™?
FA members are people of all ages from every part of the world. FA includes people who were morbidly obese, substantially underweight, or even at a normal weight. Regardless of their size, they were tormented by cravings, dieting, bulimia, and/or an obsession with exercise.
Does the Program Really Work?
Many FA members tried other solutions to address their problems with food, including years of diets or exercise. FA™ offers a long-term answer. Abstinent members find freedom from addiction and maintain healthy weights. The number of people with years of unbroken abstinence continues to grow.
Their website includes the following features.
- Explanations of the group – its background, principles and methods
- Meeting Finder (In Person)
- Free Pamphlets
- Magazine
- Organization Information
- Online Book Store
In the early 1980s, the FA program began to take form within the context of Overeaters Anonymous (OA), another twelve step program. At that time, in the Chelsea, Massachusetts, area several OA meetings began to embrace a set of distinctive practices. The meetings were united by a shared definition of abstinence; the requirement that speakers at each meeting have a minimum of 90 days of continuous abstinence; the practice of doing the Twelve Steps in AWOL groups; and the belief that overeating, under-eating, bulimia, and other food-related, self-destructive behaviors are symptoms of the disease of addiction. These meetings were popularly called or criticized as “90-day meetings”.
Over time, it became clear that the program of the “90-day meetings” was distinctive from that of OA. Further, this program had grown. Members moved from the Boston area to Michigan, Florida, Texas, New York, California, Australia, and Germany, taking their recovery with them and establishing meetings in communities where they lived. In 1998, a small group gathered to discuss the possibility of establishing a separate program. “Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous” was launched later that year. The organization was legally incorporated in 1998.