The slogans, sayings and other truisms on this page were gathered from OA literature, the rooms of OA and other Twelve Step recovery programs. Please note these slogans are not officially OA approved. For your convenience the slogans are listed in alphabetical order.
A pain shared is a pain cut in half. – A periodic is an alcoholic. Period. – Abstinence is the most important thing in my life, without exception. – Acceptance is knowing the past will never get better. – Acceptance: Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it. – Act as if. – After each meeting, clean up the wreckage of the present. – Am I around the program or in the program? – Are you comparing your insides to someone else’s outsides? – Better is enough. – Bring the body and the mind will follow. – But for the Grace of God. – By releasing resentment, we set ourselves free. – Change is inevitable, Growth is optional – Character is how we act when we think no one is watching. – Coincidences are God’s way of staying anonymous. – Complacency kills. – Do not regret growing old, it is a privilege denied many. – Do the next, right thing. – Don’t believe everything you think. – Don’t get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired (H.A.L.T.) – Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. Don’t compare. – Don’t let the little you can do stop you from doing the little you can do. – Don’t quit before the miracle happens. – Don’t take yourself too darn seriously. – Don’t worry, if you don’t get the program right away, it will get you. – Everything is as it should be. – Easy does it — but Do it! Easy does it. – Every morning I get up and pray to God to reset my negative to positive. – Everything is as it should be right now. – Expectations are premeditated resentments. – Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. – F.A.I.T.H – Fabulous Adventure In Trusting Him. – Failure is success on the installment plan — if I learn from it. – Faith is hope in things unseen – Fake it ’til you make it – Fall in line with the force of heaven; it is the force of heaven to accept and endure. – Fear is the mother of all character defects. – Fear is what keeps you from God’s plan for you. (sent in by Emily M., Rye Brook, NY) – Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered; there was no one there. – First things first. – Food is not your friend. You have plenty of other friends and interests. – Food thoughts are just thoughts. You don’t have to act. – Forgiveness is letting go of a better past. – Get off the pity pot. – Give time time. – God will either shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. – H.O.W.: Honesty, Open-mindedness, and Willingness. – HALT (Don’t get Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired). – Help is only a phone call away. – Honesty, openness, willingness – Hope is the risk that must be run. – I can expect only to get better at this, not control it. – I can’t. God can. I think I’ll let God. – I didn’t know how sick I was until I started getting better. – I may only have one recovery in me. – I never let go of anything that didn’t have my claw marks all over it. – I was a problem drinker; every time I drank, I had a problem. – I won’t starve to death between meals. – Identify, don’t compare. – If I have a problem and eat over it, then I have two problems. – If love has conditions attached, it’s not love, it’s barter. – If not this, then something better. – If nothing changes, nothing changes – If you can be humble, you’ll learn faster. – If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. – If you don’t take care of yourself, why should anyone else? – If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. – If you have a problem, and eat over it, you have two problems – If you have one foot in yesterday and one in tomorrow you will pee all over today. – If you like everyone you’ve met in OA, you haven’t been to enough meetings. – If you only need one meeting a week, you may have to go to five of them in that time to find out which one it is. – If you want to feel better right away, ask God to help you be of service – If you want to find out what your character defects are, fall in love. – In sobriety, you are given permission to be ordinary. – Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results – Is it odd, or is it God? – It is none of my business what someone else thinks of me. – It isn’t “me” and “you” anymore; it’s “we” and “us.” – It’s about the food until it’s not about the food. – It’s not about you. – It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you. – Just accept, don’t expect – Just because you have pain, doesn’t mean you have to be one. – just drop us an email at – Just for today – Keep an open mind. – Keep it simple. – Keep your recovery first to make it last. – Let go and let God. – Life sucks, but with OA, life sucks one day at a time. – Listen and learn. – Little strokes fell giant oaks. – Live and let live. – Look for my Higher Power in all things. – Love God in all things; love God above all things. – Love is a verb. – Love is an action. – Love isn’t love until you give it away. – Make the solution so big, the problem does not exist. – May you be blessed with a slow recovery. – Meeting makers make it. – Meetings are not enough. – Meetings, meetings, meetings. – My character shows as I respond to difficulty. – My Higher Power is whatever I turn to in a crisis. – Not facing pain can prolong it. – Nothing tastes as good as abstinence feels! – OA is not for those who need it, only for those who want it. – OA Stands for Overeaters Anonymous BUT for me it stands for the ONLY ANSWER. – One compulsive bite is to many and 100 bites are not enough. – One day at a time, remember: The mighty oak was once a little nut that held its ground. – One day at a time. – One is too many, a thousand not enough. – Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. – People who don’t go to meetings don’t find out what happens to people who don’t go to meetings. – People who sponsor themselves have fools for sponsors. – Plan Plans, Not Results. – Plan, but don’t plan the outcome. – Plan, don’t project. – Pray Until Something Happens. – Prior Planning Prevents Problems – Procrastination is fear in five syllables. – Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday! – Progress, Not Perfection – Quitting is easy, it’s staying stopped that’s hard. – Relax-God is in charge. – Remember the 3 P’s: Perfectionism (leads to) Procrastination (leads to) Paralysis. – Repetition is nature’s only form of permanence. – Resentment Powers Our Addiction – Resentment is a cup of poison we pour for our enemy and drink ourself. – Resentment is letting someone else live in your head rent-free. – Service is Slimming – Seven days without a meeting makes one weak – Show up to grow up. – Shut up, show up and say “yes.” – Some say if you can’t remember your last drunk, you may not have had it. – Sponsors carry the message — not the person. – Stay put and act in my own best interest. – Steps: Take one day and one step at a time. Don’t ever look too far ahead. – Suit up and show up. – Surrender, don’t quit. – Take the program seriously, not yourself. – Take what you like and leave the rest. – The best things in life aren’t things. – The disease is physical. The cause is emotional. The cure is spiritual. – The elevator is broken. Use the steps. – The longer I’m in the program, the lower my bottom seems to get. – The longer we are in the program, the worse our stories get. – The only avoidable pain is the pain we endure in the process of trying to avoid pain. – The program has taught me to think faster than my mouth. – The program is for those who want it. – The program is like a submarine. It is much better to be in it than around it. – The program is like a swimming pool, and you can’t learn to swim until you get in the water. – The program, it works if you work it. – The sooner I surrender, the better. – The thing is, usually we’re wrong anyway; and even when we’re right, it’s not forever. – The Twelve Steps are but suggestions, as is pulling the rip cord on a parachute. – The two ways to learn are the hard way and the harder way. – The way to ask for help is to say, “I need help.” – There are no coincidences. – There is no situation so bad that a compulsive bite can’t make it worse. – Think, think, think! – Think: Most good ideas are simple. – This too shall pass. – Today is a gift; that’s why it’s called the present. – Today is the first day of the rest of your life. – Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. – Today, we have a choice. – Turn fear into faith. – We can best control by letting go. – We don’t get partial results from half-measures. – We don’t trip over mountains. – We go to the meetings for all sorts of reasons, but we don’t know what they are, so we keep going to meetings. – We’ll love you until you learn to love yourself. – What other people think of me is none of my business. – When God made time, He made plenty of it. – When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. – When you are in a meeting, your disease is outside doing push-ups. – When you point a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at you. – Work the program, not the problem. – Worry about tomorrow saps today of its strength. – Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair; you can do it all day long and get nowhere. – Worry prevents recovery. – Would I rather be right — or happy? – Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery — stay in today. – You can’t do it alone, but only you can do it. – You can’t get indigestion from swallowing your pride. – You need newcomers to tell you where you came from; old-timers, to tell you where you could go, and a sponsor to tell you where you are at. – You only have to go to meetings until you want to go to meetings
© 2002 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of Overeaters Anonymous, Inc