Attraction Not Promotion – We Maintain Anonymity

Attraction Not Promotion – We Maintain Anonymity

Tradition Eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication.

“When we maintain our Tradition of anonymity, we ensure that Overeaters Anonymous remains a spiritual Fellowship, supporting all of us in our recovery.”
– Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, p. 161

Before OA, I followed all the latest diet fads, and they usually had a celebrity associated with them. I’d watch that celebrity praise the diet and share her success and how this was obviously the one right way to get to a healthy weight. Then the whole world watched as the inevitable happened: the celebrity’s weight came right back on. Obviously, that program did not work. So we all moved on to a new diet fad.

In OA, there are no celebrities. The superstars of this program are the ones who quietly work their programs, offer service at their meeting and intergroup levels and sponsor people through the steps. No cameras track their progress, and their names do not appear in magazine spreads. Anonymity keeps this program from becoming about any one person’s experience and helps it remain a spiritual program, individual to each of its members.

Journal Prompt: How do I practice the tradition of attraction rather than promotion?

Please send your blog submissions to blog@oasv.org. We look forward to hearing from you and to sharing your story of experience, strength and hope with others on this amazing journey of OA recovery from compulsive eating through the Twelve Steps.