Finding Resources – Approaching OA-overeaters anonymous As an eating disorder treatment professional, with experience and increasing contact with these patients and their families, I have become less familiar with this disorder and more stressed about the complexity and needs of its treatment. These needs can never be met by a medical institution alone, but the disease that overwhelms an individual and a family also overwhelms the medical institution, and we need more resources. With this desire in mind, I finally made my way to the Beijing OA meeting last Saturday. This is a chapter of an international self-help organization, set up on the principles of voluntariness, self-sufficiency, and complete independence. It meets once a week on Saturdays for all people with eating disorders who want help to share their experiences, strengths, and support each other in solving common eating problems. They draw on the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) as guiding principles for recovery. A group of experienced eating disorder patients will volunteer as ‘helpers’ to lead new members to recovery by practicing the ‘Twelve Steps’. Whether a ‘helper’ or a newcomer to recovery, any participant will always refer to himself or herself as an ‘eating disorder in recovery’ as a sign of equality and as an inspiration to strengthen each footprint on the road to recovery and to live each day in recovery. Unlike AA, OA is a late start and has not yet developed in China, and the only few chapters are basically self-help rehabilitation bases for expatriates. As an observer, I was warmly welcomed by several expatriates who were concerned about the current status of eating disorders and the progress of treatment in China. Although they were basically not receiving services from medical institutions, they all recognized the need and importance of medical intervention in eating disorder rehabilitation, which made me feel both happy and reassured – a form of help that is exclusive is hardly reassuring, huh? At the same time, they all expressed their willingness to help with the rehabilitation of Chinese eating disorder patients, very selfless and open, and with a great sense of energy. As with AA, the entire meeting process was very structured and even seemed a bit stereotypical, with a running gag reading of the nature and principles of the organization, the twelve steps and twelve traditions of recovery, followed by a study of the ‘Big Book’. The content of the ‘Big Book’ was chosen according to the date of the meeting (‘Big Book’ is the main book of AA and also OA, which seems to have different thematic content from days 1-28) and everyone read it aloud in order. This was followed by a stage where each person spoke in relation to themselves, where members began to become emotionally enriched, where they had to deal with thoughts of eating disorders from time to time despite how far they had come in their recovery, and where they felt empowered by the thought of being able to come to OA when they doubted themselves. One of the members touched me when she mentioned acceptance of self. She said that she used to think that eating disorders were bad and that she needed to get it out of her, and that day when she looked her eating disorder in the eye and realized that it was just her vulnerable self longing for safety, strength, and worth, she was moved by it and determined that she didn’t need to whip and drive it away, but to embrace and soothe it. That day she felt she was truly able to ‘make peace’ with her eating disorder. The fact that everyone was thanked for what they had to say and that everyone’s point of view was respected was the most striking feeling I had during the whole process. This seemingly uneventful process was like a glass of water in life, simple but very important. The meetings are held once a week, on Saturday mornings, as scheduled, regardless of the number of members. Since it is an all-English communication, there is very little participation from domestic patients. During the short hour, I was thinking from time to time – how can domestic patients benefit from this? As far as I know, a group of people who have recovered from eating disorders are working to bring OA into the country as part of the treatment resources, and it should only be a matter of time before people start to understand OA. More than 20 years ago, when I was first introduced to psychiatry, I simply saw alcohol addiction as a non-recoverable disease, especially the damage to my personality. 13 years ago, I was shocked when I saw an ‘irredeemable’ alcoholic from 20 years ago in all his human glory. That was my first encounter with AA, and my subsequent experiences had made me want to go into alcohol addiction treatment to a considerable extent, but by chance I entered the field of eating disorders, a field that is so entangled with food that it might as well be understood as an ‘addiction’. In my opinion, the Twelve Steps of AA and OA are both spiritual practices for people, which refer to surrendering oneself to a ‘higher power’, which seems unbelievable at first glance, and when you see the stories of people in recovery, he makes you really believe there is a God. However, there is a problem of cultural differences when either AA or OA come into China, they emphasize believing in and entrusting oneself to a ‘higher power’ in the recovery process, and while not favoring any religious beliefs, they still use the word ‘God’ (or ‘God’), a word that was translated as ‘heavenly’ when it was introduced into China. But in any case, the concept is still difficult to accept in modern Chinese society, which is dominated by atheism. So what would be a more appropriate cultural translation? In any case, I welcome OA and hope it translates into a resource available to the Chinese people, and I am willing to continue to explore it for that purpose.