We have both had the opportunity to be a temporary Sponsor using the First Twelve Days of Overeaters Anonymous program twice. Each time it was a rewarding experience that allowed us to grow in our own recovery. We were fortunate to carry the message of OA to women who were willing to try to improve their lives and eating behaviors through our 12 Step program of recovery. Their curiosity and eagerness to learn eased our anxieties and hesitations about sponsoring someone who was new, returning to OA or in active relapse.

Even though it is called “The First Twelve Days of Overeaters Anonymous,” we were careful to let the prospective sponsee proceed at their own pace so as not to overwhelm them. Following the instructions for Working With Others in the Big Book, we stressed that moving forward without too much delay was important to our freedom from the obsession. As with 'regular' Sponsees, we found that promptly establishing and adhering to regular meeting times was important – especially given our busy schedules, multiple sponsees and our own self-care.

Getting into a 12 Step program can be daunting when you start hearing about all of the different conference approved literature. Luckily, everything a sponsee needs to get started with OA’s First 12 Days is covered in the 'Where Do I Start' pamphlet, which is available as a free digital download as well as in the hard copy pamphlet. Almost any general OA question is answered in that pamphlet! This saves time and allowed us to talk and build a better connection. Sometimes we found that the sponsee had been looking for that kind of conversation, and that gave us the opportunity to share more of own Experience, Strength & Hope - the solutions to the disease we found by working our program.

We never told our sponsees what to do; we asked them to prepare for our sessions by reading the assigned sections of the pamphlet in advance, and to complete the writing assignments as suggested in the guidelines. The fifth tool of OA - writing - plays a critical role in the First 12 Days. Writing was essential in helping them discover if they had a compulsive overeating disease, and how it was affecting them. It gave them the freedom to admit to themselves where past attempts to control their compulsive eating were of no avail. We strengthened our own recovery by lending our respect and attention to how compulsive eating had negatively affected them physically, emotionally and spiritually. OA’s ‘First 12 Days’ set the stage for Step 1 of our OA program.

For more information about “Temporary Sponsors: Newcomers’ First Twelve Days,” click here to go to the document on oa.org.