Enneagram Type 8 (The Challenger) and Step One:

For Enneagram Type 8, working Step One in Overeaters Anonymous involves facing the ways in which their need for control, power, and strength has impacted their relationship with food. Type 8s may use food as a way to assert control or to avoid vulnerability.

1. Admit Powerlessness Over Using Food to Assert Control:

Type 8s tend to use food to maintain a sense of control and power. Admitting powerlessness means recognizing that food cannot help them feel in control or manage their emotions.

• Reflection question: “How have I used food to feel more in control, and how has this approach become unmanageable?”

2. Recognize the Unmanageability of Control and Intensity:

For Type 8s, life can become unmanageable when their need for control and intensity leads to compulsive or aggressive behaviors around food.

• Reflection question: “How has my desire for control and intensity made my relationship with food unmanageable?”

3. Acknowledge the Need for Vulnerability:

Step One encourages Type 8s to recognize that vulnerability is not a weakness, and admitting powerlessness over food allows them to step into their authentic selves, free from the need to control everything.

• Reflection question: “What would it feel like to let go of control and allow myself to be vulnerable in my relationship with food?”

4. Surrender the Fear of Being Controlled:

Type 8s fear being controlled or overpowered, which may lead them to use food as a way to maintain dominance. Admitting powerlessness involves surrendering the need to be the one in control.

• Reflection question: “How have I used food to avoid feeling controlled or vulnerable, and how has that made my relationship with food unmanageable?”

5. Trust in the OA Process and the Power of Surrender:

For Type 8s, Step One is about trusting in the power of surrender. Letting go of the need to dominate their relationship with food and trusting the OA process is key to their recovery.

• Reflection question: “How can I trust that by surrendering control over food, I can actually find more strength and freedom in my recovery?”

Summary: Type 8s work Step One by admitting their powerlessness over their need to control their eating and emotions. By learning to embrace vulnerability and trusting the OA process, they can begin to heal their relationship with food and find freedom.