12-step recovery for anorexia - thoughts please?

theres a recovery center im considering going to, but its recovery model is based in the 12-step program, which im a little nervous about. i dont really know much about 12-step or understand what its all about really, but the idea of doing the whole 'hi, my name is x, and im an anorexic' and everybody intoning 'hi x', doesnt appeal to me much. yet i still really want help and this is one of the few places which operates near where i live.

anybody have experience with the 12-step model in relation to their eating disorders? was the experience good? bad? would you recommend it? what does 12-step do exactly?

These are the Twelve Steps according to AA. 

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I would think it would be worth trying.  If after a few sessions it wasn't helping you could always see what else is available.

I am an agnostic - borderline atheist- and I attend Overeaters Anonymous (OA), which sounds like what you're talking about. People with all kinds of eating disorders (and all kinds of belief systems) go there. I have to screen out all the God talk in my head, but other than that, it can be very supportive and good for introspection without criticism. I was thinking about it, and I think I can admit that I, as I am now, am powerless over food. However, I believe that there is a version of me that I can reach through therapy and other tools- a higher power- that is NOT powerless over food. So I am my own higher power. What I will not do is say that I am and will always be powerless, and turn myself over to a Christian God.

I had a friend with anorexia nervosa who attended OA, and she liked it at times and didn't like it at others. It wasn't a major aspect of her recovery, but i think it was helpful.

Really, at the end of the day, you don't have much to lose. Try to attend some OA meetings around you first to see how you feel about it all.