Taking the Fifth Step Toward Recovery
“[We] admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”
After completing the inventory in Step Four of the Twelve Step program, you may feel that you’ve already admitted your wrongs to yourself and to God. You may even be tempted to skip Step Five and move right on to Step Six. But the A.A. Big Book tells us:
“Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives. Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods. Almost invariably they got drunk.… We think the reason is that they never completed their housecleaning. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock.”
You’ve probably heard the adage “Confession is good for the soul.” But you need to choose your confessor wisely– someone understanding, non-judgmental– an impartial observer rather than one of the wronged parties. (In Step 9 you’ll learn how to approach those you feel you’ve wronged.)
Step Five is more about no longer facing the challenges of your addiction alone, and having some accountability for the choices you’ve made thus far. By sharing it with another person, you dismantle the facades and begin to build your life on the basis of who you truly are, with honesty and truth.
Here are some more insights about Step Five:
• “When it comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than Five. But scarcely any Step is more necessary to longtime sobriety and peace of mind than this one.” - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
• ”…this act of specifically confessing things is what often leads to serenity. The more afraid you are to tell about a certain act or thought in your Fifth Step, the more likely it is that confessing that particular thing will…free you in a new area.” – A Hunger for Healing
• ”The Fifth Step is the key to freedom. It allows us to live clean in the here and now. Sharing the exact nature of our wrongs sets us free to live. After taking a thorough Fourth Step, we have to deal with what we have found in our inventory. We are told that if we keep these defects inside us, they will lead us back to using.… This may be one of the most challenging steps we face in our recovery process, but it can also be one of the most fulfilling in terms of removing us from our isolation.” - Serenity, A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery
The Twelve Step Program plays a large part in the recovery process at Transitions Recovery.
