Recovery Reading 06/17/24: Step 4

A Journey of self-discovery and healing

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Step 4 — “Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves” — was a significant milestone in my journey from insanity to recovery from being raised by an alcoholic father and a mother who needed Al-Anon but never joined. It was the final step in the “4-step waltz”(Steps 1 through 4) of my becoming ready and willing to work the rest of the steps.

Understanding Step 4

In Step 4, Al-Anon members take an honest and comprehensive self-examination. “Searching and fearless” means deep and courageous. These were necessary to tease out all of my thoughts, words, and actions of the past, looking for patterns that indicated a significant deficit in my moral character.

Step 4 is about looking inward to identify both my strengths and weaknesses and to understand how my behaviors and attitudes had been influenced by living with alcoholism, which can turn a normal family to a dysfunctional one pretty quickly. It was important to list both my good and lacking qualities because I was eventually able to use my good qualities to ameliorate…