Feb 28 

Written By Hector Torres

“Admitted to God, to oneself, and to another human being that exact nature of our wrongs”

Step 5 is one of the steps of the 12th steps that you complete in the A.A. Program. The 5th step is to admit to god, to ourselves, and to the other human of our wrongs throughout our life. In step 4 we write down our personal inventory which is taking a look into our past and writing down all of our secrets that we have been holding onto for years. Step 5 of Alcoholic Anonymous, commonly known as the “Confession” step, encourages members to acknowledge their struggles and whatever harm they caused to themselves and others in pursuit of alcohol. Put simply, Step 5 is the point in the process in which one will speak openly and honestly about their struggles with addiction, with focus on how they harmed themselves and others through their actions and behaviors. This confession should be honest, and can begin in a written form and evolve out into conversations. This is typically done with a sponsor who has been supporting and guiding you through the steps.

If you allow these feelings of fear to stop your progress at Step 5, you stop moving forward in your recovery and the disease of alcohol addiction can become more powerful. This step is aimed to free you from your past and to help you release the baggage of your past. It is to help you take away the power from your problems and the excuse to use nor drink, which can happen when you don’t make an honest confession to yourself. The lists you make consists of fear, harm, resentments and sex category. After taking the time to write all of these outs as thoroughly as possible, Step 5 is where you read it to your trusted sponsor. For me, this was a taunting task, but once I let go and allowed myself to put aside the fear, I felt myself more free from my past.