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Who Answers?3 Action Steps That Make Step 5 NA Worthwhile
Step 5 – “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Step 4 and Step 5 of the 12 Step process act as tag-team steps, where a person writes out past wrongs committed and then turns around and admits these wrongs to another person. If you’ve completed Step 4, you know these wrongs can take any number of forms from stealing to infidelity to lying.
The act of actually admitting wrongs done becomes the task of Step 5 NA. While this step may seem frightening, and even overwhelming, the degree of growth experienced from walking out this step goes a long way towards strengthening your recovery efforts.
Call our toll-free helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to ask about 12 Step program treatment options.
Here are the three components of Step 5 NA that make this step worthwhile.
The 3 Action Steps of Step 5 NA
Admitting your wrongs will help eliminate the fear that fuels addictive behaviors.
1. Facing the Fear
The act of taking the time and effort to list past wrongs can be really painful. Actually speaking these acts out loud to another person can be downright scary.
Interestingly enough, feelings of fear play a central role in driving compulsive drug-using behaviors, according to the U. S. National Library of Medicine. In effect, the act of facing fear -of any kind- greatly weakens the driving forces behind addiction.
In essence, the 12 Step program process entails facing fears of different kinds. With Step 1, a person faces the problem, addiction. In Step 2, he or she faces the need for help in overcoming addiction. Step 3 entails acknowledging the presence of a Higher Power that can help.
In effect, the three previous steps provide you with the type of experience needed to walk out Step 5 NA.
2. Breaking Down the Walls
Fear, by its very nature, builds walls between the individual and the world around him or her. From behind walls, it becomes that much easier to develop destructive ways of thinking and behaving towards self and others, which makes for fertile ground for addiction to grow, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Revealing the worst of who you were to another person tears down these walls and frees you to become the person you want to be. Ultimately, Step 5 NA begins the process of building a life based on the type of honesty and truth that makes change possible.
3. Learning to Trust
For many recovering addicts, fear and trust issues tend to go hand-in-hand, feeding off of one another in the process. When it comes down to it, a person can only give what he or she already has. In this respect, not being able to value or trust oneself naturally translates over into one’s relationships with others.
With Step 5 NA, the act of trusting another person with the information contained in your moral inventory becomes a tremendous step towards learning to trust self and others.
If you’re a recovering addict or considering getting treatment, we can help. Call our helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to ask about available 12 Step program treatment options.