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Who Answers?3 Ways Step 5 NA Begins Your Real-Life Walk in Recovery
Step 5 – “Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Change happens from the inside-out. This means any type of behavior starts out as a thought that’s processed to the point where it’s played out in a person’s daily life.
As far as 12 Step recovery goes, the internal processing carried out in the 4th Step inventory comes to life in Step 5 NA. Admitting past wrongs and mistakes to another person moves your recovery from personal experience to real life.
In effect, Step 5 NA marks the beginning of drug-free living in the real world.
If you’re having a hard time staying drug-free, get help today at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) and ask about available 12 Step program treatment options.
Taking Action
Admitting your wrongs can help you overcome feelings of guilt and shame.
The addiction lifestyle naturally breeds emotional turmoil and isolation, leaving the addict to deal with his or her demons alone. In the absence of healthy social interactions, destructive, addiction-based thinking and behavior is left to have free rein, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.
For these reasons, healthy social interactions make up a big part of the 12 Step recovery process. From Steps 1 to 4, a person gains new perspectives on self, addiction and the role his or her past behaviors played in fueling drug-using behaviors.
With Step 5 NA comes the time to walk out the previous steps and begin the process of building a drug-free existence.
3 Ways Step 5 NA Marks a New Beginning
1. Working Through Feelings of Guilt and Shame
No doubt, the ugliness uncovered by a 4th Step inventory can be painful, and even horrifying to see. The good news is this revelation marks the source of much of the guilt and shame a person carries around from day-to-day.
Sharing these experiences with another person has a tremendously healing effect, while at the same time breaking the hold that shame and guilt have over your life experience.
2. Standing in Your Truth
According to the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, secrets and shame tend to take on a life of their own when kept in the dark. Once a person shares the wrongs and misdeeds of his or her past life, he or she no longer has anything to hide.
In completing Step 5 NA, a person can finally stand in his or her truth, accepting what’s happened for what it is and moving forward in a direction of his or her choosing.
3. Feedback
Within the context of a healthy relationship, feedback from another can provide a form of insight that can’t be obtained any other way. Step 5 NA offers you with the type of hands-on experience needed to understand why healthy relationships and social interaction are so important to your recovery.
Sharing your past experience with another person not only has a healing effect, but also helps you maintain a balanced perspective regarding your past experiences. In this respect, feedback helps you see your strengths and weakness for what they are as opposed to over exaggerating or minimizing your role in past events.
Get help today at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to ask about 12 Step program treatment options.