Time for the Fourth Step

As the addict continues to stumble, the time has come to do a Fourth Step inventory. From the Big Book of SAA:

STEP FOUR: MADE A SEARCHING AND FEARLESS MORAL INVENTORY OF OURSELVES.

A searching and fearless moral inventory is one of the means by which we open ourselves to the care and healing of our Higher Power.

A moral inventory can be described as a systematic examination of all the beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and actions that have shaped our lives from the earliest years.

In making this inventory, we take special care to identify those aspects of our character that have caused harm to ourselves and others, so as to bring them forward for healing and change in later steps.

The Fourth Step inventory is a written inventory.

Our inventory is searching, because we try to examine ourselves as thoroughly and painstakingly as possible. It is fearless, because we don't let our fear stop us from digging deeper. It is moral, because it concerns our values and the consequences of our actions for ourselves and others.

We look honestly at the defects that drove our behavior such as: (i) selfishness, (ii) desire for control, (iii) an attitude of entitlement, (iv) feelings of superiority, or (v) feelings of inferiority.

We may also choose to inventory our resentments.

In our inventory, we list the people and situations that have hurt us, citing specific instances.

We then go back over the list of resentments, looking at each incident, and ask ourselves what role we played in the situation.

When we review our responsibility in conflicts, we see the pattern of our character defects emerge.

These defects include: (i) dishonesty, (ii) selfishness, (iii) self-centeredness, (iv) lack of humility, (v) grandiosity, (vi) pessimism, (vii) the desire to control everything around us, or any other shortcomings that we see coming up again and again in our relationships with others.