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What is a 4th step?

Author

Christopher Ramos

Published Feb 19, 2026

What is a 4th step?

Each step addresses a different need that is common to many who struggle with alcoholism, and the fourth step involves taking a personal inventory of strengths and weaknesses of character. This step is a very intimate personal journey.

Moreover, what is 4th step in AA?

The same can be said for Step 4: "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." Whether we come through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon Family Groups chances are we bring a lifetime of "stinking thinking" with us.

Beside above, how does AA Step 4 Work?

  1. Don't hold back: You won't benefit from this step or AA if you don't own up to your shortcomings.
  2. Trust yourself and your sponsor: Remember: You are more than your mistakes.
  3. Be thorough and write down your inventory: This will be the first tangible evidence of your recovery.

Also to know is, how do you write a 4th step?

A Guide to Writing Your 4th Step

  1. Resentments. List any thoughts, experiences, memories, ideas, beliefs, or observations from your entire life that currently cause you negative emotional or mental experiences.
  2. Fears. Listing your fears may feel like an endless task.
  3. Sexual Conduct/Harm Done to Others.

Where is the 4th step in the big book?

We must have this realization if we are to recover. The Big Book states this at the outset of the description of the Step Four, on page 64: "Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations."

What is pride in reverse?

What is reverse pride? Having your confidence taken away from what your ultimate goal is can lead you towards a feeling of unsatisfaction which can affect your pride negatively and make you feel like you are not doing anything worthwhile. In other words, you find yourself dealing with reverse pride.

What is a moral inventory of yourself?

A moral inventory is a written objective assessment of your life, including character deficits, strengths and weaknesses, and an overarching look at the damage you've caused with your addiction.

What is a resentment in AA?

AA recognizes that resentment is toxic to our inner lives. "Resentment" is close to "re-sentiment"—"sentiment" meaning "feeling" and "re" meaning "again." So, resentment is literally "feeling again." This gets to the heart of resentment: recycling old negative feelings or revisiting old wrongs done to us by others.

What are Al Anon 12 steps?

The Twelve Steps
  • We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
  • Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  • Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  • Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

What is the first step in the 12 steps?

What Are the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous?
  1. Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

What are the character defects in AA?

Here are the defects of character:
  • Resentment, Anger.
  • Fear, Cowardice.
  • Self pity.
  • Self justification.
  • Self importance, Egotism.
  • Self condemnation, Guilt.
  • Lying, Evasiveness, Dishonesty.
  • Impatience.

What steps make amends?

Step Eight and Step Nine of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) call this approach "making amends": Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

What is a personal inventory?

Updated January 05, 2020. A personality inventory is a self-assessment tool that career counselors and other career development professionals use to help people learn about their personality types. It reveals information about individuals' social traits, motivations, strengths and weaknesses, and attitudes.

How does AA Step 6 work?

Each of the 12 steps of recovery outlined by Alcoholics Anonymous is focused on helping people with an alcohol use disorder work toward long-term recovery. Step 6 is focused on acceptance, which involves accepting character defects exactly as they are and then being willing to let them go.

Which of the 12 steps is making amends?

In the 12-step program, steps eight and nine are all about making amends and repairing the relationships that have been damaged by substance use.

How does Chapter 5 of the big book work?

Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 5, How it Works. RARELY HAVE we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.

What does the big book say about honesty?

Honesty is printed 19 times in the book Alcoholics Anonymous and in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. And when doing a 12-step program, the Big Book states, “Nothing counted but thoroughness and honesty.”