Dec 30, 2015 | By Tim Powers

The Fifth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous: Coming Clean

12 Step Recovery Recovery

fifth step

In this series of articles regarding the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, it has been stressed that each step has a central and powerful theme that needs to be addressed, worked through and completed before moving on to the next.

For those who are taking their baby steps in their journey towards recovery, each step can become a formidable challenge. The process of coming to terms with the consequences of your alcohol addiction can be a painful experience. However, in order to truly heal and move forward in recovery, you must be willing to come clean–and that is exactly what you need to do in the Fifth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The Concept of Integrity and the Fifth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous

In step four, you have fully admitted with your head and heart that you were powerless over your addiction and were able to be honest in the fact that your life had become unmanageable. From there, you were able to look outside of yourself for guidance and courage, surrendered, gained some humility, and then you were able to take considerable time to take a personal inventory that was uncensored, candid and far reaching to the very depths of your soul.

Up to this point, you have accomplished a lot and had to dig deep. However, you are about to discover that the Fifth Step is when the rubber truly hits the proverbial road. The fifth step requires that you “tell on yourself” and get honest about your behavior. You must come clean to another person about the exact nature of your wrongs. You may have thought that you felt uncertain and uneasy during each of the first four steps, but at this point we hope you realize that these steps are not as terrifying as many people make them out to be.

You have made great progress by taking the initiative to come clean with yourself by doing a complete and fearless moral inventory during the 4th Step. Now in the 5th step of alcoholics anonymous you must reveal your wrongs and flaws to another person. Yes it will be uncomfortable, but it will pay off in the end.

Your misgivings and feeling of doubt are completely understandable and even reasonable. However, you must understand that the true meaning of the fifth step is not about wallowing in guilt and shame over your past.

Instead, it is about reconciling yourself with your past and finally leaving behind the guilt and shame associated with your alcoholism. The Fifth Step is also a critical step toward restoring your sense of honor, confidence and self-respect.

What to Keep In Mind When You Are Working the Fifth Step

When you start working the fifth step of AA, you can view it as a part of the “housecleaning” that you need to do to purge those attitudes, behaviors and emotions that kept you stuck in alcohol abuse. If you are thinking of skipping this step, you will never truly overcome your drinking and any sobriety that you do achieve will be short-lived. Additionally, the sobriety that you do happen to achieve will be marked by states of mind such as resentments which will eventually undermine your recovery.

In order to effectively work step five, you must have worked the fourth step to the fullest. When you did your moral inventory, you cannot omit the worst items on the list or leave anything out. If you don’t completely come clean with yourself, you aren’t going to be able to come clean to others and you are not truly embracing humility, fearlessness and above all, honesty. If you are going to do the fifth step of AA, you must be fully in and be willing and able to disclose everything.

When you reach out towards others about the exact nature of your wrongs, you are talking about the person once were, a person who thought they were doing right by themselves and others but failed to realize how distorted your thinking had become under the influence alcohol. Ultimately, you are not the same person as you were back when you were actively drinking; you are ready to take the fifth step today.

If you truly think about it, the Fifth Step of AA is the beginning of creating an authentic self that is comfortable in their own skin and can accept their shortcomings as well as their assets. A huge part of that transformation is being able to be completely honest with yourself and others. Until you are fully able to acknowledge your past and take ownership for your actions, you won’t be able to move towards freedom in your recovery. The road towards that freedom is by full disclosure, and once you are able to do that you can begin to heal and develop the personal integrity that leads to real peace of mind.

Take Your Time

As with every other step, you must take your time when working the fifth step. Recovery isn’t an event that occurs within a specific time-frame; it is a journey that takes a lifetime and it unfolds as you grow and learn things about yourself that either were never discovered or forgotten in the haze of addiction.

You are not in a race, you are on a quest to discover the good and bad within yourself and through working the steps you can work towards being in harmony with yourself, others and the world around you.

In order to become this new person, you must be able to face down your past, make peace with that  past, forgive yourself and be able to move towards your future. The fifth step of alcoholics anonymous allows you to truly connect with another person about who you were and what you desire to be down the road.

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