Chapter 9: An AA Sponsor

STEP 4: Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves. I would definitely recommend an AA sponsor to help you with this step. You can get yourself into quite a confusing quagmire if you try this step alone. You may need to be advised by your fellow AA members that you need to work on the first three steps more before you do step four. Personally, I would recommend having a bare minimum of 30 days sober while attending daily AA meetings before attempting step four. Many individuals need longer. Your AA sponsor may want you to do a rough draft of step four before you are ready. It's OK to do this, but do not consider yourself done forever. This is a life-changing program and lives do not change overnight.

My sponsor made me make a list of everything I had ever done in my life that I felt guilty of first. Then we went to the Alcoholics Anonymous book and read chapter five carefully. Simple instructions with an example tell you how to map out step four for your resentments, fear, and sexual conduct. Step four did not move me further from a drink in itself, but prepared me for the future steps that would enable me to continue to live without the compulsion to drink.

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