The Essentials Of Recovery

“Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.” (BB p.568)

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” (BB p.59)

I HAD some group therapy at a mental hospital after I had a detox there. As part of the therapy, I had to write a life story. At that stage I was rather green in the ways of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I imagined that writing my life story really covered Step Four. Not too long afterwards, someone at a meeting pointed out that the Step says, “made a… moral inventory” – not “told our story” (important though that is)! It was some time before I got around to doing Step Four, so perhaps procrastination, “…sloth in five syllables.”  (12&12 p.69) should have been the first of my shortcomings for the list! Nevertheless, I realized that the Step was necessary if I wanted to recover, not just stay dry and miserable.

As I came to the Programme from a religious background, the idea of making a moral inventory was not strange to me but, all the time I was still drinking, I never got any real benefit or made any real progress from that kind of exercise. I didn’t have what the Big Book calls “…the essentials of recovery.”, “Willingness, honesty and open mindedness…” (BB p568). What I lacked most was willingness – willingness to put the glass down and face up to myself and the world. Both the Big Book and Twelve and Twelve gave me guidance on how to do Step Four, but I guess that everyone will do it in the way that best suits them, with the help of their sponsor. People’s beliefs and concept of a power greater than themselves are all personal to them. Not everyone has any religious belief, and no one need have any in order to recover. I have met very many atheists and agnostics in recovery. “When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.” (BB p.47).

The Twelve and Twelve suggests that, whatever our concept of a Higher Power, we can use the Seven Deadly Sins as a prompt or reminder to help us with a moral inventory, “…a universally recognized list of major human failings – the Seven Deadly Sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth” (12&12 p.50). I used that list and also, for myself, another similar code of conduct, as a measuring stick. What was important was that I started honestly to look at my behaviour and to own it – stopping blame, excuses, alibis and self-justification. One of the most challenging things that my sponsor ever said was “And what was your part in it?” As the Big Book suggests, I used the basic structure of resentments, fears, and relationships and sex.

For me, Step Four marked a real beginning with those indispensable essentials of recovery often remembered by the word HOW. The three letters stand for Honesty, Open Mindedness and Willingness. I still need these essentials of recovery every day. Step Ten suggests that I continue to take personal inventory and promptly admit when I am wrong. “And what was your part in it?”

BARRY, Hastings and Rother