A Dozen Steps

How To Do A Fifth Step

by Mark on May 9th, 2008

I am grateful to whoever did the Lijit search for “How To Do A Fifth Step.” It helped me find a resource within a resource I already knew. Now I’ll pass that on…

Dr. Paul O’s Step Study Program

The guide begins with;

“Welcome to The Land of Beginning Again! If you aren’t satisfied with the way your life has been going and you’d like to chuck the whole thing and start all over again, then you hold in your hand a tool for doing just that and for doing it right this time. Beginning again, in the opinion of the editor, is what the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are all about.”

Folks, if you think will power, rather than the Twelve Steps, will work on your alcoholism (or any other disease arrested by the Twelve Steps), then, please, by all means, try to eat a box of Ex-Lax and try your will power on that!

But for those of you who might truly be real alcoholics (or, again, apply the Twelve Steps of your recovery group), this is the deal!

I can’t reproduce here what this guide offers, the space is simply not enough. Click through to Dr. Paul’s guide and scroll down past the halfway point to where it says: Fourth Step Guide

If you follow these directions, I’m sure you’ll be a bit surprised once you come to the end and discover you’ve done a Fifth Step, perhaps without realizing that you have.

I’d also suggest you read through the questions presented as each meeting with the group is given, such as for the first meeting;

• Are you aware that your illness affected both your mind and your body?
• Do you believe or can you accept the concept of an allergic reaction to alcohol?
• What is an allergy?
• Do you agree with the idea of hospitalization?
• Have you ever experienced the phenomenon of craving? (page XXV)
• Did you like the effect of alcohol?
• Did you reach the point where you could not differentiate “the true from the false”?
• Did your alcoholic life seem normal?
• The doctor seems to say that a “psychic change” must occur. What is a psychic change?
• Can you accept the fact that alcoholism “has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently eradicated?”

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