Originally Posted by
Ronan 
Ok so at the moment I'm doing really well. I'm about to tackle step 4 however have been noticing more and more people are saying that they went through the steps with a sponsor. I'm going to 4 meetings a week and to be honest have been doing great.
Is a sponsor 100% necessary?
Glad to hear you are doing well and ready to take a look inside!
For myself, I wouldn't have been able to do a thorough and accurate Step 4 without the help of a sponsor who had also completed Step 4. The reason being, I was still full of self-delusion when I got to the 4th step, although I was being as honest as I could be. My sponsor sat down with me and we did a few of my resentments together. She was especially helpful in pointing me to the realization of the resentment and getting me to understand which parts of self were being affected, as well as how I contributed to the resentment, and in some cases, caused the other person to retaliate. I needed another person who could objectively consider my behavior and point out the things I was missing. Same goes for fears and my sex inventory. But even with these practice inventories, I still missed things and my sponsor generously pointed those things out to me during the 5th step.
Embarking on a 4th step without guidance is worse than the blind leading the blind--it's a drunken mind leading a drunken mind. And when my drunken mind leads the way, where do I usually end up? I needed a recovered mind that had been restored to sanity to guide me into that unfamiliar territory.
Also, there was something very spiritual and intimate about sitting down with another person and accepting their guidance. I was also helping my sponsor by allowing her to guide me. Although I didn't realize that at the time.