jive, I am glad that you arrived at a purposeful way to do step 4. That is what matters most.
In my experience of both addiction and recovery, in and out of 12 step...alcoholism and drug addiction are NOT the same. The issues of addiction is, but I think that alsoholism has some issues that are unique to alcoholism and that has shown up to me in the BB, AA meetings and the time during which I had an AA sponsor.
If we use the disease approach, then maybe it can be likened to the situation of there being various types of cancers or even diabetes. TypeI diabetes, type II, insalin dependent, etc, or cancers...some are slow growing, others aggressive etc.
Similar but not exactly the same type of treatments neccessary to address all cases.
If they were exactly the same, there would have been no reason or impetus for NA to have formed at all. But some differences were recognized and forming NA and NA literature addressed some of these.
I don't think there is a wrong way to recover. If what you do brings about recovery..then it's the right thing for you to be doing.
Arguing methodology is a stimulating pastime, but meanwhile some people lose themselves shopping for the ultimate recovery method.
There are miracle cures of physical disease and disability brought about by prayer, and I am sure that there are cases of liberation from addiction that stem from the same.
Some of us find relief in intense inpatient rehab, others by quieting life and communing with nature, exercise and diet changes.
My first sponsor was AA and was taking me through the steps the way she was taken through them. It didn't "take" with me.
the words in NA literature talking about it not being as important how we do it as the fact that we do it, helped me. I did as NA suggested, picked up paper, prayed for honesty and began to write.
For a long time I was derailed by the discussions of which method of recovery was "better". because of course I wanted to do the best one, the one most likely to fix me quick...and that "search" kept me from doing what I needed to be doing.
I still get confused when self appointed online sponsors rush in and start telling me how I should be doing my recovery. And when AA people and non 12 step people come in and critique my NA program...not THE NA program, but MY NA program.
When a person asks for advice and experience, that is one thing, but when one is just talking about their experience and others rush in and start taking my inventory and the inventory of my sponsor...I find that very hard to close my ears to. It's something I am working on. Praying for their recovery, and getting on with my own.