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Old 01-27-2014, 08:26 PM
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Joe Nerv
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
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Originally Posted by bumble View Post
A second component in our inventory is discovering the roots of our addictions and codependencies. In most cases, this means we have to examine our childhoods. What needs were not met there? What negative experiences or messages about ourselves did we absorb in the dysfunctional family of origin? ...
That sounds like an invitation to start blaming people for things... or equally as bad, view ourselves as victims.

It sounds to me like that "guide" was something someone from coda blogged at one time or another. I've done lots of 4th steps, but nothing that looked like the OP. Though I'm not a bigbook thumpin kinda guy, I have to admit that the way it's laid out in the bigbook is the simplest and most to the point. Pretty much covers it all, and isn't terribly complicated. Search through our flaws (some people use the 7 deadly sins), list our resentments and do the columns thing in the book, then take a close honest look at how fear has affected us, and review our sex history. I know the "columns" has become a big thing with the 4th step, but doing it as laid out didn't really resonate with me. I did it none the less, but I felt almost as if I were taking a quiz in grammer school. Tony screwed my girlfriend, I resent him because.... because... HE THREATENS MY SEX RELATIONS!!! NO, NO... SELF ESTEEM!!! Sorry to make light of it, but that's how it felt to me. I had to write a bit about each of those relationships, to get a little more connected with how it affected me. And the most important part of the process for me was realizing my part, and then praying for the people I resented. I didn't realize the affect this had until I went to do another 4th step a few years later, and most of the people who were listed in the original were gone. I really had no resentment whatsoever with them any more. It worked.

There are lots of guides to doing a 4th step online that are much better than the one in the OP. I'd search a little more and find one that fits the model in the BB. I think that would be your best bet.

And like Uncle Meat said, worked for me for 29 years too. It's a pretty good deal we got goin with stuff .
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