Step Five:

“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another
human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

ALL OF A.A.’s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our
natural desires . . . they all deflate our egos. When it
comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than
Five. But scarcely any Step is more necessary to longtime
sobriety and peace of mind than this one.
A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with
our pressing problems and the character defects which
cause or aggravate them. If we have swept the searchlight
of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has
revealed in stark relief those experiences we’d rather not
remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking
and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit
living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of
yesterday gets more urgent than ever. We have to talk to
somebody about them.

Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, page 55. Copyright © 1981
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Fifth Step Prayer
Higher Power,
My inventory has shown me who I am,
Yet I ask for Your help
In admitting my wrongs to another person and to You.
Assure me, and be with me, in this Step,
For without this Step I cannot progress in my recovery.
With Your help, I can do this, and I do it.

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