Step Four, Week Five: March 13th, 2024

This week’s reading assignment:

Yellow workbook page 84 under the “Exercise 5 – Harms Inventory – Generational Transfer” heading OR BRB pages 170 – 171

Red Book Chapter Two, pages 21-27

Red Book page 127, Family History Diagram

Red Book pages 448-450, Grandchildren of Alcoholics

Recommended weekly reading:

“The Laundry List” or “The Problem,” “The Solution,” and “The Promises” on pages 587-591 of the Red Book or in the first several pages of the yellow workbook;

“The Twelve Steps” on pages 91-92 of the Red Book (also on pages 1-2 of the workbook); and

“The Twelve Traditions” on page 592 of the Red Book

Tradition Three (the tradition for the month of March) in depth starting on page 503 of the Red Book

Suggested supplemental reading:

Friel, John and Linda, “An Adult Child’s Guide to What’s ‘Normal’”, pages 124-127, starting with the paragraph beginning, “But when it comes to painful patterns,  . . .” See ACAWSO’s Literature Policy: “It has always been accepted that ACA should remain eclectic in choosing literature. That is, ACA meetings may draw from various sources without censorship.”

Suggested supplemental text for 4^th Step work:

The AlAnon workbook titled “Blueprint for Progress: Al-Anon’s Fourth Step Inventory,
Revised” (copyright date 2004, with the black text and deeper blue-and-white-checked cover; available from AlAnon or on Amazon.com.)   See ACAWSO’s Literature Policy: “It has always been accepted that ACA should remain eclectic in choosing literature. That is, ACA meetings may draw from various sources without censorship.”

The sections on Communication (pgs. 35-37) and Justification (pgs. 27-28) are especially useful for this week’s 4^th Step work.

This week’s step study questions:

Yellow workbook page 85, “Harms Worksheet.”  The following questions are adapted from this exercise:

Whom have I harmed, abandoned, neglected or mistreated? What did I do (what was my behavior?) What were the results of the incident? What is my memory of the incident? What memories do I have of being similarly harmed as a child?

“Copyrighted by Adult Children of Alcoholics World Service Organization.”

Deep Dive questions:

1. Who are the people in my life I feel guilty about?
2. How do I treat those I feel guilty about?
3. When something was really my fault and I felt guilty, how did I deal with my feelings?
4. Are there any particular people with whom I consistently engage in unacceptable behavior? Why do I think that is?