In the Los Angeles group we’ve experimented with doing a “formal” First Step. The member who was the “guinea pig” made notes on his sexual history as it bore on the development of his feelings & emotions and the powerlessness/unmanageability of his life. On the appointed meeting night he gave his First Step, referring to those notes. When he was through, he asked for feedback from the group, which then related its feelings about his story and what it was telling about himself. Everyone agreed the man was a sexaholic, powerless over his disease, and whose life had become unmanageable. The format this particular member used was as follows:

• Key Incidents
• Associated Feelings
• What Does This Incident Tell me about Myself?

The feedback revealed that using notes when giving the Step diminished spontaneity. The member who gave it agreed, but felt making the notes had been an invaluable experience. Another danger was the tendency to get too analytical. It doesn’t seem to help recovery to know why we did what we did, but it does seem to help to see what it did to us and others.

This giving of the First is different than doing a Fourth Step, where we write down everything we have done to ourselves and others in a fearless and searching moral inventory. Some find they are incapable of doing a First Step right away; they’re still making a slow turnaround and can’t yet see the past clearly enough. You might want to try this in your own group and report on the results. We’re all for accelerating the process of recovery. Let us know what happens.