Who Created Rule 62?

Rule 62

The Big Book of Alcoholics

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was created to help people recover from alcohol addiction. The book includes many life experiences as well as the series of 12-step solutions for recovery. Some of the sections will target a specific audience and many of the sections focus on a higher power. There is also a section that discusses being agnostic and how-to recovery with this belief. Rule 62 comes from the rules and regulations that were determined when the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was created to try and inspire the people in recovery to have a common values, beliefs and lifestyles that they were working towards. The main takeaway from Rule 62 is “don’t take life too seriously.”

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous discusses many steps that are involved in the recovery process. Rule 62 in recovery refers to the rule of “don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” Someone in recovery doesn’t always realize that they can relish their life again without the use of alcohol. When they discover that they can see what life can be like without alcohol, they begin to understand that they still can live a happy, comfortable life. When they look around, they see other people enjoying themselves without drugs or alcohol, but they still can’t quite wrap their head around the idea that they can appreciate it too.

The main take away from Rule 62 to is to see your life as lighthearted, fun and enjoyable. It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself and to not take for granted the little things. It can be difficult to understand at first, but people eventually get there.

What is AA?

Alcoholics Anonymous or known as “AA” is an international group of men and women who suffer from a drinking problem. It is very well known and has been around since 1935 by Bill W. and Dr. Bob in Akron, Ohio. The group of individuals is non-political, nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial and is available almost anywhere as a support system to help people get through the recovery process.

What does AA do?

• Participants in AA share their story and personal experience and help support others with their drinking problem
• Helps a person learn how to live a happy life without alcohol
• They give person-to-person “sponsorship” to the alcoholic coming to AA
• Offers open discussion meetings, open speaker meetings, closed discussion groups and/or step meetings

What does AA NOT do?

• Solicit members
• Follow up with members to see how they’re doing
• Engage in education about alcohol
• Provide detox or other medical services
• Engage in sponsor research
• Force someone to stop drinking
• Offer religious services
• Provide letters of reference
• Provide housing, food, clothing, jobs or any other welfare services

Who Created Rule 62?

A group of people called the Hinderlands tried to convince a town of local people to fund a program that would help those in treatment/recovery/AA. The goal was to have a specific space where people could go to get the medical care, residential recovery and AA support group meetings during the recovery process.

When the group got together, they decided that there needed to be rules and regulations to go along with their AA recovery process, and they were looking for feedback from others to determine the best ideas. During this process they had to send all their 61 rules to the NY office of AA because naturally, not everyone could agree on everything. The people who volunteered at NY didn’t have any idea how to run a facility like this or what to say about the rules that they had come up with. While discussing this, the last rule of “don’t take your life too damn seriously” arose which was because they felt that there was no reason to have ego-driven opinions that may break the group apart.

Alcohol Dependence

Symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder

The warning signs and symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder will vary from person to person. You may have alcohol use disorder if you experience these symptoms:

• Trying to cut back on your drinking habits but are unable to
• Spend a lot of time drinking, being sick or hungover
• Thinking about alcohol constantly that it effects your daily life
• Drinking more or for longer periods of time than intended
• Continuous drinking despite the negative consequences associated with it
• Needing to drink more and more to achieve the same effects
• Quitting other activities that were important to you in order to drink
• Withdrawal symptoms such as seizures, sweating, nausea, racing heart, restlessness, shakiness, trouble sleeping, or seeing, hearing or feelings that aren’t there
• Having problems with school, work, friends or family

It’s important to get help as soon as possible if you have any of the symptoms listed above. There is help at Experience Recovery.

Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

Located in Southern California, Experience Recovery is dedicated to the treatment of addiction. We are a privately held company with a staff of over 150 years of combined experience. Our continuum of care begins with an assessment for the level of care a potential client needs. Experience Recovery offers medically-assisted detoxification, residential, day treatment, intensive outpatient, outpatient, aftercare, transitional living, family programming and alumni. Experience Recovery is proud to be a trauma informed treatment facility with the designation from Seeking Safety. In addition, our outcomes are real, and used in our clinical decision making for each client. We are FIT outcome trained and are also a FIT outcomes training facility. Plainly, this means that we incorporate the feedback of each client into their episode of treatment. This allows us to monitor and predict if our clients our trending towards a positive or negative outcome. We incorporate the use of Feedback Informed Treatment at all levels of care.

Experience Recovery provides a full spectrum of care to those who struggle with addiction. Our approach is backed by science, informed by proven data, and personalized to meet the needs of each client. All treatments are administered by multi-disciplined professionals with compassion and experience.