History of Rule 62

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous or better known as “AA” is a group of men and women that come together to work through their drinking problem. It has been around for over 80 years and is open to anyone who would like to get sober. It is a multiracial, non-political, self-supporting, non-professional group and is available almost anywhere.

Qualities of AA

• People who participate in AA meetings will share their experiences and their story to help support others going through the same thing
• Helps a person learn that it’s possible to live a happy life without using alcohol
• They offer a “sponsorship” program for a person coming to AA
• Offers open discussion meetings, open speaker meetings, closed discussion groups and/or step meetings

Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, more well known as The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was created to help people recover from alcohol use disorder. It was written by Bill W. who was one of the original creators of AA.

The Big Book is one of the best-selling books of all time, selling a total of 30 million copies. In 2011 Time Magazine rated the book in the top 100 books of all time. It was published in 1939 from the AA founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob. There have been many additions and it has been translated into multiple different languages and is used widely across the world.

Rule 62

In The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymousthere are many steps involved in recovery discussed to help a person move through the process. Rule 62 in recovery refers to the rule of “don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” Someone in recovery doesn’t always comprehend that there is a better life for them without alcohol. They may look around and see others who are sober, enjoying life, and happy and it occurs to them that they can feel the same way.

The takeaway that you can get from Rule 62 to is to enjoy life, be lighthearted and remember the little things. It can be difficult to understand at first, but people eventually get there.

History of Rule 62

When AA was started a group of Hinderlands worked together to try and convince people in the local town that they lived in to fund a program for recovery/treatment/AA. The idea behind it all was to have a safe space where people could come to recovery from their alcohol problem, receive medical help and attend AA support group meetings.

Due to the nature of the group and the recovery process, the group decided there needed to be rules and guidelines that should be followed for those who attended AA. They wanted input from everyone but, naturally not everyone could agree on everything. Because of this, they were forced to send their 61 rules to the NY offices of AA in hopes of resolving the disagreements. 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

Many people use alcohol as a way of winding down or releasing the stress of the day with a beer or glass of wine. It’s important to understand how much is too much. Drinking in moderation is classified as having more than one drink a day as a woman and not drinking more than two drinks a day as a man. One drink equals:

• 5 oz of wine
• 1.5 oz of liquor (whisky, tequila or rum)
• 12 oz of beer

When looking at your drinking habits it’s important to look at how much you drink over an average week rather than in one day or one situation. Risky drinking could be a sign of alcohol use disorder.

Symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder

Some symptoms or warning signs associated with alcohol use disorder include:

• Unable to cut back on your drinking habits
• A lot of time is spent drinking, being sick or hungover
• Constantly thinking about alcohol to the point it effects your life
• Drinking more or for longer periods of time than intended
• Continuous drinking despite the negative consequences
• Needing to drink more and more to achieve the same effects
• Stopping 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.

Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder

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.