What Is Rule 62 in AA?

If you have spent any time in AA, you have probably heard someone say "Rule 62" and then watched the room chuckle. If you have not heard of it, here it is: Don't take yourself too damn seriously.

That is it. That is the whole rule. And honestly, it might be the most useful thing I have learned in over thirteen years of sobriety.

Where Rule 62 Comes From

The story goes back to the early days of AA. A group in the Midwest decided to start a recovery club and created an exhaustive list of rules and bylaws for how it would operate. There were 61 rules covering everything from membership requirements to meeting conduct. The whole thing was incredibly rigid and, predictably, the club imploded.

When the dust settled, someone involved wrote to the AA General Service Office and said the group had learned something important. They enclosed a single card with a new list of rules. On the card was one line: "Rule 62: Don't take yourself too damn seriously."

It stuck. Decades later, it is still one of the most quoted ideas in recovery, even though it never made it into official AA literature as a formal step or tradition.

Why Humor Matters in Recovery

Here is the thing about getting sober: it is hard, serious work. You are confronting the worst parts of yourself, making amends to people you have hurt, and rebuilding a life from what sometimes feels like nothing. If you cannot find a way to laugh at yourself along the way, the weight of it will crush you.

I have seen people come into the rooms wound so tight that everything is a crisis. Every small setback is proof that the world is against them. Every meeting is a performance of how seriously they are taking their recovery. And look, I get it. Early sobriety is terrifying. But at some point, you have to exhale. You have to let yourself be a flawed, ridiculous human being who is just doing the best they can.

The best meetings I have ever been in are the ones where people are laughing through tears. Where someone tells a story about their worst moment and somehow makes the room crack up. That is not minimizing the pain. That is surviving it. Humor is a survival mechanism, and Rule 62 gives you permission to use it.

Rule 62 and the SoberAF Attitude

This is honestly why I started SoberAF Stickers. The recovery community has enough somber, serious, inspirational-quote stuff. And that has its place. But there is also room for being bold, irreverent, and a little bit loud about the fact that you are sober and proud of it.

Being "SoberAF" is Rule 62 in action. It is refusing to treat your recovery like something fragile and delicate that needs to be whispered about. It is putting a sticker on your water bottle that makes people laugh or ask questions. It is showing up as the full, unapologetic version of yourself.

We actually have a Rule 62 sticker because of course we do. It is one of our most popular designs, and every time someone orders one, I smile because I know they get it. They understand that recovery does not have to be all white-knuckle seriousness all the time.

How to Practice Rule 62

It is not about being careless or flippant about your sobriety. It is about perspective. When you catch yourself spiraling over something small, pause and ask: is this actually a crisis, or am I making it one? When you mess up, and you will, can you acknowledge it without turning it into a catastrophe?

Some days, Rule 62 looks like laughing at the absurdity of who you used to be. Some days, it looks like forgiving yourself for not being perfect today. And some days, it looks like slapping a bold sticker on your thermos and walking into the office like the sober legend you are.

Recovery is the most important thing I will ever do. I take the work seriously. I just try not to take myself too seriously while doing it.