Even If Your Ass Falls Off, Don’t Drink—Take It to a Meeting

One of the best lines I heard in early AA was, “Even if your ass falls off, don’t drink. Pick it up and take it to a meeting.”  At first, I thought it was funny. But there were days in early sobriety when things were raw and painful, and all I felt like doing was sulking. I was experiencing new emotions and new situations that I had never learned how to deal with without alcohol. Fear, anger, loneliness, uncertainty, and frustration could arrive without warning. Sometimes they felt like emergencies, and I wanted immediate relief.

Those moments could become so heavy that they tempted me toward the only safe haven I had ever known—a drink. That is where the old saying became more than just a funny line. “Even if your ass falls off, don’t drink. Pick it up and take it to a meeting.” To me, it was like a fire extinguisher encased in glass.

In case of emergency, break glass!

The message was simple: Don’t drink. Get to a meeting. Tell somebody what you’re going through. It was a lifesaver.

Thank God, I didn’t want to drink. But not wanting to drink didn’t mean I automatically knew how to deal with the pain. That was one of the lessons I had to learn in early sobriety. Alcohol had always been my solution—or at least what I thought was my solution. Without it, I had to learn new ways of handling life.
That is where AA became so important to me. Sometimes the answer wasn’t complicated. I didn’t need to understand everything that was happening inside me. I didn’t need to solve tomorrow’s problems. I needed to get through today. Sometimes that meant getting myself to a meeting, sitting down, listening to someone share, and remembering that I wasn’t alone.

There were days when making it to the next 24 hours was the victory. I learned that anything that helps me make it across that 24-hour finish line is a winner and, in my opinion, a valuable tool. A slogan, a meeting, a sponsor, a phone call, a conversation with another alcoholic—whatever works without picking up a drink is worth using.

I am forever grateful for the slogans, the tools, the meetings, and the people in AA who helped me make it through another 24 hours. Sometimes sobriety isn’t about having all the answers.

Sometimes it’s simply about picking yourself up, getting yourself to a meeting, and not taking the first drink.