DarrenW

Ask questions and listen. Ask about peoples kids, where the live, question question question. Its keeps people talking and isnt difficult.

flamingredhair

Sounds like you've gotten all the advice you need Vigo, so I'll just wish you luck!

Threshold

Hope it goes well. I'll just offer my experience of late. three work parties, dreaded the heck out of the first one, got myself SO worked up beforehand, it was nutso...went, it was no big deal. Second one, I felt anxious, started thinking of excuses, then said "ah, just go and see what happens" had a nice time. Last one was yesterday, I was tired, wiped out...went anyway and had simple fun, just laid back.

As others have said, most of the time no one is keeping score of who came and who didn't. I'd had some coworkers who missed the parties and were sure they would be having to make excuses for days over it...no one really cared that much.

So, you're ten months sober, not the ball of goo you probably were when using or in very early sobriety. Things will probably go better than you anticipate. And, as I have learned, it's only a few hours of your life. I'll bet you've sat through lousy movies, waited n ridiculous lines, etc etc...it's only a couple hours. Good or bad, really doesn't amount to much.

Vigo

WELL, I just got back from the party, and of course, it wasn’t nearly as painful as I expected it to be. It was even almost a little fun. The hardest part by far was the anxiety, but even then, once I made the decision that I was going to go, a lot of the anxiety went away.

Needless to say, it would have been much more painful to make up an excuse, and then spend the rest of the day worrying about the consequences of not going (if are there are any, at all).

I’m definitely happy I went…definitely something I wouldn’t have done if I was still a user!

Thanks again for all the responses!

choublak

I was going to suggest watching some episodes of The Office (the US version) for laughs, but I see you already went to the party.