Social Anxiety

Mental health
1

Hi everyone. Need a little advice.

So last Friday I went to my work Christmas party and got black out drunk. I suffer from social anxiety and often this is how I (badly) cope with these kind of situations. I don’t remember anything past a few hours in and am terrified by what could have happened. I tried to text my boss on the Sunday after apologising if I did anything bad but did not receive a response.

Being close to having a panic attack on the Monday morning - I made the decision to call in sick for three days (understandably not my smartest decision). It is now the day before going back in again and I am terrified.

My head is creating horrible scenarios where I will be fired, ridiculed and treated unkindly.

I know I can’t call in sick anymore and this has made the issue worse by making me even more anxious to go back.

Any advice to help me calm down and face the music would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you x

2

In my experience with similar situations I’ve found it’s scarier to not know than to face the music. Its usually never as bad as we make it out to be in our heads. 

It could be as simple as your boss just hasn’t had time to respond. If you would’ve done something so awful, Im sure you would’ve gotten a response back and your boss would’ve told you then.

Calm down! Everything will be okay and Good luck! 

3

I've done this exact same thing before. I too struggle with social anxiety and used to be physically sick before going out to work parties so would get super drunk.

I always remember one works party, turning up and it got to about 10.30pm and that's all I remember. The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed at home about 11.30am. To this day I have no idea what happened and it's never happened that badly again, but when I got in to work everyone just found it quite funny and said I just got up and left. No-one held anything against me. As Sydney says, it's very easy to over think these things and nearly every time it's never as bad as you think.

Just walk in, be confident and don't over think it, it might not even get mentioned!

4

Thank you so much for your kind words - I feel much better after reading them probably my usual drastic overthinking!

5

Thank you so much for responding - you have no idea how comforting it is to hear that somebody has been through the same thing!

I’m feeling a lot better about it than I was earlier in the day - hopefully, as you say, nobody will even mention it.

Thank you again x

6

You should see the state of some people at Christmas work parties and they all survive the Monday morning return! It’s like everything... may be a story for a day or two but people move on with the times! Just don’t let it get u down or feel embarrassed. Everyone makes a show of themselves. Hold your head high, maybe roll your eyes and laugh, and people will respect you for it!