Your Party Checklist: Here’s what a therapist says you should do (and avoid) if you’re going to a Christmas party without a plus one.
Going to events alone can be both a blessing and a curse. To paraphrase Dickens, “It can be the best of times, it can be the worst of times.” I once attended a dinner with 100 other guests with the ironic ambition of combating loneliness (ironic because when I arrived, I’d never felt lonelier), which inspired me so much that I went on to interview my tablemate—the riotously funny Laura Smyth—about how she overcomes pre-event anxiety. I’ve also gone to events where I’ve crumbled into a husk of my former self upon entry.
