An exit plan and your own ride home
Decide before you arrive exactly when and how you'll get home, and keep control of your own departure (drive yourself, even separately from a partner). The certainty alone tames anxiety so you can actually be present — and the 'Irish goodbye' plus a follow-up text short-circuits the rejection spiral.
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A lot of event anxiety is really an ‘am I trapped here’ loop running in the background. Removing that uncertainty frees the mind to be present. Make a logistical exit plan before you arrive: know when and how you’ll get home. Keeping control of your own departure matters even more than the timing — drive yourself even if someone else could drive you (a separate car from a partner is fine), so you can leave the moment you need to without waiting on anyone or feeling guilty for cutting their fun short.
The exit itself can be made cheap. The ‘Irish goodbye’ — leaving without doing the rounds — skips a high-cost ritual; if you know the host, send a quick text afterward (‘did the Irish goodbye, great seeing you’). That follow-up pre-empts the rejection-sensitivity rumination (‘did my sudden departure offend anyone?’) that would otherwise run all the way home.
