As I've said before, one of my strong triggers is the smell of alcohol. Two days ago, I was invited to the birthday party of one of my closest friends and of course at our age, there's lots and lots of alcohol involved at these kinds of things, but since he's a good friend I went anyway.

I've gone to parties before and usually there's about a 50% chance of things going well for me (well being only minor flashbacks without losing touch with reality) and so far I've always had one of my closest friends staying mostly sober to watch out for me. This time I didn't.

Surprisingly, it went far better than expected. No flashbacks at all and I barely had to resort to my grounding methods. It might have something to do with the fact that, since I was the only one completely sober, I had to keep an eye on everyone, stop brawls and arguments, take away car keyes, etc. (srsly, it's like herding cats). I tend to function much better if I have something to do, especially without a safety net.

I expected to have nightmares afterwards to compensate for the lack of flashbacks and panic attacks, but not even that. Unless I just jinxed myself... Suppose that's progress?

I did get sick though. The thing was outdoors and it's still waaay too cold for that. I really hate the flu...