Awesome! I love going to hockey games. I think you will be fine with the crowd. Since this is your first game, there will be a lot for you to watch on the ice. If you blink you might miss something. Watch the way they push on the skates to gain speed. Watch the different shoots on net by different players and the skill of the goalie to stop those shoots. If you focus on the game, you will not even notice the crowd. After the game, stay in your seat until most of the people leave so you do not get overwhelmed. Being a Canuck, hockey is our thing! Got you are going to see a game...enjoy and let us know how it goes. I am excited for you..great progress

I echo CC on the hockey---it's amazing to watch the game, they're constantly moving, in motion, etc.---and btw, you can either leave realllly early, or take a nap till the rest of the people are gone, I agree!

Try to find the puck at all times with your eyes. You get so lost it's like being hypnotized (for me, it was).

I'd love to have the guts to go out with someone, let alone by myself. You're a hero, Muji!!!!

Oh, and if you're worried about crowd noise? Wear cheap earplugs. You'll still hear plenty, but it dims the crowd noise a bit. I dd that back in the day.

Woot for you!

I go out alone a lot.

Rizen, thanks for chiming in about that in solidarity. Now I do, too.

CC, I DID love the hockey game. Wow. I grew up on soccer in South America and am still a fan. But hockey is so much faster--supersonic.

Another thing: they were so nice to me there. The usher who told me where my seat was realized it was my first hockey game. So she had a "first hockey game" certificate printed off in the office for me with my name on it in honor of the occasion. It's in a place of honor on my fridge.

The people in the seats around me were nice, too. They took my picture for me with my camera for keepsakes. And guess what? My team had gone on a 5 game losing streak. But last night they scored to win in sudden death over time with 14 seconds left to play. It was so exciting! Walking out of the arena to the subway with all of those happy fans was a warm experience, even if they were all strangers and I was on my own.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm gonna do that again. I had so much fun I almost felt guilty afterwards this morning. Interesting to catch myself doing that. Anybody ever feel that way in PTSD recovery? I've heard tell of it by others.


I also realized I've always liked living on the "wrong side of the tracks," so to speak, and then going in to the big city to splurge. Interesting stuff to learn about myself. Guess I feel save having one foot in each of the 2 worlds. On the one hand, there's the poorer one I grew up in as a kid and then there's the middle class world I attained entry into as an adult.

Don't know that I would have realized that if I had been with someone else. Often I get distracted from insights about myself when I'm with other people socializing. Guess there's a real by product benefit to going it alone, at least for me anyway. A sort of windfall of insight.

It's fun to tell about the good time I had, though. Glad to tell it here.

I always have preferred flying solo. I have a hard time going out with others. When I go alone, my options are far more open. When I go out with somebody else, everything starts to feel like a committee decision and committees are proof that none of us are as dumb as all of us.

Glad you had a good time at the game.

While I don't prefer going alone, that is for physical reasons not my PTSD. I don't go alone because I can't drive and I am a 'fall hazard' and if I fall badly, I could be dead before someone noticed.

But when I am alone, I am more capable. I can do things that I could not imagine doing with someone. When I am alone, I am stronger as long as I don't scare myself of being alone. if that makes sense.