cattleprodlynn

Like the "good old days"! /s

I was suspicious about the fact that OP says they were a journalist but didn't research how to post proof in a way that's used in a majority of AMAs.

That's baller. Kudos to you & your ability to negotiate good healthcare coverage for your family!

I got to walk through Disneyland at 5 am once. It's really eerie and cool at the same time.

As one who was in a DBT-like skills therapy group, I'd say that in this case, you'd think on the things that you can OBServe, things like:

The music is loud.
The lights are dim.

Then you can further observe that maybe if you stood in a certain corner and angled your body in a certain way, the music wouldn't be so loud and you might be able to see better. (At which point, your eyes would start to adjust to the dim lighting, too, thus restoring your night vision.) And then your feelings about the party might change into, "This party isn't so bad after all."

It's all part of the Thoughts <--> Feelings <--> Behavior triangle, in which your thoughts can influence your feelings and behavior and likewise all the way around the triangle. If you can adjust your thought from being a judgmental one into a non-judgmental one, it will affect how you feel about that thought and what you do about it.