To consider having a night out while off sick?

[DoughnutsAreForever]

Have name-changed for this as anyone inclined to AS could find potentially identifying information but I am a long standing poster - Paul the spray-painted pigeon, wedding in Maui etc.

I work FT but am currently signed off with stress and exhaustion. Last year I bought tickets for DH and I to see a stand up comedian. That gig takes place one night next week. Part of me thinks a couple of hours laughing at jokes would do me the power of good, OTOH I still have a bit of a "if you're not well enough for school you can't play out" mentality and I suppose I'm a bit nervous about being spotted by a colleague and having it spread around the office that I can't be that bad etc.

It wouldn't be a full on night out with food and drink (I can't drink anyway thanks to the meds I'm on), it would literally be going to the theatre and straight home afterwards. Apart from anything else I'm physically not up to doing more than that at the minute.

AIBU to consider it? I'm genuinely torn.

(I'm about to get ready and head out to a counselling appointment so I will be disappearing for a couple of hours but will catch up with any replies afterwards. TIA)

I would go. You're not off with a bad back and considering going to a disco for a knees up.

A laugh will do you good and it's evening time anyway when you wouldn't be at work ( I assume?)

I saw a colleague at a supermarket in a Saturday preparing for a dinner party when she'd gone home sick the day prior. I didn't think a lot of it as I assumed it was plans she couldn't cancel and she did look like sh*t!

That's the thing about MH: you can feel like sht without looking like sht.

By the time you've got to the stage that you look like sh*t things have gone much too far. So go out and enjoy.

Go. You are signed off with stress, not some contagious illness or something that would mean you can't leave your sick bed. Stress is sometimes best treated with company and laughter, not isolation at home.

I wouldn't think anything of it.

2 years ago I was signed off following an operation that left me unable to sit, I could either lie or stand, meaning I couldn't do my office job until recovered. I went to a gig that had been planned for about a year, knowing I wouldn't be sitting and therefore it had no bearing on whether or not I was recovered enough to do my job.

Go and have a good night!