My mom had bought three tickets for a concert that was supposed to occur in 2020, but with COVID the concert was rescheduled and is now occurring this month. She is planning to be out of town the day the concert was rescheduled for so she decided to let me have the tickets and bring some friends. Concerts generally make me anxious because I have social anxiety, but I decided I would try anyway since they are free tickets. So, I invited my best friend and my sister to go with me and figured it would be fine since they both know how bad my anxiety is and I could take breaks and/or leave early if needed. This is my first big event since the lockdown, so I am extremely anxious about it regardless. 

But, I got a phone call from my mom a few days ago saying that my sister had decided to go out of town with her. I told her this was fine and that I would find someone else to invite since I already had someone in mind. But, she instead asked me if I would let her coworker come with us to the concert. I said I thought it would be kind of awkward since I barely know her. I did not realize that my mom was with said coworker and immediately reiterated to her that I said it would be awkward to go with her. This already embarrassed me, but I felt obligated to invite her regardless since my mom had paid for the tickets and already told her about it. This is making me feel really anxious because now I have to figure out how to manage my anxiety related to talking to people I do not know on top of the anxiety from the concert in general. All this really started to get to me and my anxiety has been through the roof. I talked with my friend who also has anxiety and we both decided we would rather not go to the concert. So, I texted my mom to ask if her coworker would just want all the tickets which went like this:

Me: "Hey me and (friend) are both not really sure about going to the concert because of all the people. Do you think (coworker) has people she would be able to take?"

Mom: "Do you really want me to ask? She's gonna know you don't want to go with her."

Me: "Well I was just wondering if you knew off the top of your head"

Mom: "No I don't. Please go with her. You will have fun. This is a good situation to overcome your stranger anxiety" (goes on to explain how me and her coworker have a lot in common) 

Me: "According to psychology experts, exposure therapy does not work"

Mom: "It works for me. I'm super anxious about seeing strangers but I always end up having fun"

Me: "Being nervous is different than having anxiety"

Mom: "It's the same thing" (goes on to say I should just go with her coworker)

I still don't know what to do about the situation and it is freaking me out.