The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
40In the same way, a detailed self-assessment will help you to understand and address 
your difﬁculties with social anxiety. We strongly recommend that, before you begin 
working on changing your own social anxiety, you carry out a careful self-assessment. 
This assessment process will have the following four main beneﬁts. It will:
1. Allow you to measure the severity of your social anxiety
2. Help you to identify key problem areas
3. Make it easier to choose the most appropriate treatment strategies
4. Provide you with an opportunity to measure your improvement as you use 
the strategies described in this book
Now we will discuss each of these issues in greater detail.
MEASURING THE SEVERITY OF YOUR  
SOCIAL ANXIETY
The term “severity” takes into account such variables as (1) the intensity of your fear in 
social and performance situations, (2) the range of different situations that precipitate 
your social anxiety, (3) the frequency with which you experience intense social anxiety, 
(4) the effect of your social anxiety on your day-to-day life, career, and relationships, 
and (5) the extent to which being socially anxious bothers you. Generally, as the sever -
ity of social anxiety increases, typically, so does the intensity of the fear, the number of 
situations that are affected, the frequency with which anxiety is experienced, the level of 
interference with day-to-day functioning, and the extent to which a person is bothered 
by having the fear.
IDENTIFYING WHICH PROBLEMS TO WORK ON
If you’re like many people, you probably experience anxiety in a number of different 
social situations. A comprehensive self-assessment will help you to decide which fears