The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
192symptom exposure and situational exposure, you will learn that you can not only toler -
ate being in feared situations with your usual levels of physical arousal, but that you can 
tolerate the situation even when your feared physical sensations are particularly intense. 
By bringing on these sensations in a controlled and predicable way, you will learn to be 
less anxious about experiencing them in social situations.
Although there hasn’t been much research on the use of symptom exposure in social 
anxiety, we have found that this technique is often helpful for those who suffer from 
excessive social and performance fears (Antony and Swinson 2000; Antony and Rowa 
2008). The techniques described in this chapter are not meant to be used instead of 
the strategies described in earlier chapters. In fact, to overcome your social anxiety, the 
most important strategies are the cognitive techniques described in chapter 6 and the 
situational exposure strategies described in chapters 7 and 8. You should not attempt to 
use symptom exposure until you have practiced the strategies described in chapters 6 
through 8 and are thoroughly familiar with them.
Furthermore, before attempting the symptom exposure techniques, you should 
be very familiar with the basic rules of exposure. As reviewed in chapter 7, exposure 
works best if it is practiced frequently, if each practice lasts long enough to show that 
your feared consequences don’t come true, and if practices are predictable and under 
your control. In addition, the cognitive strategies described in chapter 6 should be used 
to combat anxious thinking before, during, and after your exposure practices. Finally, 
during your exposure practices, you should not use subtle avoidance techniques such as 
distraction, drug or alcohol use, or other safety behaviors (for example, wearing makeup