The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
16Diagnosing social anxiety disorder is a complicated task. The information outlined 
in this section gives you an idea of how mental health professionals distinguish different 
types of problems from social anxiety disorder. However, this overview will probably not 
be enough for the purpose of self-diagnosis. If you want to be sure about whether your 
symptoms meet the diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder, we recommend that 
you see a psychiatrist or psychologist who has experience and expertise in the assess -
ment of anxiety disorders.
Unfortunately, even professionals sometimes have difﬁculty agreeing about whether 
the diagnostic criteria for a particular disorder are met. For many people, the criteria 
outlined in the DSM-IV-TR don’t ﬁt as neatly as we might like, which makes diagnosis 
especially challenging. Fortunately, the exact diagnosis isn’t always necessary for select -
ing an effective treatment. The strategies described in this book will be useful for over -
coming shyness and performance anxiety regardless of whether the full criteria for social 
anxiety disorder are met.
One ﬁnal note about the diagnosis of social anxiety disorder: if all of the criteria for 
social anxiety disorder are met and the person is fearful of almost all social situations, the 
person is said to have generalized social anxiety disorder.
THREE COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL ANXIETY
In an effort to deﬁne shyness, Cheek and Watson (1989) surveyed 180 shy individu -
als about the types of experiences that are associated with shyness and social anxiety. 
Eighty-four percent of the participants’ responses to the survey fell into one of three 
categories: the physical aspects of social anxiety (uncomfortable feelings and sensations), 
the cognitive aspects of social anxiety (anxious thoughts, expectations, predictions), and