Making a Plan for Change
77UÊAn individual expects the treatment to be ineffective. As with psychother -
apy, there is evidence that a person’s response to medication is affected by 
his or her expectations.
UÊThe side effects are too unpleasant to tolerate.
UÊThe person is using drugs, drinking alcohol, or taking other medications 
that inﬂuence the effects of the medication for social anxiety.
UÊThe person doesn’t comply with the treatment (for example, misses pills).
If you have tried to overcome your social anxiety in the past, but found treatment 
to be ineffective or only partially effective, do you have any guesses about why it may 
not have worked as well as you had hoped it would? Based on your previous experiences 
with therapy or medication, are there strategies that you want to try again?
 1.  
 2.  
 3.  
Are there strategies that you deﬁnitely don’t think you should try again?
 1.  
 2.  
 3.  
PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING 
SOCIAL ANXIETY
There are hundreds of different approaches that people have used to overcome emo -
tional difﬁculties, behavior problems, and bad habits. Some of these approaches include 
psychotherapy, medications, prayer, relaxation training, yoga, hypnosis, distraction, 
drinking alcohol or using drugs, exercise, changing diet, reward and punishment, herbal 
remedies, traditional remedies, acupuncture, education and reading about the problem, 
past-life regression, and so forth. Furthermore, each of these methods can be subdivided 
into even more categories. For example, there are many different types of psychotherapy