Confronting Your Fears Through Exposure
145Avoidance of Social Situations
Avoiding social situations such as public speaking, making conversation, attending 
meetings, dating, and working out at the gym prevents you from learning that these 
situations are safe and that your fears are generally unwarranted. Escaping early from 
these situations (for instance, leaving a party after a few minutes) can also have a nega -
tive impact on your fear by reinforcing your experience that being in the situation makes 
you uncomfortable, and leaving the situation provides relief and a reduction in fear. In 
reality, staying in a situation despite the fear that it arouses also leads to a reduction in 
fear. Fear may take longer to decrease when you stay in the situation, but the long-term 
beneﬁts will be greater. By staying until your fear decreases, you will learn that you can 
be right in the middle of the situation and feel relatively comfortable. Strategies for 
overcoming avoidance of feared situations are discussed throughout this chapter, as well 
as in chapter 8.
Avoidance of Feared Sensations
As we discussed previously, in addition to avoiding certain situations, you may also 
avoid feeling certain sensations or feelings, particularly in social situations. Perhaps you 
avoid eating hot foods that cause you to feel ﬂushed when you’re dining with friends or 
relatives. Alternatively, you may avoid wearing warm clothes while speaking in public, in 
case they cause you to sweat. Avoiding sensations such as sweating and blushing reinforces 
your beliefs that these sensations and feelings are dangerous. If you are fearful of expe -
riencing particular symptoms in the presence of others, you will likely ﬁnd that exposing 
yourself to these feelings can help you to become more comfortable with them. The goal