The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
236relationship problems, ﬁnancial difﬁculties, health problems, family tensions, death of a 
close friend, and the like), you may ﬁnd that your anxiety in social situations gets worse. 
Sometimes, this worsening of anxiety occurs while the stress is ongoing; other times it 
may occur shortly after the stress has ended.
The relationship between stress and increased social anxiety is not surprising. Most 
people respond to stress in characteristic ways. Some tend to respond physically by 
experiencing more colds, headaches, increased blood pressure, and other physical ail -
ments. Others may fall into bad habits, such as smoking more, increasing alcohol or caf -
feine consumption, eating unhealthy foods, or exercising less. Still others may respond 
emotionally by becoming more anxious, depressed, or irritable. If your natural pattern 
has been to experience anxiety in social situations, stress may cause some of your old 
responses to resurface.
Stress tends to increase a person’s arousal level, so breathing becomes heavier, heart 
rate increases, and other symptoms of arousal become more intense. When you’re under 
stress, it doesn’t take much change in your anxiety level for the feeling to become more 
noticeable than usual. Situations that are normally okay may seem overwhelming when 
you are experiencing other stresses in your life.
Most of the time, the increase in social anxiety following stress is temporary; when 
the stress level improves, the anxiety decreases again. However, if you respond to your 
increased anxiety by falling back into your old habits of anxious thinking and avoidance 
behaviors, you may ﬁnd that the increased social anxiety continues even after the stress 
has passed. If your anxiety returns following a stressful life event, the best thing to do is