The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
68COSTS AND BENEFITS OF OVERCOMING  
YOUR ANXIETY
For the majority of people, the beneﬁts of using the strategies described in this book 
will far outweigh the costs. If you didn’t believe that, you probably wouldn’t be reading 
this book. Still, you may have mixed feelings about changing, and therefore it may be 
helpful to think about your reasons for change, as well as your reasons for not changing. 
We will start with a discussion of the potential costs of change.
Costs of Overcoming Your Social Anxiety
In this section, we discuss the costs of changing. As you go through this section, 
notice that these potential costs are mostly short-term inconveniences that are only 
present while you are actively working on your anxiety. As your anxiety improves, these 
costs will fade as well. Also, instead of thinking about these as costs, it is helpful to think 
of them as challenges . After all, most of these costs are manageable, and there are often 
possible solutions available to minimize their impact.
Costs of medication treatments.  If you choose to use medications, you will have to 
remember to take them regularly, and newer medications may be expensive, particularly 
if they are not covered by your health plan. You may experience side effects. Depending 
on the medication, side effects may include fatigue, headaches, changes in weight and 
appetite, and changes in sexual functioning. Of course, as you will learn in chapter 5, 
many of the side effects associated with medications are worst in the ﬁrst few weeks, 
improve over time, and are generally quite manageable. Side effects can also be mini -
mized by adjusting doses, changing medications, or stopping medications altogether.