Changing Your Anxious Thoughts and Expectations
119STRATEGIES FOR CHANGING ANXIOUS THINKING
This section provides an overview of seven different techniques for changing the beliefs 
and predictions that contribute to your social anxiety. These include (1) examining the 
evidence for your beliefs, (2) challenging catastrophic thinking, (3) remembering your 
strengths, (4) seeing yourself as others do, (5) examining the costs and beneﬁts of your 
thoughts, (6) creating rational coping statements, and (7) conducting behavioral experi -
ments. Along with a description of each strategy, we include exercises to provide oppor -
tunities to try each technique. Near the end of the chapter, we offer some suggestions 
for tying together all the pieces and for integrating the cognitive therapy techniques into 
your larger treatment plan.
Examining the Evidence
The fact that you are anxious about being judged by others in a particular situation 
doesn’t mean that your fearful predictions and thoughts are true. In fact, what we assume 
others are thinking is often completely different than what other people actually think 
of us. How many times have you heard someone say, “My hair looks awful” or “I am 
such a loser” and thought to yourself that the individual was just ﬁne? If you are consis -
tently assuming you’re inferior in the eyes of others, you are probably exaggerating or 
 misinterpreting other people’s reactions to your appearance, behavior, or performance.
The ﬁrst step toward changing your thoughts is to recognize that your beliefs are 
not facts. Rather than assuming that your beliefs are true, it is important to treat your 
anxious thoughts as guesses or hypotheses. By examining the evidence, you will be able 
to assess the extent to which your beliefs are true. Remember, your natural tendency