Getting to Know Your Social Anxiety
61Can you think of a behavioral approach test or role-play that you can set up for 
yourself? For example, if you are fearful of speaking up in a meeting, try doing it anyway. 
Immediately after the meeting, record your physical symptoms, anxious thoughts, and 
the avoidance behaviors that took place while you were conducting the practice. Did it 
go better than you expected it to go? Was it worse? Was it about what you expected?
TROUBLESHOOTING
You may ﬁnd that your self-assessment does not go as smoothly as you might like. Here 
are some common problems that may arise during your self-assessment, as well as some 
solutions, suggestions, and words of reassurance.
Problem:  I didn’t know the answers to all the questions.
Solution:   That’s to be expected. As you progress with the treatment, you will have 
an opportunity to become better acquainted with your social anxiety. 
Self-assessment is an ongoing process, and it’s not necessary to have all 
the answers before you start to work on changing your social anxiety. In 
fact, there may be some questions that you will never know the answers 
to, and that’s okay. The purpose of this chapter is just to help you better 
understand the areas that are causing you the most difﬁculty.
Problem:  Answering these questions increased my anxiety.
Solution:   This is quite common. Conducting a self-assessment forces you to pay 
attention to the thoughts that contribute to your anxiety. This effect of 
increased anxiety tends to be temporary. As you progress through the 
treatment procedures discussed throughout this book, it is likely you 
will ﬁnd that focusing on the thoughts and feelings associated with your