The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
80to treat their beliefs as guesses about the way things may be, rather than as facts. They 
are taught to examine the evidence supporting their anxious beliefs and to consider the 
possibility that an alternative belief is true.
For example, if Henry is very hurt and angry because a friend didn’t return his call, 
these negative feelings might stem from Henry’s belief that the friend doesn’t care about 
him. In cognitive therapy, Henry would be taught to consider alternative explanations 
for the friend’s behavior, including the possibility that the friend never received the 
message, forgot to return the call, or is out of town. After all, there are many possible 
reasons why a caring friend might not have returned Henry’s call quickly.
At the beginning of treatment, diaries are used to record anxious thoughts and to 
counter them with more realistic predictions and interpretations. As people become 
more comfortable with the methods of challenging their unrealistic negative beliefs, their 
new ways of thinking become more automatic and the diaries are no longer needed. 
People learn to manage their anxious thoughts before they get out of control. Cognitive 
therapy techniques are described in detail in chapter 6.
EXPOSURE
Exposure involves gradually and repeatedly confronting feared situations until they 
no longer trigger fear. In most cases, exposure is viewed as a necessary component of 
CBT. In fact, exposure may be even more powerful than cognitive therapy as a way of 
changing anxious negative thinking. By exposing yourself to situations you fear, you 
will learn that the risk in these situations is minimal. Through direct experience, many 
of your anxious predictions and beliefs will be proven incorrect. You will also learn 
to better tolerate situations in which some of your beliefs actually may be true (for