What Keeps Social Anxiety Going?
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Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
Do you ever feel anxious when you’re around other people, or if you might have to be the center of attention? Do you worry that other people will notice something about you – or about the way you behave – and judge you for it? Social anxiety is the name for feeling these kinds of fears in social situations. Symptoms of social anxiety disorder include:
- Feeling self-conscious and anxious in social situations where you might be exposed to scrutiny by other people.
- Fear that you will behave in a way that will be judged negatively by other people.
- Avoiding social situations, or enduring them with great difficulty.
- Worrying about what other people think of you.
Research studies have shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety (Mayo-Wilson et al, 2014). CBT therapists work a bit like firefighters: while the fire
Therapist Guidance
“One interesting way of thinking about social anxiety is to look at why, for some people, it does not get better by itself. This handout shows some of the most common reasons why some people’s social anxiety persists. I wonder if we could look at it together and think about whether it describes some of what is happening for you?”
References And Further Reading
- Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guildford Press.
- Mayo-Wilson, E., Dias, S., Mavranezouli, I., Kew, K., Clark, D. M., Ades, A. E., & Pilling, S. (2014). Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(5), 368-376.
- Warnock-Parkes, E., Wild, J., Thew, G. R., Kerr, A., Grey, N., Stott, R., ... & Clark, D. M. (2020). Treating social anxiety disorder remotely with cognitive therapy. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13.