Social Anxiety Books - Your Favorite?

[Drew]

Feel free to vote and/or share your thoughts in a post as well!

Thanks for sharing your opinion!

[tiberius]

Gillian Butler's Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness

[Freedom2010]

"Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" by David Burns

[Dolly]

What You Must Think of Me: One Teenager's Experience with Social Anxiety Disorder, by Emily Ford

When I read this book, it was like everything in my life finally made sense for the first time.

[Spangles Muldoon]

An excellent book:

Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach, Client Workbook, by Debra Hope et al.

If you are working through the workbook on your own, without aid of a therapist, you might consider also buying the therapist guide:

Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach, Therapist Guide, by Debra Hope et al.

You can read the first two chapters of the client workbook here:

Chapters 1 and 2 of the workbook

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Spangles Muldoon

An excellent book:

Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach, Client Workbook, by Debra Hope et al.

If you are working through the workbook on your own, without aid of a therapist, you might consider also buying the therapist guide:

Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach, Therapist Guide, by Debra Hope et al.

You can read the first two chapters of the client workbook here:

Chapters 1 and 2 of the workbook

I agree. Dr. Heimburg's books have some great material in them and a lot of credit is owed to him for the research he has done over the past 20+ years.

[UltraShy]

I've never read any of them. I try to avoid books. I don't seem to have the attention span needed to make it through a book, though if I were to read a book one on SA would certainly interest me vastly more than a novel.

[Lifetimer]

I voted for the category of "Other".

All those other books listed just address and treat the symptoms of social anxiety. The true core and root cause of our social anxiety (for most of us at least) is caused by toxic shame. Don't be misled by the name; toxic shame is not the same as "regular" shame. Toixc shame is life crippling. It is the source of most psychological conditions.

There are 2 excellent books by an expert on the subject of toxic shame. The author's name is John Bradshaw. Those two books are:

1. "Healing The Shame That Binds You" and, 2. "Bradshaw On: The Family"

Both of those books are about toxic shame and how it destroys your soul. If I was forced to pick only one of those books to read, I would choose the second book ("Bradshaw On: The Family"). However, I recommend reading them both.

Also, there are threads at this forum that talk about toxic shame. Here is a good thread: http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/...anxiety-62843/


Lifetimer

[Cured]

I chose The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook because it deals with very many ways of dealing with anxiety. However I am a bit biased because it is the only one of the listed that I have read.

Personally, I don't think books work. It takes years to overcome social anxiety and only days or weeks to read a book. I recommend audio programs such as Dr. Richard's 20 week program Overcoming Social Anxiety. I started listening to it 2 years ago, I still listen to it... over and over and over. I consider it one (of the many) important things I have done to overcome my social anxiety.

I still recommend reading as many books as possible. It keeps you focused on your goal and its always good to learn different perspectives. We are all different, there is no universal treatment or self help cure.

[Jnmcda0]

I've never read any of the books on the list. My pick is a book that isn't specifically about social anxiety, but rather about depression. However, because social anxiety and depression are related and often inter-linked, I think it is relevant. The book is called "Depression Is A Choice" by A.B. Curtiss.

Some might look at the title and strongly disagree. They think "how can depression be a choice?". No one would ever choose to be depressed. However, that is not what the author means. We can choose to control our minds instead of letting our minds control us. We can choose not to think the negative thoughts. It takes some practice, though, and the book explains how to do it.

[sublimit]

I have the The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook and although I've only just started it, I've felt it somewhat helpful in pinpointing the causes of my anxiety. I also bought another one which is focused on relieving anxiety through CBT, but I haven't started it yet.

[tutliputli]

I actually just received 5 different books I ordered from amazon about social anxiety and confidence -
Painfully Shy - Barbara Markway
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, and 10 days to great self-esteem, both by David Burns
Cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder, can't remember the author
Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness, by Gillian Butler.

Have started with Painfully Shy which seems brilliant so far. It's nice to read something by someone who has experienced SAD themselves and therefore has a more empathic, and less clinical, view.

[ecotec83]

I just moments ago bought "The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook" have not read it yet but it seemed like the best one at the local store and very popular.

[Haydsmom2007]

I started reading "painfully shy" but I'm not going to finish it. Lol. I bought a book called "Goodbye to Shy" and I'm reading that and I just like it much better. Also a book called "conversationally speaking" which is just about conversation skills, but I'm reading goodbye to shy first. I've only read a couple chapters but I think it's helpful. Helping me change the way I think about things.

[Procrastinator]

I'm reading Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness by Gillian Butler. Seems quite good so far. I'm about 3/4 though and a lot of the book is about SA and I'm reading it and thinking 'yes, i can relate with this. But what can i do?'. Anyway I'll finish before I make my final judgement. Although suggested methods that work for some might not always work for others.