Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness: A Self-Help Guide Using CBT Techniques
 

Announcing...one of the First Four Titles in the Overcoming Series. The immensely popular international market leader of self-help titles. Step-by-step guides to self-improvement that introduce the methods of the highly regarded cognitive behavioral therapy technique to help readers conquer a broad range of disabling conditions--from worry to body image problems to obsessive compulsive disorder and more.
The accessible, straightforward, and practical books in the Overcoming series treat disorders by changing unhelpful patterns of behavior and thought. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck and is now internationally favored as a practical means of overcoming longstanding and disabling conditions, both psychological and physical. CBT insists that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors. Even when our situation does not change, if we change the self-defeating ways we think, we can make ourselves feel better. This positive, pragmatic approach is popular with therapists and patients alike.
Books in the Overcoming Series:
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More info:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465005454/...etydisorder-20

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Has anyone read this? Did it help?
I have it on my kindle, going to read it when I have time.

This book in particular was recommended on another Social Anxiety forum. I've not read it yet.

started reading it today, seems good so far...

I'm just about finished it and recommend it. It actually gives you assignments like homework to do so you can practice the steps. Pretty much it deals with peoples beliefs and how we aren't born with them we learn them when growing up. These beliefs can be negative as we grow up and cause sad and the book talks about retraining these negative beliefs and retraining your thought patterns.

Would this also work for avoidant personality disorders?

I liked this. It was helpful to me in understand social anxiety better. Understanding why the feelings are happening, and that you can interrupt the vicious cycles that keep the anxiety going, has been very helpful to me in lessening SA. My favorite resource is still the Social Anxiety Institute materials, but this is an inexpensive book that will help a lot of people.

You will definitely spend more money on things that will do a lot less for your life than this book.

I've read 4 chapters so far. Just understanding the problem and seeing that other people have the same thoughts and problems helped me out. I wish I had more time to get it read sooner. I'll do an update after I finish it.

Just started reading this today...still in the intro. chapters, but seems like it may be helpful. Had good reviews on Amazon too.

This book is really helping me right now. Understanding the causes of SA is a great help in itself. I'm working through the exercise s slowly but this book is definitely helping. Way worth it considering the price!

this seems like it would be helpful... thank you

ive read the whole book and im doing the worksheets now. im doing it all properly making sure i dont miss anything and that i take in all the information. its only been a month or so but i think i have made some improvements. its gonna take a lot of work and commitment to all the books says to do but i have hope that i will manage it and get better.

Have just ordered this book, sounds very good and has a lot of positive comments from readers :)

Have just started reading this book. Really hoping it will help me :)

ANXIETY, Somebody help me!! Author: Sara Burillo.
EXCELLENT!!! Fully Recommended!!
This book saved me... I hope it will help you :)

Guys, how expensive is this book?

Amazon says 12.88 for paperback, new. You can get it used for about 7$.

Ultimately, the benefit you'll get is in putting the recommendations into practice in some fairly consistent way. So, for example, for chapters that suggest changing your behaviors, you should make a commitment to work on them every day, or five times a week, and stick to that for 2-3 months. It is almost exactly like going to the gym, where consistent workouts will get you in shape, while just working out very hard every now and then won't help all that much. I've found that gym analogy to be nearly perfect for SA. Your behavioral experiments are your "social workouts" and not letting yourself skip workouts will bring the best results.

So keeping a record of your achievements, which I believe the book recommends, is helpful. It lets you know you're staying consistent, and lets you feel proud of your progress -- just as a workout log does at the gym.

A great idea in the book is to be on the lookout for whatever opportunities come up to challenge your social anxiety in small ways, then take them. If you start brainstorming, you can usually think of countless small social challenges that you can put in your social "workout log".

Is there a PDF or epub version of this book that I can download? Downloaded a PDF version but it wasn't complete.

I know this is an old thread, but this is the one and only SA type book that I own right now. I'd love to discuss it with anyone who also wants to dive into it.

I read a little bit of it and it seemed very "gentle", I liked the way it explained some things. It was very reassuring.

I've been pushing myself to do more social things, ever since the summer... but in the last month or so I've really pushed myself to meet people and be more open. I kind of try to do one thing that wasn't typical for me before, every day. I don't always manage to, but it happens most days and I've been enjoying it.

It's a big project but I have a blog on the side:https://views00.wordpress.com/2016/0...of-characters/
Please check it out. Thanks

I've had this book for a little while now. I'm glad I came across this thread. It's nice to know that other people are reading it and benefiting from its use. I'm about a third of the way through it and so far I think the most useful thing to me has been the Clarke and Wells diagram on the cycle of Social Anxiety. It really helped me understand it on another level I think. I am looking forward to finishing it and putting the techniques into use. Additionally, I've been contemplating what it is that my belief/beliefs are that have perhaps fueled my Social Anxiety. Still working through that. Hoping it works out. Also, I kind of liked the quote in the book she said. It went something like "Social anxiety makes about as much sense as hanging up garlic to ward off vampires and when they don't show up, giving credit to the garlic." I think that was when she was talking about safety behaviors.

Had it a few days and procrastinating. Wish there was an audio version. All your reviews make it sound like essential reading.