Table of Contents
Prologue 1
Part 1 I Thought It Was Just Me! Introducing Social Anxiety
1 The Root of It All: How Social Anxiety Takes Hold 23
2 Social Anxiety Is Like an Apple Tree (or, Why Social Anxiety Has Stuck Around for Millennia) 41
3 Your Brain on Social Anxiety 59
Part 2 Looking Inside Your Head
4 How Our Inner Critic Undermines Us 71
5 Think Different: Replace 89
6 Think Different: Embrace 98
Part 3 Heading Out into the World
7 Get Started and Your Confidence Will Catch Up 117
8 No False Fronts in This Town: Play a Role to Build Your True Self 124
9 Mountains to Molehills: It Gets Easier Every Time 137
10 Putting It All Together: Your Challenge List 142
Part 4 Busting the Myths of Social Anxiety
11 How (and Why) to Turn Your Attention Inside Out 171
12 Seeing Is Believing: How You Feel Isn't How You Look 181
13 "I Have to Sound Smart/Funny/Interesting": How Perfectionism Holds Us Back 197
14 Why You Don't Have a Social Skills Problem (You Heard That Right) 215
15 The Myth of Hope in a Bottle 227
Part 5 All You Have to Be Is Kind
16 The Building Blocks of Beautiful Friendships (They're Not What You Think) 233
Epilogue 255
My Quiet Road to How to Be Yourself 263
Author's Note 273
Acknowledgments 274
References 277