Customer Reviews

Painfully Shy: How to Overcome Social Anxiety and Reclaim Your Life

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A tremendous amount of research has been done on anxiety disorders in the last fifteen years. Researchers have discovered a lot about what causes it and what can be done about it, and in this book you'll find the latest information.

Social anxiety disorder is most common anxiety disorder and the third most common psychiatric disorder over all (behind depression and alcoholism). If it's so common, why haven't we heard much about it? Because the nature of the problem keeps it hidden. "Can you see a movie-of-the-week," says psychologist Thomas Richards, "about a very shy person who rarely leaves the house except to go to work, who has no friends, and is afraid of answering the door at times?" Who would watch a movie like that? The authors of Painfully Shy said that after their first book (Dying of Embarrassment) was published, a television talk show called them and said, "We want you on our show if you can bring several articulate, outgoing social phobics with you." What the heck were they thinking? Social anxiety disorder doesn't get much coverage because anyone with the problem is trying to avoid the public eye.

But this book brings social anxiety into the light. Anxious thoughts and feelings CAN be managed successfully, and this book will show you how. I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and if you want practical, helpful advice that will really work to overcome your shyness, I highly recommend Painfully Shy.

Wow. I think maybe that last reviewer had some problems other than just being painfully shy. I don't usually write reviews but I like this book and have found it helpful. Most books dealing with this subject seem to be more specific to social skills-- how to be assertive, how to win friends and influence people, etc. I like this book because it deals more generally with how to be comfortable with yourself in social situations. It's clear and easy to read and has interesting examples. It also has helpful exercises to try.

"Painfully Shy" succinctly covers all the basics of dealing with chronic shyness and social anxiety and does so with compassion and understanding in a reader-friendly style. Through ongoing case histories it demonstrates assessment and treatment possibilities. Furthermore, it has appendices containing useful resources for both adults and children. It might have been useful, however, for the book to have provided readers with in-depth applications of these techniques and principles in specific social areas that shy and socially anxious people often report as important. These include meeting people, dating, making an impression, giving reports, using the telephone, handling meetings, surviving job interviews, and "coming out" about their condition. Research has shown that frequently sufferers also need social-effectiveness skills training in order to recovery more quickly and satisfactorily. Overall, readers will find this book well-done, interesting to read, with useful information and helpful strategies.

This is the first and only book I've bought concerning social phobia. Perhaps because I had already researched this subject on the web, a lot of the suggestions in this book were common sense and obvious. Too much was devoted to explication (e.g., what causes anxiety, nature vs. nature, what are SSRIs, etc.) vs. providing actual suggestions which I thought was a waste.

Was I expecting too much? I don't know. There weren't any revelations in this book. Even the anecdotes were a disappointment, I wished the author fleshed them out more. This book may be useful for those comletely NEW to this topic, but I suggest you look elsewhere if you want to delve deeper.

If you want to start dealing with your social anxiety, this is a great book to begin with. It teaches the reader excellent techniques to managing anxiety, and even after two years of therapy, I found the relaxtion excrises extremely helpful. Reading this book also gives the shy, lonely person who may have social anxiety a sense of belonging. Reading this book made me realize that I am not the only one with S.A.D. and it really has helped me tremoundlsy. This book is great for starting out with dealing with social anxiety and I would definatly recommend it.

This is a wonderful book. It's well written and informative, and most of all, it's helpful. There are nice touches in the writing style, as well. In the patient profiles, for example, the author mentions a patient's concerns including feeling as though something is "wrong" with them (emphasis on the quotation marks). The quotation marks, in my opinion, signal to the reader that "hey, perhaps I should reframe my feelings about what "wrong" means in the context of a human being". Things like that take the writing to the next level of quality and insight, in my opinion.

Also, I won't reiterate everything else that's been said already in the reviews, but I disagree the reviewers who said too much of the book is theory and not enough is devoted to actually helping the reader overcome shyness. On the contrary, the first two chapters are devoted to theory and background; the remaining NINE are devoted to self-help. That's over eighty-percent.

I'd recommend this book highly.

This book effectively taught me how to deal with SA. I really like the author's communication style.
The topics that helped me most were about what to/what not to focus on and how to conduct yourself, how to face your core fears, and how to relax.
It gives a good framework to build a practice out of.

This book was the first I purchased to better understand my issue of social anxiety and how to overcome it. It is fairly well written and gave me a better understanding of my social anxiety; however, I now know that it lacked crucial information. It fails to even mention cognitive behavioral therapy, which is considered the main treatment method for this disorder. In retrospect, the book did very little for me. It contained information that can mostly be found online. The author did not consult the opinions of other professionals to try to give the reader the best coping strategies available. Instead, she mostly derives her information from her own experience and education. This has the effect of giving the reader a limited and lopsided understanding of this disorder. In addition to Cognitive behavioral therapy, she leaves out muscle relaxation and breathing techniques that are both well known to be good defenses against the physical symptoms of social anxiety disorder. If you are looking for a comprehensive book on social anxiety that includes a recovery plan, I strongly recommend "Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe" by Signe A. Dayhoff. This book is excellent and has helped me very much to overcome the grip that this disorder has had on my life. Good luck to you.

Like many other books on the subject, this is yet another great resource to deal with a real problem many people (inlcuding myself) suffer from. It's sad that people like Darin review the book without any knowledge of the disease first- hand. His review was a bit confusing, but I think he's trying to claim this isn't a real disease. Let me tell you- it is. It is NOT shyness...shyness does not even do justice to the ordeals we go thru everyday, just to do the simplest tasks that anyone with this disease takes for granted. Is going to the grocery store or the drive thru bank window a troubling experience that causes fear in the average person? Of course not...it is for me tho, so,common sense says this IS a real problem...it IS a disease, it's not just a personality trait. It's a shame to see ignorance people like Darin give off in the reviews of such a good book. By the way, contrary to what Darin says- if you suffer from the disease, you're hardly a loser. Atleast that's what I got out of his poorly written review.

I read Painfully Shy from cover-to-cover and was very impressed with how well social anxiety disorder was depicted. I thought the information was very well researched and written extremely well. It was easy to follow and the personal stories that were woven into it was a great addition for people who suffer or know of people who suffer and wanted the assurance of, "I am not alone." As a sufferer of this disorder myself, I found most everything Dr Greg Markway and his wife Barbara said were true. As a guest on my radio show, Dr Markway illustrated the cause of social anxiety disorder and sensible treatments that anyone can utilize. I highly recommend this book to anyone with anxiety or friends and family of people who suffer from this disorder. You will not be dissapointed!