The Solution to Social Anxiety: Break Free from the Shyness That Holds You Back

I highly recommended this book. The wayDr. Aziz cut in pieces every aspect of social anxiety and explains it, make it easy to understand.

There are so many self-help books out there by well-known and famous authors, but I found this book by Dr. Aziz Gazipura, a much-lesser-known psychologist who practices in Oregon, to be so incredibly helpful and life changing. Even though people think I am extroverted because I have big social circles and appear to do well at public events, I have always had a low to moderate amount of social anxiety that has caused unnecessary stress, created many awkward social situations and conversations, and even caused crippling sharp stomach pain (such as after I leave an event or after performing music).The early part of the book (and the most helpful to me) is Dr. Aziz defining what social anxiety is, who has it (basically everyone at varying levels, but the ones who find it stifling their lives are the ones who will benefit the most from this book), and the roots. He breaks down the roots of social anxiety to a very basic concept, a lie that people with social anxiety tell themselves: "I am not good enough."He spends the rest of the book tackling other aspects of social anxiety and presenting scenarios and exercises for how to break free from these crippling thoughts. I love how practical the book is in this way. The only downside is that the online worksheet resource mentioned in the book is no longer active as when I read it the website didn't exist anymore.I listened to the audio version of this, read by the author, which was absolutely fantastic and had me in tears in the beginning as he fully addressed what I always thought was something imaginary in my head. By the end however, I felt very empowered -- understanding my (perfectly normal) condition better and how it is holding me back, and knowing how to move forward with the lessons of the book. Listening to the book was so useful that I bought the hard copy of the book so I can pick it up any time and flip through it. I was shocked to learn that it appears it is printed on demand on Amazon -- how can such a helpful book not have thousands of copies already sitting in a warehouse waiting to be purchased?After first listening to the audiobook, I instantly recommended this book to a few people I know who seized on it immediately and also found it helpful. It has been over a year since I read it, and I feel like this is the sort of book to pick up every few months or so to keep the ideas fresh in your head so you don't regress.In addition to the usefulness of this book, it is also a fun and easy read. If you do happen to listen to the audiobook, I swear that in the end Dr. Aziz is giggling a little bit, haha. You will appreciate this if you read the whole book because you will feel like you can laugh at and squash your inner voice that holds you back with the lies that socially anxious people have repeating in their heads.I totally would love to meet Dr. Aziz one day and thank him for taking the time to write this incredible book!

I have read this book, and I have also been working directly with Aziz for several months. I recommend both experiences very strongly (although working with him directly is pretty expensive, so if you are tight on money, work with the book).I'm a middle-aged guy who has struggled with social anxiety my whole life. I sought out Aziz because I got a job offer that I knew was going to take me way outside my comfort zone, on a regular basis, and force me to take a lot of social initiative.I have tried talk therapy in the past, but found that I was just recounting and dwelling on my difficulties and failures. If anything, it made me feel worse.After several months of working with Aziz (personally and with the book), I am now making real progress, which I can see in successful efforts to connect with people.It's easy to explain where you need to go; getting there is of course the trick. Here's your problem, and mine: You think you are defective because you have a long history of bungled efforts to connect with people. Deep down, you think something is wrong with you. You go into your interactions with people with that mindset. And that's why you fail so often, which then reinforces your conclusions about yourself.You need to stop that. You have to understand that an ability to connect with people is just a skill, like any other. You weren't born with a natural gift for it, as some people are--otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. But that doesn't mean you can't develop the skill. You can. And once you come to feel that you just have an underdeveloped skill that you need to work on--rather than some deep personal flaw--you can start creating new patterns in your life.Aziz has devoted his professional career to finding practical ways to break down the self-destructive mindset holding you back, and to developing practical, specific exercises you can do to create a new pattern of success. He's done his homework, and he ties his advice to strategies that have been proven to work through psychological studies.But sometimes, he can get you just to laugh at yourself, at the sheer ridiculousness of the toxic way you judge yourself and hold yourself back. That can be the most helpful of all.Imagine a high school coach who stood on the sidelines during the big game screaming at his players: "You suck! You don't even belong on the field! You're going to lose, big time! Everyone is going to find out you're a complete fraud as a football team!"That's what you're doing to yourself. You need to cut it out. This book will help you create a self-reinforcing pattern of success, rather than a pattern of failure.

I have had social anxiety for the majority of my life and it has been horrible. I have read many books on the subject in hopes of changing my life with no success. I am now in therapy with a wonderful therapist and along with this book I finally have the hope that things will turn around for me and I will be able to connect with other people. I'm done with social anxiety keeping me in a closed box. I refuse for this to be my life any longer. Good luck to us all.

Ótimo livro, na verdade o único que realmente teve um impacto na minha vida. O conteúdo desse livro, somado a várias reflexões e algumas mudanças de atitude realmente me fizeram me sentir diferente em várias situações, o que me levou a me comportar de forma diferente diante delas. Em resumo, o livro cumpre o que promete, desde que você esteja disposto a mudar.

Amazing book. I highly recommend it. And I would love to read it a second time. He spoke to me very deep. I am doing the Conference University at the moment. But this spoke to me more. Thank you Dr Aziz.

Its a fibe book , but it could have had like 40 pages if the author didnt repeat the same thing over and over

One of the best books for building confidence and helping you break out of constantly worrying about peoples judgments

While at the same time providing nuanced and sound practices for building social confidence. Absolutely worth a read if you struggle, or have struggled with social anxiety in the past.