These are the 12 Steps adapted for helping those with social anxiety, social phobia, shyness problems, avoidant personality disorder, social fears and paruresis.
They have been used for almost 60 years to help with various anxiety problems
They may be used alone or to enhance the effectiveness of other treatments for social anxiety:
Step
One: We admitted we were powerless over our Social
Anxiety and that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step
Two: Came to believe that a power greater than
ourselves could restore us to emotional and cognitive well being.
Step
Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God (or the good in the world), as we understood it.
Step
Four B: Made a searching and fearless inventory of our
misperceptions, challenges, and strengths.
Step
Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another
human, being the exact nature of our misperceptions, challenges and strengths; also shared our vision of the life we wanted and our purpose statement for ourselves.
Step
Six: Were entirely ready to have God (or the good)
relieve our misconceptions and fears about ourselves and others.
Step
Seven: Humbly asked God (or humbly trusted in a
process of good) to help us remove these misconceptions and fears.
Step
Eight: Made a list of all people that we had harmed,
(including ourselves), and became willing to make amends.
Step
Nine: Made direct amends to ourselves and others
wherever possible, except to do so would injure anyone (including ourselves).
Step
Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when
we were mistaken promptly admitted it.
Step
Eleven: Sought through prayer and/or meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God (or the good in the world) as we
understood it, praying only for knowledge of its will for us and the power to
carry that out.
Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to our fellow Social Anxiety sufferers and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Note: A more in-depth study of the Longer Version of the 12 Steps is highly recommended. Read More of Our Free Online Book Twelve Gentle Steps to Overcoming Social Anxiety to Learn How to Make Our Program of Recovery Work for You
En Espanol / Spanish Version: Los 12 Pasos de Fóbicos Sociales Anónimo
Learn more about our support groups by using the links below-- Learn About How To Get Your Own Local Social Phobics Anonymous Support Group Started For Those With Social Anxiety Who Are Already In Other 12 Step Programs (Our materials may be printed out for use in Social Phobics Anonymous Support Groups, All Rights Reserved). Social Phobics Anonymous World Services, Boulder,
Colorado. 1 (970)-222-5380 healsocialanxiety@hotmail.com