Anxiety and social anxiety can impact everyday life—from constant overthinking to feeling uncomfortable in social situations. Many people look for practical ways to better understand and manage these experiences, and anxiety self-help books can be a helpful starting point.
The book recommendations below are designed to provide insight, coping strategies, and tools to help you reduce anxiety, build confidence, and feel more at ease in social and everyday situations.
Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety
4.6 Stars (2,057 ratings) on Amazon
David Burns MD
** Many Good Examples and Very Helpful
Feeling Great is based on 40 years of research and more than 40,000 hours treating individuals with severe mood problems. The goal is not just a rapid and complete elimination of negative feelings, but the development of joy and enlightenment.
In Feeling Great, Dr. David Burns reveals that our negative moods do not result from what’s wrong with us, but rather—what’s right with us. And when you listen and suddenly “hear” what your negative thoughts and feelings are trying to tell you, suddenly you won’t need them anymore, and recovery will be just a stone’s throw away.
Dr. Burns will provide you with inspiring and mind-blowing case studies along with more than 50 amazing tools to crush the negative thoughts that rob you of happiness and self-esteem.
Are you tired of feeling…
- Down, depressed, or unhappy?
- Anxious, panicky, or insecure?
How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less
4.4 Stars (841 ratings) on Amazon
Nicholas Boothman
Whether meeting a new client or bumping into a potential mate, you only have a few seconds to make a favorable impression. Is that really possible? Author Nicholas Boothman, a lecturer and licensed master practitioner of neurolinguistic programming, believes yes! He introduces a revolutionary approach to face-to-face communication that will help anyone succeed at making meaningful, and immediate, connections.
Whether selling, managing, job hunting, negotiating, pitching an idea, applying for law school, joining a new group, or on your knees with a marriage proposal, the secret of success is based on connecting with other people. And the most powerful new idea for making connections is revealed, step by step, in Nicholas Boothman’s breakthrough program of rapport by design. Easily learned, it will help you make the best of any relationship’s most important moment: those first 90 seconds.
Never again let shyness get in the way of an appointment or interview. Or leave the making of an important contact to chance. Or find yourself tongue-tied or distracted in social situations. The key, according to Boothman and his plan for face-to-face communication, is simple: the way to make a person like you is to make yourself be like that person, if only for the 90 seconds or less it takes to establish rapport. Learn the power of a Really Useful Attitude, the secrets of voice tone and body language, the difference between “opening up” words and “closing down” words. And reinforcing all of these skills is knowing how to read another person’s sensory preference; most of us are Visual people, some are Kinesthetic, and a few are Auditory. So when you say, “I see what you mean” to a Visual, you’re really speaking his or her language. And then you’re on your way.
I Hear You: The Surprisingly Simple Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships
4.6 Stars (4,224 ratings) on Amazon
Michael S. Sorensen
**Recommended Read to Improve Communication
This book helps improve your communication skills. It can help quickly resolve or prevent arguments. It can increase feelings of love, respect & appreciation in your relationship. You can learn to provide support & encouragement to others, even when you do not know how to “fix” the problem.
Retrain Your Brain: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks: A Workbook for Managing Depression and Anxiety
4.6 Stars (8,022 ratings) on Amazon
Seth Gillihan PhD
Research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective techniques for finding relief from depression and anxiety. After 15 years of successfully treating patients using cognitive behavioral therapy, Psychologist Dr. Seth Gillihan developed this self-directed 7-week plan that teaches you practical CBT techniques that can help you feel better.
Benefits of the Retrain Your Brain workbook:
- IDENTIFY & CHANGE NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERNS: Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you identify and replace thought patterns and behaviors that aren’t working with new ones that work better.
- WEEKLY ACTIVITIES: The unique weekly structure of this therapy workbook is designed so each activity builds on the previous week’s work as you apply these techniques in your daily life. Relatable, real-life examples make the information and activities more accessible to CBT newcomers.
- GREAT FOR BOTH SPORADIC & CONSTANT ANXIETY: Whether feelings of depression and anxiety occur constantly or sporadically, you can create a CBT tool kit to help you get through those feelings and realize your full potential. Great for adults, kids, and teens.
Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?
4.5 Stars (761 ratings) on Amazon
John Powell
**Interesting Read
John Powell explains how to be more emotionally open, and shows how people adopt roles and play psychological games to protect their inner selves. The courage to be our real selves can be developed, and then we can begin to grow. Now newly designed for a fresh audience, Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? is as relevant as it has been for twenty years. With a proven track record, it continues to speak to the needs and aspirations of people today. It is best included in self help sections of general bookshops, but also has a religious appeal.