[superasn]

Try doing the vertical arrow technique by David burns (google it) to see if it helps.

Basically sometimes the thing you're worrying about isn't actually the thing that is the core of your worry and this technique helps a lot with that.

For example if you're worrying about going out ask what does it really mean.. you'll come up with something like "the other person may not like me" again what does it mean "I'm a total bore" what does it mean "I'll be alone and lonely", etc. Once you get to the bottom of it then put the cognitive distortions and rational explaonations as explained.. the bottom line is when you write things down it becomes easy to see where the distortions are and fix them. But you will need to do it a lot and soon you may starts seeing results. Of course it's just my 2 cents and so ymmv.

[FigmentEngine]

sounds like "five whys" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

[personlurking]

YouTube has videos on the downward arrow technique [1], not sure if it's the same.

I originally heard/read something similar, of all places, from Dr Phil in the late 90s. IIRC, he spoke of a middle-aged man wanting a red sports car and why he might want that sports car. Let's imagine it's cause he wants to feel young again. Why does he want to feel young again and what are all the other ways he could achieve that? And what if he wanted to feel young again because that's when he felt the most freedom? So, he wants freedom, not to be young, and not the red sports car. What are all the ways he could regain that feeling? And so on, and so forth, until one thinks they've gone down deep enough.

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3hMmZQAdhw (9 min)

[dplgk]

What's the call to action when you get to the bottom? Let's say you end with "I'm afraid I'm a total bore". Then what?