Relaxation Technique and Social Anxiety Worksheet for Adolescents

Name _______________

Date ________________

Write down the situation you feel worried, anxious, or socially awkward about. How, when, and where do you experience this state?

Explain your emotional state and how you feel and experience physiologically in that situation.

What were your hot thoughts in that situation? What did it cause you to predict in behaviors? Also, mark the most distressing thought if you have written more than one.

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Identify your safety-seeking behaviors, like avoiding the event or being focused on the symptoms such as sweating, trembling, or something similar.

Write what you thought would or will turn out in the end, how people will take your behavior or performance, or related things you have in mind.

Practice a 3-minute mindful deep breathing exercise independently or with your practitioners.

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Now, find the cognitive distortions you have in your hot thoughts and the predictions.

Formulate a few challenging questions for your hot thoughts, debate with them, and reconstruct your predictions about the same situation.

Tip: You may use the fowling structure to build your argument until you develop your style to fight with such thoughts. No doubt I have experience ______________ (add the negative/supporting details for your hot thought), but I also find that _________________ (add some details from the event to refute your hot thought). Thus _________________ (add a conclusion which has to be a positive, gentle, and compassionate one).

This attempt will develop your style to think constructively, the core element of replacing negative thought patterns observed in social anxiety to manage distressing symptoms.

Reference

Alkhathami, S. (2014). Social anxiety and quality of life in adolescents: Cognitive aspect, social interaction, and cultural tendency.

Hambrick, J. P., Weeks, J. W., Harb, G. C., & Heimberg, R. G. (2003). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder: supporting evidence and future directions. CNS spectrums, 8(5), 373-381.

You can download more Mental Health worksheets here.

Please note: You may find a more up-to-date and editable version of this worksheet available here that may be more suitable to present to clients if you are a therapist or to use in a classroom as a teacher or guidance counselor.