I use a lot of logic and common sense; if I am afraid people won't like me, for example, I look at how well they know me, if they are new to me, they are not likely to dislike me as they do not know me well enough yet.

I look to see if I can find the bottom-most fear too; like with the above, since I have not met these people yet, how can I be afraid of them not liking me? It looks to me like the problem is something else taking the "easy" way out I keep looking to find the real fear.

Just looking for the fear can make me feel more like a detective or scientist doing an experiment than a victim of anxiety. Sometimes I can even laugh at myself since most fears are similar to a child being afraid of monsters under their bed. So, I comfort myself like I would a child; "Come on now, it will be okay, you'll see". Or I make myself laugh by picturing someone just looking at me for the first time for a second and suddenly disliking me, "Oh, no! I don't like her, she just looks dislikable!"

Sometimes, if I have the time, I "help" an anxiety. I had an interview for a new job that required my taking the bus to work so I took off a day from my old job and rode the bus to the new location to learn how.