No. But I used to have something simular with my therapist years ago. She would suggest self help books. I would come back mentioning some good
ideas in the books. Very enthusiastic. But all I ever did was talk about them. I never took what I learned from the books and tried to apply them in my life. I do now. But this is twenty five years later.

i never even talked about the content, much less how to apply them to my daily life, of those uncounted/uncountable self-help books i've read beyond the name dropping and trying to impress folks with my awesome reading skills and high brow taste in books.

a phase i am currently in is seeing how many of those profound theories are still around. in my own case, most of that reading was pre-internet. i don't trust my memory but a discouraging number of those theories are not on the net. every so often i can even remember an author to see what became of them. not too often, but once in a while.

i often wonder if i am currently suffering PDD. psychiatric disorder disorder.

That’s an interesting idea to me. It sounds like a lot of pride in that denier. Seeking help and then complaining ‘no that’s not it.’ (That’s my take.)

For some reason I have had a very hard time reading self help books.

Have a good day Arfie!

my own list of complaints was far more creative than one single phrase. in retrospect, i think i was looking for sympathy more than help. these days i find my most helpful sympathy in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilize."

at present, the healing mysteries are one of the places i work especially hard at finding the balance of keeping an open mind, but not so open that my brain falls out. am i lost in metaphor when i say i think my brain fell out during those years that i was reading a self-help book or two every day? if the metaphor makes sense, the good news is that i managed to find it and get it back in it's proper place with the help of the therapy supporters who were calling me, "a self-help junkie." those were mostly the same supporters who accused me of, "help seeking denial."

still sorting. . .

pride is most definitely an element in my own help-seeking denial. i'll read your static, disembodied print, but in my psychotic states, it be my way or the highway. don't give me what i need. give me what i WANT. where's that freaking wish fairy? i got rights, ya know! ! !

The pros of reading is one doesn't have to believe everything read and everything in theory with the idea that is thrown at the reader... So it is good to formulate questions that can be answered in time to the reader who is concerned if any.

In a good read, naturally to take the good makes sense to the reader and can offer direct relief depending on the reading material, so as long as it is legal and doesn't cause harm to self and another...

Sticks and stones can hurt my bones but words can't harm me... is a saying a child often turns to for self-help and effective fast emotional support and relief when they've been offended and or have experienced some kind of bullying behavior from another... It is the way they cope, eventually we grow up on both ends and learn to be prosocial beings and know it is not okay to practice bullying.

In early childhood development, children cope early on as they engage in daily activities, and this method works the same as psychotherapy... Self Talk... My understanding with self-help books, if you're a reader can help, however, we have libraries full of books that can aide at any phase of life but the answers are not entirely in the book nor to seek the answer in a book... The answer is always within.

And most humans are too busy with daily life therefore, don't always make nor have the time to turn to books for answers, we turn to someone other than a book in daily life, who can facilitate the sympathy we all long for in the connection...

To have a friend in life is better than to turn to a person who will say "figure it out on your own" or turn to this book and see if it'll help with what you need...

I do see what everyone here is expressing... Sometimes, reading about a certain topic can offer the reader the power to qualify or disqualify the author at a personal level... Then again, all the books in the world written for self-help, self-improvement, and to help another in the process of time-lapse are pointless and void if the reader can't honestly digest the book on Earth... The book is not made to be literally eaten!

Strong point made here.

thank you, queen. very deep. perhaps you could start your own thread about the virtues of self-help books.
this particular thread is about "help seeking denial."

Haha... pretty much, right!