There's no argument that self-help is a great thing. I would say this is the best of the help you can ever get. Because most of the time it's actually 'we' who can help us to do better and get rid of problems. But I sometimes think that there's a gap in our understanding of self-help.
We should have a clear idea about where self-help work and where not. Also, if our self-help is really working is an important thing to look for. Let's see what basic things we need to know before we practice self-help!
Self-help doesn't mean you can't get help from others. Like from your personal problems to your work-life, many times you may need help from others. You can motive yourself, try to solve your illness but if this is something serious then there's nothing wrong to get help.
Self-help is not about problem-solving.
We sometimes kill ourselves to figure what is going wrong and what we need to do. Obviously, we never try to get help from others. And thus we use self-help as a problem-solving technique. But it's actually not. You can help yourself you be happier, feel fulfilled in life through self-help. But when it comes to problem-solving if you need you should go for external help.
- Self-help sould be in a clash with our ego.
Ask yourself if you try to self-help because you don't want to make your problem public. There's nothing wrong to get help. But if asking for help is hurting your ego then there's a high chance that self-help will also not work. Because your intention is to use it to protect your ego not helping in reality.
Moreover, we can't actually incorporate the self-help technique into our very personal problem. But that's okay. I will talk about how we can self-help in a better way in our personal life. Till then evaluate what you understand wrong about self-help. I hope these gonna help you a little bit!