Self-Help Books and Anxiety: An Unfortunate Paradox

Why That Self-Help Book Might Be Hurting You

Human beings are wired to move forward — to get better, faster, stronger, and evolve.

One can learn from their own life experience, or, if they’re looking for a fast track, seek counsel from coaches, mentors, podcasts and books.

Self-help books are supposed to help us stand on the shoulders of giants, but the thing about self-help books is that they inherently suggest that we need help and therefore, that something is wrong with us.

They are full of ideals to aspire to, and ideals that ultimately leave us with internal conflict when we compare them with how we’re living our own lives.

Anxiety, at its core, is about the struggle to reconcile what is with what should be.

Peace ultimately comes when we are content with what is, rather than forever striving for what should but might never be.

And we might delude ourselves into thinking that should we reach a certain goal, then we’ll be happy, but we are all on a hedonic treadmill, and once we reach that goal, we’ll be content for all of five minutes before a new goal presents itself. We are forever chasing, and self-help books, if used recklessly, can leave us chasing more goals than…