How to Become an Effective Self-Help User

"Know Yourself" That's what the big guy said way back when? Was it Aristotle, Plato or Socrates? Anyhow, that's the essence of what this article is about.

You are a "self-help" seeker and user. You want resources to advance yourself in your life, to feel better, stronger and more successful. You're not satisfied with how things are. And you're not complacent about it. You're motivated. Therefore, you've come to the right place.

We're going to take you through this guide to instruct you on a few matters that relate directly to your goal of having the best self-help resources at your disposal. No more trial and error. This is it. We're going to get focussed.

OK, be sure you've read our article on "Assessing Your Self-Help Needs," (also available here at Ezine Articles) especially the part that distinguishes between "categories of distress" and "categories of achievement." These are arbitrary definitions. We use them to help our readers differentiate between "goals to be achieved" vs "problems to be solved. This ensures that we are all on the same page.

Let's identify a few symptom problems under categories of distress. We start with the big ones and work our way down.

Top of the list in Problems to be Solved (categories of distress) is Anxiety. Always your number 1 source of pain and stress. Anxiety permeates everything, affects your sleep, how you feel about yourself and your circumstances in the World.

- Do you have Confidence?

- Do you feel Effective?

- Are you feeling Lost or Unsure of Yourself?

These questions take us back to anxiety, the root symptom underlying all of our Stress.

You see, if we have anxiety as a problem, then Stress Managememt is a possible solution. We see that Stress is experienced as Anxiety first. It becomes Stress after occupying space within us for any length of time. That is, it is something we experience and live with everyday, and it now colors our way of viewing the world.

MOVING ON!

Another big one, in the disabling symptom category is Depression. This is the second most common symptom in the whole arsenal of disabling categories. It's amazing how many people are depressed today. Well, walk into any bookstore and count how many books are devoted to Depression.

When I travel and wander through Airport bookstores I see more books on Depression and Anti-Depressant Medication than any other subject. And this is supposed to be the Age of Super Abundance!

Why is Depression so common? And why is it so difficult to overcome? Well, the stress of "acquiring more" and "making it" is behind this. Yes, some stress is necessary, even desired, to bring out our best performance in work or other activities.

But being overwhelmed by Stress is all too common today. Therefore, Anxiety and Depression walk hand in hand with those of us geared to the SuperAbundant lifestyle. Depression is the most commonly diagnosed "mental condition" today. And where there's Depression, there's Anxiety. The pharmaceutical industry makes a Fortune off these two categories alone.

Yes, Depression and Anxiety are interlinked. They are part of each other and show up whenever "Stress" is the assessed root problem.

We can now see why Stress, under categories of distress, as also so prevalent in the language and experience of our current culture. Stress dominates our Era.

From the pressure to succeed and to raise our kids perfectly, to the global effect of "The War on Terrorism" we are all subject to Stress. Some would argue that our government leaders like it that way. We are easier to control and motivate toward a particular end. But I digress. "What would the USA bewithout a "War to fight?"

MOVING ON...

We are learning now that Categories of Distress are Global. Anxiety, Depression and Stress occupy our minds and thoughts daily. T