3 ms·
An anecdote, that I at least find kind of funny in my own life: I deal with diagnosed anxiety and OCD, and thus have read dozens of self-help books on working
by sharkweek 10y ago
An anecdote, that I at least find kind of funny in my own life:
I deal with diagnosed anxiety and OCD, and thus have read dozens of self-help books on working with these issues. A funny thing happened when I started reading the genre, in that I found myself somewhat addicted to it after the first 3-4 books.
I brought this up to my therapist after about the 10th book in two months, and he joked but also seriously said, ok, time to take a break, pick a few unrelated and fun fiction books and go to town on those instead.
Not offering medical advice here as everyone is different, but I've noticed a gradual decline in symptoms when I'm able to focus less on the issues themselves.
- blatherard 10y agoThanks for sharing that. I am a moderator of an addiction-related subreddit, and recently a commenter made a short list of things they had struggled with which included (unsurprisingly) alcohol, tobacco and drugs. But they also included an unhealthy dependence on 'self-help' which was my first encounter with this idea. So you're not alone!
- sharkweek 10y agoI'm pretty sure people with addictive personalities can also get extremely addicted to their own thinking (stealing this idea from DFW's Infinite Jest, but I agree with it)
- stinkytaco 10y agoFunny you should bring up DFW, who was apparently quite into self-help books himself: https://theawl.com/inside-david-foster-wallaces-private-self-help-library-f84d5f56fccd#.32kd1v8vm https://theawl.com/inside-david-foster-wallaces-private-self...
- mistermann 10y agoI'm not advocating this approach, simply asking: have you investigated nootropics? I am just starting to experiment myself and it seems some if it may be helping with anxiety, but will take more experimentation to say something more confidently.