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If you’re looking to improve your finances, mind, how you deal with feelings or any other areas of your life, the Internet can be a great self-help resource.  There is a lot of material you can read about psychological or spiritual personal development on the Web.  Maybe you are tired of paying for therapists and you want to find things out on your own or in a more anonymous setting like a forum.  Also, no one likes to pay a lawyer and you can solve minor legal problems by reading up on them yourself.

For example there is the website Mental Help.

But can you get friendship, a feeling of belonging and emotional support and from anonymous people on the Internet?  Or are their limits to the benefits of interacting with groups on the Web?  There probably is, but there is nothing wrong with getting a second opinion on a financial matter or health problem from people you meet on the computer.  Basically, the idea is to help each other out without having to pay for an expert.

Self help is more of an art than a science, that’s for sure.  It all started out with books that offered a new view other than traditional spiritual guidance like the bible.  Books also were the first form of legal self help.  Now the Internet has taken things to a whole other level.

The Personal Development Movement

But before books, even thousands of years before Christ, there was what was called ‘wisdom literature’ which is described in the book First Things First by Stephen Covey.  Ancient poets like Hesiod also offered counsel in a book called Works and Days.  A group called the Stoics were historic peoples who gave psychology advice.  And of course Proverbs have always been the way to explain a helpful lesson.

The term ’self-help’ was actually first used in legal terms which meant that a person has the right to defend themselves.  The first book with the name ’self-help’ was by Samuel Smiles in 1859.  Other historic personal development movements began with Ben Franklin’s book the Poor Richard’s Alamanac.  Of course, the first major support group was Alcoholics Anonymous which began in 1935.

Now many years later, thanks to the Web you can make your own legal documents at sites like Legal Zoom.

Now people spend billions of dollars on self help materials like CDs, DVDs, books and going to see speakers!  Personal coaching and diet gurus are also huge.  And of course think of all the “Idiots guide to…” books which are all tools for us to help ourselves.

The Self Help Controversy

But are all these personal development publications just empty easy answers to more difficult underlying problems that need real human interaction?  I have personally read a lot of these materials and since I am familiar with the scientific method, I know certain ideas to just be factually wrong.  Plus, I do think that there is a fine line between really needing the help of professional that can get people in trouble. 

Because of its non-scientific claims, self help can often be joked about.  For instance there are lots of parodies like the book called Secrets of The Superoptimist and I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional.  Scientists and educational types are always picking at self-help ideas and even claiming that many can be harmful. 

Experiences With Internet Self Help

I am a prolific listener of self-help audio CDs and I learn tons of useful everyday tips.  I have even bought a few eBooks off the Web that were personally worth 1000x what I paid.  I never could have gotten the information in a traditional store.  That’s one of the reasons I started Danogo.com, to highlight some of the better books and sites I run into.  So far nothing I have read in a book or on the Internet has ever harmed me.  In fact, I can say that I have learned things which changed my life in a positive way forever.  How about you?