03 Mar 2016, 3:50 pm
03 Mar 2016, 7:08 pm
03 Mar 2016, 7:59 pm
I don't care to read fiction. I'm all about non-fiction, in my main interests like horticulture, hockey, and music. Have probably bought around 100 books dealing with those topics over my lifetime. Some of those books could pass for "academic" I suppose.
In my 20s, when I was trying to climb the corporate ladder, I bought and read about 25 "self-help" books. I also tried just about anything suggested by Stephen Covey and his minions. Ultimately, they seemed to help create a positive outlook, but even with a dayplanner, my time management skills didn't really improve a great deal as my executive functioning was still so bad I would often skip over my highest priority tasks and put them off to the next day. None of those self-help books were specifically designed for an autistic mind, and I didn't understand I may have been autistic at that point in time, so looking back, I wonder if any of those self-help books did anything good for me. 
03 Mar 2016, 8:45 pm
In my 20s, when I was trying to climb the corporate ladder, I bought and read about 25 "self-help" books. I also tried just about anything suggested by Stephen Covey and his minions. Ultimately, they seemed to help create a positive outlook, but even with a dayplanner, my time management skills didn't really improve a great deal as my executive functioning was still so bad I would often skip over my highest priority tasks and put them off to the next day. None of those self-help books were specifically designed for an autistic mind, and I didn't understand I may have been autistic at that point in time, so looking back, I wonder if any of those self-help books did anything good for me.
I actually did find a few self-help books for autistic people. I was just too embarrassed to read them.
03 Mar 2016, 9:21 pm
In my 20s, when I was trying to climb the corporate ladder, I bought and read about 25 "self-help" books. I also tried just about anything suggested by Stephen Covey and his minions. Ultimately, they seemed to help create a positive outlook, but even with a dayplanner, my time management skills didn't really improve a great deal as my executive functioning was still so bad I would often skip over my highest priority tasks and put them off to the next day. None of those self-help books were specifically designed for an autistic mind, and I didn't understand I may have been autistic at that point in time, so looking back, I wonder if any of those self-help books did anything good for me.
I actually did find a few self-help books for autistic people. I was just too embarrassed to read them.
I'd probably buy one and read it. At this stage, ANY book on the topic of autism would be a "self-help" book to me.
03 Mar 2016, 10:32 pm
In my 20s, when I was trying to climb the corporate ladder, I bought and read about 25 "self-help" books. I also tried just about anything suggested by Stephen Covey and his minions. Ultimately, they seemed to help create a positive outlook, but even with a dayplanner, my time management skills didn't really improve a great deal as my executive functioning was still so bad I would often skip over my highest priority tasks and put them off to the next day. None of those self-help books were specifically designed for an autistic mind, and I didn't understand I may have been autistic at that point in time, so looking back, I wonder if any of those self-help books did anything good for me.
I actually did find a few self-help books for autistic people. I was just too embarrassed to read them.
I'd probably buy one and read it. At this stage, ANY book on the topic of autism would be a "self-help" book to me.
Where I live the public library has quite a few. I'm talking about self-help books for autistic adults. I guess autism is trendy where I live.
03 Mar 2016, 10:53 pm
JimSpark,
There is a special kind of hate that I have for self-help books. 
I guess I would describe it as disappointment (that it did not work), and hopelessness (that nothing else will work), and a feeling that an implied promise had been broken.
Many self-help books imply that "this is your problem", and "this is the best way and the only way to fix such problems", and that, "if you follow this way, you will fix the problem". And they might be right... when applied to most people... with normal versions of the problem.
But, it did not work for me because I had a different and unmentioned version of the problem. 
And I did not know this, so I hated myself for my "character flaw", 
and for my inability to fix myself. 
Now, I hate the self-help books for making me think that about myself. 
_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.
Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)
"I am silently correcting your grammar."
03 Mar 2016, 11:34 pm
There is a special kind of hate that I have for self-help books.
I guess I would describe it as disappointment (that it did not work), and hopelessness (that nothing else will work), and a feeling that an implied promise had been broken.Many self-help books imply that "this is your problem", and "this is the best way and the only way to fix such problems", and that, "if you follow this way, you will fix the problem". And they might be right... when applied to most people... with normal versions of the problem.
But, it did not work for me because I had a different and unmentioned version of the problem.
And I did not know this, so I hated myself for my "character flaw", and for my inability to fix myself. Now, I hate the self-help books for making me think that about myself. Aw, don't hate those self-help books. They probably didn't realize you were autistic!
I realize now that I overdid things by reading so many self-help books. They weren't contradicting each other, but there was very little in those books that ever seemed easy to implement. Recently, I read a metaphor relating to autism that went something like this: It's like you have directions how to drive from New York to California, but your car is in Florida. Reading self-help books was kind of like that for me. The authors assumed I was already in New York for my trip, when in fact I was still a long drive away.
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