How can there be a self-help industry...

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-16-2004
How can there be a self-help industry...
4
Mon, 03-28-2005 - 12:00pm

When (nearly) every profile start with this hokey stuff:

" I see the glass as half full..."
" I am passionate about life, ..."
" I am a high-energy, happy, c..."
" I am a fun, happy, attractiv..."

Come to think of it - shouldn't sales of Prozac and other anti-depressants be falling regularly? Maybe it's just not a scientific sample - and all the happy, normal and well adjusted people are online.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2005
Mon, 03-28-2005 - 12:23pm

Yeah but it’s hard to say I’m outgoing, positive blah blah but I’m not a morning person, I get grumpy occasionally like everyone else, I can be stubborn – somehow that would turn people off although the irony of it is we’re all human and not peppy 24/7 and it does take time to see that person for who they really are.

 
 
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 03-28-2005 - 12:43pm
We all can sound great and well adjusted on paper but it's when you meet and talk with someone that the true self comes out. If I put on my profile "somewhat depressed, slightly codependent,lonely single mom with family baggage"..no one will wink at me!
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Mon, 03-28-2005 - 4:24pm

You know LG, I agrre with you, but HOW does one present themselves in a postitve light w/o those tired phrases? Anything in that same "family" of adjectives has been recycled so many times that they are bound to start repeating them selves. Putting together a profile was always a problem for me as I am horrendous at creative writting!

And the crummy thing about profiles is that you have to try to present yourself as positively and as succinctly as possible. Let's face it, proifles that go on and on loose "viewers".

Such a conundrum!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2005
Mon, 04-04-2005 - 7:07am
In a way I agree, but even the happiest person can have some problems. I for example work all the time and sleep the rest it seems, but aside for that there are a lot of different kinds of self help books out. For example not only the ones for depressed, there are sex, cooking and a lot more. I for one like the sex books. Only because my husband got me started on them.