Self help is not just about reading books. It is also about becoming fluent. One can read a million books and still not learn anything, for reading a book just once usually does not mean remembering its contents for a longer period of time. So my advice would be: Don’t just read, but become fluent. What do I mean by that? Take a book you like and memorize the wisdom inside. You can write down the crucial sentences and pin them on your bulletin board or a wall. Or you can store the paper cards with wisdom notes in your wallet, where you will look at them often. Self help writer Louise Hay, for...

I have come to a conclusion that the majority of my fears are fears of making a mistake. I am not most worried about others forgiving me. I am more worried about my inner inquisition: Will I be able to forgive myself? Will I try to find my fault in something which is clearly the fault of somebody else or is simply destiny or a coincidence? Had I not gone to Northern Germany that October of 1996 (see: Balancing the Beast), would my mental illness ever emerge? Is it my fault that I have to deal with it now? Or was it only a matter of time, when schizoaffective disorder would pop up and destroy the...

In a complex system it is precisely the number and variation of its units that makes it possible for the system to adapt, when its environment changes. (Compare: Martin Reeves, Simon Levin, Daichi Ueda: Von der Natur lernen, published in: Harvard Business manager, September 2016, pages 34-46.) It might seem curious to you that I get my ideas for writing in business magazines, but let me tell you that they pop up any time, sometimes when and where one would least expect it. So it came to be that I suddenly though of the variety of methods I use to cope with my schizoaffective disorder bipolar type as...

The image of serial killers with schizophrenia was so strong in my mind and my subconsciousness that I was truly surprised to meet patients in a mental hospital, who would not hurt a fly. And this type of patients were the majority. It seemed like it was submissiveness that had brought them into the hospital, of course combined with some type of a mental illness. I later met a psychiatrist, who was giving assertiveness courses in the mental hospital, where he worked. Thus my observation could not have been totally wrong. I also learned later that the percentage of criminal offenders among mental...

For as long as I can remember I have been trying to help the less fortunate. I helped a classmate in primary school and she finished it. I helped a dyslectic high-school student and he finished high-school. I wrote a book about coping with mental illness Balancing the Beast – A Bright View of Schizoaffective Disorder, mostly because I wanted to inspire other people in a similar situation. Of course there were many cases, in which I could not help the person. I remember a mother who kept hugging her four-year-old son, whenever he had hit his younger brother, who was two. She explained to me that her...