Every so often I get a call from someone who says, "I have a coach, a therapist, a psychic, an outplacement counselor and half a dozen self-help books. I still don't know what to do! Can you help?"

I call this syndrome "self-help interaction." If your doctor prescribes medication for a sinus infection, and you are taking no other medicine, you'll probably get relief fairly soon. But if you're taking three other kinds of pills, you may get sicker.

Medications can cancel each other out, enhance each other, or be toxic to one another. That's why you can be warned not to mix alcohol with medications.

Similarly, one self-help guide -- book or person -- can be extremely helpful. Ten can make you feel more confused and helpless. Here are some tips to sort out your self-help:

1. Twenty-one days should bring some reward and three months should deliver significant changes. If you are not experiencing changes in your attitude, emotions and life, you have probably chosen a resource that does not fit your particular needs.

2. If you are really, really unhappy, but you can't get yourself to take even one action step to change your situation, I would urge you to consider some form of psychotherapy. Sometimes you are at a point in your life when it's time to do nothing, but inability to act can signal serious problems, such as clinical depression.

3. If you're willing to move but don't know what to do, do something different. It doesn't matter what you do.

   In a tape version of her recent book, Thunder and Lightning, Natalie Goldberg advises writers to overcome blocks by changing small elements of their lives. Take a different route when you walk home, she suggests; if you normally drive with your left hand on the steering wheel, try the right.

   When you're blocked in your career or other areas of your life, do the same! Find a new hobby. Join a new organization. Take your creativity down a new path. If you're a writer, buy a box of pastels and draw. If you're an artist, write.

4. The best sources of help will come when you least expect them. You'll be busy doing something else and wow! Into your life comes a person or a book or a question that goes right to the heart of your question. See my article on serendipity.

5. Pay attention to your intuition. You're probably getting all sorts of messages that form your own personal self-help system -- better than anything you can find on the outside.

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Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant.Your Next Move Ezine: Read one each week and watch your choices grow! Subscribe Here. Time Management Makeover: Click here.