Its natural to equate self-help with self-improvement, however; self-help is more closely related to self-support or self-assistance, I would go so far as self-acceptance. I think Toft would disagree, he writes in his blog, "Self-help books take us quickly into the jaws of paradox. On the one hand, we are told to accept ourselves. On the other, we are counseled to improve ourselves." I don't think its a matter of being on one hand or the other, its makes more sense, that we get help accepting ourselves.
Usually that means accepting that we are affected by childhood issues and dealing with them, accepting we are angry with ourselves because we eat too much or not enough, mainly it comes down to accepting we have no control over our past anymore, so we need to deal with the emotions so that we can balance ourselves out.
And with any luck a self-help book can help us begin that process..
