Buffy, you need to read other books, too - not just self-help books. You need to read fiction books, biographies and autobiographies. There are several reasons for that:

1) You may be viewing reading books on self-esteem as "work" as opposed to "pleasure", so you are not allowing yourself to experience pleasure, and that only hurts your self-esteem, without helping it

2) Reading a true story allows you to experience a challenge and a path of growth and learning through the mind of a protagonist, which is a very powerful and enriching experience. Self-help books do not put you through the grind of overcoming challenges and facing lost hopes together with the protagonist - they do not allow you the kind of soul growth that actual literature fosters.

3) The more you read good books, the better you become at conversation, esp. written, and that would lead to more friendships.

I myself had a many year period of not being able to read books - for entirely different reasons, but still. This is the book that pulled me out of it and I highly recommend it for you:

Amazon.com: The Fault in Our Stars (8601402233168): John Green: Books