Sayings to Ponder
''The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.''
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
I'm doing many different things to prepare for the inevitable failure of one of them.
Jesse Eisenberg
I wanted to go jogging but Proverbs 28:1 says “The wicked run when no one is chasing them,” so there’s that.
My Last Good Nerve
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.''
OSCAR WILDE
Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.
David Steindl-Rast
''The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.''
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson
''Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.''
HENRY FORD
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
James Madison
From InterestingFacts.com
Thomas Jefferson is the first American known to have written down a recipe for ice cream.
Autism Prevalence Rising Globally
The prevalence of autism is rising globally and testing to identify autism is probably occurring in more and more countries. There is now a specialization in counseling for helping children with autism (particularly those with a dual diagnosis of Asperger’s and ADHD) to learn social skills that will help them get along better socially and professionally. If you are searching for another counseling skill to develop this might be something to consider. Click here to read full article.
Better Rules for Sex?
Our modern culture has generally rejected any rules governing sex, believing them to be outdated and replaced them with a single rule: consent. However, this author, who is not a Christian, has said this has left us with an emptiness. Read this interesting analysis of her work from Breakpoint. Click here to read full article.
Why Are Sexually Transmitted Infections Surging?
This is a New York Times article, so you may not be able to read it, so I will summarize a few points. During the early pandemic the frequency of new STIs decreased, probably because many people stayed isolated. But since that time, STIs have increased significantly. The highest increase is among gay and bisexual men, but many heterosexual women are developing them also. STIs are especially harmful to women, because untreated STIs can lead to infertility, and if they do have children, their children can be born with congenital syphilis, which can often cause serious lifelong problems in those children. Like the above article, it seems that the safest and healthiest route is to have lifelong fidelity to one other person who is likewise committed to fidelity. Click here to read full article.
Five Lesser-Known Children’s Fantasy Series That Point to the Gospel
Probably many of us read the Narnia Chronicles to our children when they were young. Fiction is a delightful way to reinforce the Gospel story in ways that children enjoy. Here are five series that you may not have heard about. Click here to read full article.
DHS warns of threats to burn down Supreme Court, kill justices as abortion decision looms
Let’s all pray for peace when this decision is revealed. Click here to read full article.
Why Deadlines Pounce and Long-Term Plans Never Happen
Russell Barkley, one of the world’s foremost experts on ADHD, says that time management is “the ultimate — yet nearly invisible — disability afflicting those with ADHD.” This article explains why and gives several practical tips to help individuals with ADHD more effectively deal with time management. The article also includes several software programs that may appeal to those with ADHD that assist in time-management. Click here to read full article.
“I’m Recovering from ADHD-Induced Mom Guilt”
Parents, especially mothers, feel guilty that they have been poor parents when their children experience challenges. Because their child causes problems at school, on the playground, and at church, they often feel overwhelmed by the fact that they feel like failures in every arena. This mother articulates those feelings and identifies some of the things that have helped her most. Click here to read full article.
Doctors Gave Her Antipsychotics. She Decided to Live With Her Voices: A new movement wants to shift mainstream thinking away from medication and toward greater acceptance.
This is from the New York Times Magazine: Because I think this is a movement that I believe all counselors should be aware of, I will give more than a brief summary of it.
Psychotropic medications work for many people, at minimum, reducing the intensity of auditory and visual hallucinations, but for others they are not as effective. And they may produce noxious side effects (50-pound weight gain is not unusual), muscle spasms (akathisia), shuffling gait, facial rigidity, stupor, etc.). For a young person, social taunting and isolation can add to the difficulties. Sometimes, to quiet the voices a person mixes psychotropic medication with street drugs, which often makes the situation worse, and because many street drugs are now being laced with dangerous levels of other drugs, can be fatal. Arrests and jail time are not uncommon.
One “solution” that some people try is to discontinue all psychotropic medication and street drugs and learn to live with the voices that frequently reoccur. A relatively new position has developed: peer support specialist, which is for those with lived experience of psychosis, who work alongside mental health practitioners.
A peer support group, called the “Hearing Voices Network” is a peer-lead support group where people may share their experiences, with the idea that verbalizing those experiences may loosen the hold of those hallucinations on group members. Started in Europe by a Dutch psychiatrist, there are now many such support groups in America. During the pandemic, many HVN groups had to meet via Zoom.
The World Health Organization (WHO) which many people have come to distrust because of its pronouncements on the COVID pandemic, last year produced a 300-page manual on the human rights of mental health patients. It questions the authority of biological psychiatry and recommends that all coercive mental health treatments be ended and called for a re-thinking of many of the fundamental assumptions of biological psychiatry. Adding to the credibility of the manual is the support of Thomas Insel, who from 2002 to 2015 was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health, who, even though he was author or coauthor of many papers, said in retrospect that he thought not much progress had been made in treating serious mental illness.
While traditional biological psychiatry continues to be the predominant approach in treating serious mental illness, I think it is worthwhile to be aware of some of these other approaches. Click here to read full article.
Too many children are at risk because of their parents’ mental illness
This article takes the opposite view of the one above, arguing that mental illness should be treated, and that untreated mental illness causes many tragedies in both families and to totally unrelated individuals. I think it’s important to hear both sides of this issue, and then pray for God’s guidance about what we should do. Click here to read full article.
ECT & Bipolar Depression
This person used various methods to ward off depression for many years. But this time nothing seemed to be working. His statement: “Electroconvulsive therapy saved my life.” A balanced article on ECT as one treatment for bipolar depression. Click here to read full article.
What Parents Need to Know About Teen Vaping and What They Can Do About It
A brief, to the point article that does what its title says. Click here to read full article.
Parental Advisory: Court Rules ‘Gender Queer’ Novel Too Sexually Explicit for Schools
A court in Virginia ruled that two novels--Gender Queer: A Memoir and A Court of Mist and Fury--are too "obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors." Click here to read full article.
Experts: Monkeypox Pandemic in Europe and North America May Have a New Mode of Transmission
As of Tuesday of this week there were at least 80 confirmed cases of monkeypox in 12 countries so far, and at least 50 additional cases awaiting confirmation. Although usually found primarily in Africa, it is now present in both the U.S. and Canada. It is not easily transmitted by humans. Symptoms include fever, headaches, rashes, swollen lymph nodes, back pain, muscle aches, chills, and exhaustion.
It is most often found in gay and bisexual men. There is uncertainty about whether it is sexually transmissible or whether the prolonged contact that occurs in sexual relationships is the culprit. It is generally believed that transmission in humans occurs because someone has contact with the monkeypox lesions rather than exchange of bodily fluids.
Monkeypox has symptoms like those of smallpox but are less severe. It usually resolves by itself in 2 to 3 weeks, but it is important for people to self-isolate during that time so that others are not exposed to the lesions. There is a new vaccine approved by the U.S. in 2019 for smallpox and monkeypox, and there are older vaccines that can be used but that sometimes have more side-effects than the newest vaccine. Click here to read full article.
Do More. Procrastinate Less. Feel Great.
This article, though written for those with ADHD (who are known for their tendency to procrastinate), this article has some good insights as to the cognitions of anyone who procrastinates, and some worthwhile ideas and apps that may help reduce that habit. Click here to read full article.
New Behavioral Vaccines Raise Unsettling Questions
Some people are encouraging develop of vaccines that would prevent some drugs and alcohol from producing the “highs” that can lead to addiction. This article takes a thoughtful approach to discussing the pros and cons of such vaccines. The issues are more complex than we might first think they are. Click here to read full article.
An “Ethics Manual” for Your Teen’s Electronics
One of the challenges parents face, whether their children have ADHD or not, is how to regulate their children’s use of electronics. This article suggests setting up guidelines for each electronic device. It may sound overly-legalistic: but there are probably many parents who set no boundaries on their children’s use of electronics who now wish they had done so. See what you think. And you probably have some clients who are parents who might want to think about the ideas in this article. Click here to read full article.
Redefining Bipolar Recovery & Winning at Life
This is a good article reminding us that for chronic, lifelong conditions like bipolar disorder, recovery does not mean never experiencing any bipolar symptoms again. Thoughtful article. Click here to read full article.
Our greatest public health crisis? The angry young American male
This article, prompted by the tragedy in Texas, has caused a lot of discussion throughout the country. In case you hadn’t read it, here it is. Click here to read full article.
‘Distressed’ man suffers amnesia after sex with wife
An interesting article about a rare condition. Called “Global Transient Amnesia,” it occurs rarely in some people within a few minutes after having intercourse. It is not considered a serious condition, and memories usually return within a few hours. The fact that a person has this once does not mean they will have a recurrence every time they make love, but they are likely to have another episode sometime during their life. Click here to read full article.
How to Murder Your Husband writer found guilty of murdering husband
This article doesn’t have anything to do with counseling, but I found it fascinating and decided to add it in case you are interested. This woman wrote a book titled “How to Murder Your Husband” and then did exactly that. Click here to read full article.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Henry Virkler
