Articles from the Week of November 4, 2022

Thoughtful Quotes

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

Helen Keller

"What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain."

MAYA ANGELOU

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

“I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.”

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

— Thomas Jefferson

If conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value.

— John Adams

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

Michelangelo

Interesting Facts (and at least one totally useless one):

The phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” was originally coined because Texas had an enormous problem with trash discarded on the roadways. By the 1980s it was costing the state approximately $20 million a year for cleanup. Along with a massive cleanup, the phrase was coined by an ad agency to encourage citizens to stop littering.

Some interesting things about bats: Although we don’t think about them much, bats make up 21% of the mammals in the world. They range in size from the tiny bumblebee bat (about one inch long) to the flying box bat, which has a five-foot wingspan. They are voracious eaters of insects and are estimated to save farmers 1 billion dollars per year in insecticides and crop damage.

Beavers are mammals, and as such cannot breathe underwater. However, they have been known to hold their breath for up to 45 minutes!

A new technique has demonstrated that locusts produce enough electric charge to rival thunderstorms. Apparently honeybees also produce electrical charges. At this point much is unknown about these charges and whether they have any beneficial effects on the animals or on the environment.

Octopuses have 3 hearts.

Totally useless fact: Yoshi, the friendly green dinosaur in the Nintendo game full name is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas.

Tesla Engineers Take Control Of Twitter’s Algorithms Away From Twitter’s Engineers: ‘The Bird Is Freed’

This obviously is not a counseling article, but I encourage you to read about Musk’s purpose in purchasing Twitter. I think he articulates something that is important for our culture to foster in order to remain healthy. Click here to read the full article. 

‘And That’s the Way It Is’: 12 Walter Cronkite Quotes

Another article that isn’t about counseling, but I think is important for our society. Many of those who read this compilation are too young to remember Walter Cronkite when he was a news reporter on television. Some of the things that distinguished him from today’s reporters was that he tried to be neutral about the issues he reported on, and to report both sides of an issue. This article gives a good introduction to his way of reporting. Click here to read it. 

What Is Hoarding Disorder? Defining Characteristics, Treatments, and ADHD Link

This is a very informative article on hoarding disorder, the comorbid diagnoses it can co-occur with (not just OCD and ADHD) and the best treatments for it. Click here to read the full article. 

My “Bipolar Brain”: Constant Conversations in My Head

This author describes something that happens to him quite regularly. Perhaps you have non-bipolar clients that do this. It would seem like some of our psychological techniques, perhaps some of those from mindfulness, would be helpful for clients like this. If you have had clients with this issue and have found something that has been helpful to them, please email me with a description of what it was, and I may include it in a future issue of the Friday News. Click here to read the full article. 

How to Stop Enabling and Start Trusting: ADHD Independence-Building Strategies for Parents

Probably every parent who cares for their child’s success sometimes wonders whether they’re doing too much for their child (enabling) rather than supporting their child in learning to be independent and learning to organize their own life. This article has some good ideas that would probably be able to be used by any parent, whether or not their child has ADHD.  Click here to read the full article. 

For Chronic Pain Patients, Consider Green-Tinted Glasses?

You may have heard rumors about this research study, where people with chronic pain from fibromyalgia were instructed to wear either green-tinted glasses, blue-tinted glasses, or clear glasses for several hours per week. As a measure of the pain they were experiencing, their use of opioid medication was measured. There was some indication that pain might have decreased (as measured by opioid use). However, there is a need for further research before we can say for certain that green-tinted glasses are an effective pain-reduction strategy. Click here to read the full article. 

Adverse Surgical Outcomes From ‘Gender-Affirming’ Surgeries

This article focuses on the temporary pause Vanderbilt University Medical Center has put on “Gender-Affirming” surgeries, but it does include a discussion of some of the adverse surgical outcomes not normally discussed elsewhere. This debate will undoubtedly continue for the next few years. Click here to read the full article. 

4 Ways to Help Others Help You Manage Your Bipolar

People with bipolar disorder can benefit from having an informed group of supportive family and friends around them. Here is a short article on helpful things to have those friends do. Click here to read the full article. 

Abandoned Lion Cub Got Saved, Now Give Cuddles to the Man Who Raised Her

This is not a counseling article, but I found it to be a fascinating story, so wanted to share it with those who might be interested. This man raised a small lion cub after she was abandoned, and now that she is fully grown, she still loves him. The video shows this fully-grown lion, who could easily probably kill him with one swat, cuddling him and showing affection to him. Click here to read the full article. 

FDA Approves Rapid-Acting Oral Antidepressant

For those of us who have worked with clients with long-standing depression that hasn’t responded to other medications, there is a new medication just approved by the FDA that seems to provide rather prompt relief (e.g., one week). Click here to read the full article. 

Special Report: Psychotherapy for Patients with Schizophrenia—A Specialized Practice

If you’ve ever tried to provide counseling for someone with schizophrenia you’ve probably recognized how difficult this is. Here is an article by a psychiatrist who has extensive experience providing care for people with schizophrenia. It contains some good insights for anyone who might be called on to provide care for someone with this illness. Click here to read the full article. 

Nature Photography: Focusing on the Positive

Interesting article by a person with Bipolar II, who finds that nature photography has a therapeutic benefit for her. Click here to read the full article. 

Tucking And Binding Are Trendy with Gender Dysphoric Kids. Pediatricians Warn They’re Not Harmless.

Tucking and binding, methods that are sometimes recommended to gender-dysphoric boys and girls respectively, can have some surprising negative health effects that most laypersons (and teens) are not aware of. Click here to read the full article. 

“My ADHD Unleashed a Workaholic. ‘Quiet Quitting’ Is Saving Me.”

This person found a job they really liked, became a “workaholic,” and then learned that his undiagnosed (up until that point) ADHD was empowering his workaholism. Gradually he found another career that he really enjoys, but then engaged in some “quiet quitting” that enabled him to put some healthy boundaries between his work and achieve balance in the rest of his life. I wonder if the concept of “quiet quitting” might have some healthy applications to many of our lives, including those of us who have no ADHD? Click here to read the full article. 

Half of Autism Moms Show Signs of Depression

Raising any child is demanding, so it is not surprising that raising a child with autism is even more demanding. Therefore it probably should not come as a surprise that one-half the mothers of autistic children struggle with depression. Click here to read the full article. 

Integrity and rights to gender-affirming healthcare

This is an important article in the area of healthcare, especially in the area of gender-affirming healthcare. Usually healthcare rights have been grounded on one of two bases—either one has a disease that has to be cured, or healthcare has to be provided to prevent some negative outcome, such as depression or suicide. However, there are problems justifying “gender-affirming healthcare on either of these two bases. For example, puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and sexual reassignment therapy involve removing totally normal bodily processes and surgically removing healthy physical organs, and often replacing them with hormones and surgically-modified structures. In some cases we do not have the long-term studies to show what the hormones may do, but in some situations we already know there are negative medical consequences to this change. And the surgically-changed sexual organs almost always do not work as well as the original organs that were modified.

The second rationale for gender-affirming care is that it may reduce depression or suicide. However, even a brief scan of the internet on the subject of desistance shows that there are thousands of persons who have received “gender-affirming treatment” who have recognized that changing their gender did not resolve the psychological problems they were dealing with, and they have returned to living as their natal (birth) gender. And numerous studies have shown that gender-affirming medical treatments does not reduce suicidal attempts any more than counseling alone, and the recent study, widely affirmed by media and gender advocates, found a greater percentage of people hospitalized for suicide attempts among those who had received gender-affirming treatments. Therefore neither of these traditional arguments provides a strong philosophical basis for gender-affirming treatments.

This article tries to provide another philosophical basis—the idea of living in “integrity” with your own self-concept, i.e., living consistently with the beliefs a person holds about themselves. This argument may become more prominent in the months ahead, so if you want to understand it more fully you may read the whole article. I think it would be wise for us to think of how to respond if someone were to approach us with this idea, since it could come up in counseling. Click here to read the full article. 

Teacher Goes VIRAL After Sending Cry For Help to Students’ Parents

Here is a letter a teacher sent to the parents of her students that I think is important for us all to read to understand something about how her teaching, parenting, and students have changed in the last 15 years. Click here to read the full article. 

Is Preschool Too Early to Diagnose ADHD?

Earlier professionals had recommended that children should not be evaluated for ADHD before 6, but a new consensus among professionals are now saying that it is possible and can be helpful to diagnose and begin treatment for children while they are preschool age. To learn more about this new trend and how one goes about differentiating ADHD from normal preschool behavior, see this article. 

I hope you have a wonderful week or weekend!

Henry Virkler