Interesting Quotes
''I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.''
MARK TWAIN
''Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.''
HENRY FORD
True friendship withstands time, distance, and silence.
Isabel Allende
''Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.''
DOUGLAS ADAMS
More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.
Charlie Chaplin
If you need to turn on the heat and the air conditioning the same day, you’re in Florida.
Author unknown
Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.
Mark Twain (Don’t know if I agree with this, but Mark Twain is always funny)
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
Maya Angelou
''We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.''
CHARLES KINGSLEY
Fascinating Facts
Where Is Canada Hiding All Its Tornadoes?
Not a counseling article, but a fact I found fascinating. Canada has the second most tornados per year of any country in the world, second only to the United States. Most are never recorded because Canada is sparsely populated, so many tornados are never seen by human eyes. Quote from this article:
“Tornadoes form when cold air pushes down against rising hot air under the right conditions. This can happen in many different kinds of storms, although the largest and most destructive tornadoes come from the mesocyclones of supercells: tall columns of rotating updrafts in large thunderstorms. Precipitation in the storm cloud pushes the mesocyclone down, and as parts of it are pressurized and exposed to different temperatures, a funnel is created. When this funnel touches the ground, it is classified as a tornado.”
Since this article is from the New York Times you won’t be able to read it unless you have a subscription.
Click here to read full article.
There is only one animal that never sleeps. Do you know what it is? (Answer at end of this compilation of articles).
Counseling Articles
Recommendation for Cannabis Use Disorder Diagnosis in a Context of Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes
When clients are prescribed cannabis for therapeutic purposes, they frequently develop what objectively meets the criteria for cannabis use disorder within a few months. This article discusses how this should be diagnosed.
Click here to read full article.
Timing of Antidepressant Discontinuation During Pregnancy and Postpartum Psychiatric Outcomes in Denmark and Norway
Women who have significant depression often have concerns about continuing antidepressant therapy during pregnancy, fearing it may increase the risk of their baby being born with a birth defect. This large study from Denmark and Norway concluded that if clients are stable in treatment, it is best to continue antidepressants throughout the pregnancy.
Click here to read full article.
Myths and Facts About Therapy
If you are working with a person and you believe they would benefit from couples therapy but their partner is unwilling to be involved in therapy, this brief article might be helpful to have them share with their partner.
Click here to read full article.
Children Being Fed Transgender ‘Propaganda’ by Adults: Elon Musk
Gender-affirming care sounds so benevolent, and who would be so insensitive as to oppose it. Although Elon Musk is not a counselor, I found his comments to be quite interesting.
Click here to read full article.
Physician Suicide: Investigating Its Prevalence and Cause
Physicians have the highest suicide rate of any professional group. Although few of you who read this compilation of articles are physicians, I think this article has some meaningful insights for all of us.
Click here to read full article.
What’s Driving the ‘World’s Fastest-Growing’ Brain Disease’?
The dramatic increase in people with Parkinson’s disease may be due to an ingredient used in many solvents used around the house, including some that you use. Probably an article to read for your own and your family’s protection.
Click here to read full article.
10 Habits of Highly Successful People with Bipolar Disorder
Another good article by one of my favorite Bipolar Disorder bloggers, Tanya Hvilivitzky. If you have one or more clients with bipolar disorder, they might be interested in this article.
Click here to read full article.
If the brain doesn’t feel pain, why do headaches hurt?
Interesting question. Tension headaches are the most common type of headache, but migraines are the most painful. But why do we feel headaches, since the brain has no pain receptors? This article explains the answer, and you might learn a thing or two about pain in general.
Click here to read full article.
Quiet Quitting
Most of us have heard the term “quiet quitting.” Many of us, including myself, weren’t exactly sure what it meant. This article, although written in a medical journal, is probably relevant for all of us. Many people operate under the assumption that they must always be available, must never say no when they’re asked to take on another responsibility, without realizing that the more we allow work responsibilities to take over our lives the less time we have for the other important people in our lives, such as our spouse or our children.
I encourage you to read this article about “quiet quitting” and then prayerfully consider how it might apply to your own life.
Click here to read full article.
Potentially deadly fungus Candida auris on rise across US
This isn’t a counseling article, but I’m including it because Florida is one of the hotspots for this fungus. Especially if you have a compromised immune system it's important for you to learn about it and take precautions.
Click here to read full article.
Missouri Issues Emergency Rule Restricting ‘Inhumane Science Experiments’ on Children
The war between those who advocate for gender transition treatments and those who think they should be paused until we have more data just received another player, the Missouri Attorney General. If you’re interested in his reasoning for making this ruling, which is time-limited, see the article.
Click here to read full article.
What Viewing Porn Together Does To Relationships
Secular sex therapists sometimes encourage couples to watch porn together to “spice up” their relationships. While it is reported that watching porn together does cause some relationships to become more intense temporarily, the long-term result is that the rate of divorce doubles in those relationships that try this experiment.
Click here to read full article.
Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care
This research found that children and teens receiving “gender-affirming care” (i.e., puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgery), there was a 60% decrease in moderate or severe depression and 73% reduction in suicidality in the first year. However, what the research did not address is the fact that during the first year, when these changes are being made, there is typically a temporary reduction in these feelings, but then, as teens find that these solutions are not offering the relief they were promised, those feelings often return.
Click here to read full article.
Famed Biologist Richard Dawkins Declares The TRUTH About "Sexes" Once And For All
Normally I don’t cite atheist and ardent proponent of Darwinism Richard Dawkins with approval, but here’s an article with quotes from him that are quite noteworthy.
Click here to read full article.
Hero Mom Who SACRIFICES Self For Baby Receives Miracle Too
Not a counseling article, but the story of how a woman followed her conscience and God honored her faith with a miraculous healing.
Click here to read full article.
Former Trans Teen Who Sued Health Care Provider Shares Painful Testimony: ‘I May Not Be Able to Have Kids’
This article starts out by telling a story you’ve already heard, but has lots of additional information, including a lot about an organization that tells about the many aspects of the gender transition movement.
Click here to read full article.
Parents’ Bill of Rights Is How Congress Can Help State School Reformers
This Parent’s Bill of Rights is unlikely to ever become law because Senator Schumer says he will not allow it to be considered in the Senate, but it does have some protections that many parents wish would be implemented.
Click here to read full article.
Marital transitions during earlier adulthood and subsequent health and well-being in mid- to late-life among female nurses: An outcome-wide analysis
In case you are tempted to ignore this article (which appeared in the academic journal Global Epidemiology) as irrelevant to Christian counseling, let me reassure you it is not. This, to be sure, is written by four academic anthropologists looking at cultures worldwide and assessing the impact of early marriage on the physical and mental health of nurses during middle and later life. As you know, in our culture today there are many who say that career is all-important, and that marriage often hampers a woman from advancing in her career as far as she could.
Click here to read full article.
Click here to read full article.
Supreme Court Unanimously Sides With Student In Special Ed Case
If you work with children with disabilities who are having difficulty getting their school system to provide adequate help for a child, you may want to keep this article. This was not just a majority decision, but a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.
Click here to read full article.
Big Tech Won’t Protect Our Kids: Parents Must
We may hope that Congress does something to rein in TikTok, but there are other software programs that still will expose children and teens to unhealthy materials. I think this Breakpoint article needs to be a wakeup call to all parents to take more decisive action with their children about social media use.
Click here to read full article.
Trivia answer: The only animal that never sleeps is the bullfrog.
I hope you all have a wonderful week or weekend!
Henry Virkler