Interesting Quotes
Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.
The law of love knows no bounds of space or time.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fail. Think of it — always.
It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
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We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller
"You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to."
SEAN MAGUIRE
Fascinating Facts
The first speed limit in the United States was 12 mph and was set in New York City. Reportedly people were used to the speed of horse-drawn carriages, and feared that faster speeds would lead to accidents.
Counseling Articles
Priest warns Christians not to play ‘Holy Spirit’ Ouija board game
A new Board game is being promoted as a Christian version of the Ouija board, and says that players can ask questions and get answers directly from the Holy Spirit. This article gives further information about it.
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Arizona Mother Warns About AI Voice Cloning After Kidnapping Scam
Last week I alerted you to a danger coming from AI—voice cloning. If you read this article you’ll see how terrifying this could be for you or your clients. It also includes some wise suggestions for how to respond. I think this is something all of us who have loved ones should become prepared for.
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EARLIEST BRAIN SURGERY IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOUND IN ISRAEL
There is quite a bit of archeological research being done at Megiddo (which most of us now know as the biblical city of Armageddon), which we are told from Scripture will play an important role in the end times. Research has just discovered some of the earliest examples of brain surgery, allegedly done around 1500 B.C. Not a counseling article, but some of you may be interested.
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ECT vs Ketamine for Major Depressive Disorder: New Data
According to a new study ECT was slightly more effective in treating major depression than ketamine. However, this was a small sample size, so more research is needed to consolidate these findings. However, if you have a depressed client who hasn’t responded to other antidepressants and is scared of ECT, a trial on ketamine may be worthwhile to have them consider.
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“What Are the Long-Term Effects of ADHD Medication on the Brain?”
Sometimes when parents learn their child has ADHD they are reluctant to start their child on stimulants for fear that these medications may affect the brain’s development in negative ways. According to recent brain studies the long term effects are actually the opposite. Children with ADHD typically have three portions of the brain that are smaller than normal. Those parts help children with long-term planning and attention control. Without ADHD medication those parts of the brain remain smaller than normal into adulthood. However, with ADHD medication they frequently grow larger and by adulthood are close to normal size.
Another fear that prevents some parents from giving their children ADHD medication is the fear that it will encourage their children to become addicted to other drugs. Other long-term research again shows the opposite. Because of the frustrations of growing up without the help of medication children with ADHD who are not given medication are twice as likely to become substance abusers as those who are given ADHD medication.
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Olympic Medalist Molly Seidel on the Long Road to Her ADHD Diagnosis
Molly Seidel is one of the few women who has earned an Olympic medal in the bruising competition of the marathon. But she has had to do this while struggling with various mental disorders—OCD, an eating disorder, and the last to be diagnosed, ADHD. Because athletes are less prone to share their mental health struggles, she has been a pioneer in openly sharing about her mental health struggles. If you have a client who feels embarrassed about their struggles, her story might be an encouragement to them.
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‘Militant’ Atheist NBA Employee Driven to Disprove God Ends Up Proving Him, Converting to Christianity
Marc Lozano was raised in a nominal Christian family who “stopped pretending” they were Christians when he was 11, and he joined them in becoming a thorough-going atheist. He became a basketball star, eventually got a job in the NBA, had financial security, and a beautiful wife. But he was miserable. She was a believer, and they often had debates about religion.
He had a brilliant, analytical mind and decided to disprove God, reading about 100 books, including the Summa Theologica, Augustine, the Bible, the Quran, the tenets of Buddhism. Surprisingly, his studies convinced him of the existence of the Christian God, and he has made some significant shifts in his life in light of his new-found faith. Although not a counseling article, you may find it helpful if you work with clients who are having some of the same questions.
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Spring Mania—Deciding If It’s Time for Action
For people with Bipolar 1 or 2, the winter often brings on depression. With the arrival of Spring, the seasonal change may bring on an episode of hypomania or mania. Some people recognize this in themselves, but others find that it is good to alert family or close friends to the early signs of an impending manic or hypomanic episode, so those friends can alert them and they can talk with their doctor about a medication change.
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5 Types of Image-Based Sexual Abuse You Should Know About
With the “advances” in technology come a disgusting array of computer-generated types of sexual abuse, and you may soon be counseling people who have been traumatized by pornography depicting them in sexual situations even though they have never been involved in such situations themselves.
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An example of one of these kinds of sexual abuse is a Houston student who started a website, supposedly of one of his teachers, where he took the face of one of his teachers and pasted it on several pictures of nude women.
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Why Finns Are the Happiest People
The nation of Finland won the record for being the happiest nation in the world for five years running, despite the fact that their country experiences more cold days and long nights than many other countries. In this article from Psychology Today a philosopher and psychology researcher from Finland tells what he believes the reasons are. If you read the reasons he gives, I think you’ll find that those reasons are all compatible with the teachings of Scripture.
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A woman emerged from a cave in Spain after spending 500 days in total isolation for an experiment, the BBC reports.
Not a counseling article, but an article about an important feat. We’ve read about people who developed hallucinations after much shorter periods of isolation, but she doesn’t appear to have done so.
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Violinist Itzhak Perlman Champions Accessibility for People with Disabilities
World-famous violinist Itzhak Perlman contracted polio when he was four years old and has walked with leg braces and canes most of his life. But I think if you take the time to read this article, you’ll see the remarkable attitudes he has taken toward his disability, and how he has come to have an outstanding life ever since.
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Polypharmacy Isn’t the Answer for Childhood Mental Health
It’s interesting that this article is written by a child psychiatrist writing in a journal for physicians, and he says that as children and teens experience more and more stress, psychiatrists and pediatricians prescribe more and more medications, often leading to over-medicated children and teens, when what they need most is non-pharmacological support.
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Phototherapy a Safe, Effective, Inexpensive New Option for Dementia?
Pharmacological treatments for dementia have generally given disappointing results. Phototherapy (treating dementia patients with a specific kind of light) does not seem to improve depression, agitation, or sleep problems, but it does seem to improve cognitive functioning. So it is one kind of treatment for dementia that hopefully can yield further benefits.
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Children
In another reminder that we should not accept the recommendations of the UN without question, this latest report suggests that sex between adults and children should be decriminalized as long as it is consensual. Critics of the proposal question whether children can make informed consent. The same report recommended that all abortions should also be legalized. Fortunately more recent articles report that this motion was defeated, even though the U.S. and many other nations supported it.
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What Happened When I Revealed the Biggest Secret of My Life
This person, who has Bipolar 2, wondered for years if she was “bipolar enough” to share her secret. Here is her story, which I think could be an encouragement to those who have questions about whether or not to share their mental health challenges.
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Dying patients study reveals ‘brain surge’ in final moments of life
Wynne Stalling found this article and passed it on to me. Thirty patients who were dying allowed a medical instrument that measures brain activity to be placed on them as they passed. It found something unexpected. Nearly ¾ of patients (73%) had a spike in brain activity just as they passed. Some speculate that loved ones appear to welcome them into the afterlife. Christians might speculate that God sends a welcoming angel to usher a believer into heaven, although the authors of this article do not mention this possibility. But it’s a fascinating article to read and consider.
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Survivors Alleging Satanic Ritual Abuse Raise Awareness Amid Media Claims of ‘Panic’
The heyday of people claiming that they had been victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse occurred in the 1980s and 90s. Because of the research of Kenneth Lanning, this belief died down for many years. This article talks about a few Christian counselors who still believe it occurs and provide counseling for those clients who say it happened to them. To read a little more about this phenomenon, see this recent article.
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6 Unexpected Signs of Depression
This is an interesting article about depression. Please see especially the fifth point, about several ways that depression in teens often looks completely different from depression in adults.
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I hope you have a nice week or weekend!
Henry Virkler