Articles from the Week of December 22, 2023
Interesting Quotes
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou
The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
Louisa May Alcott
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller
How does a girl become strong? How does she enact change? How does she grow into a strong woman? It begins with a step that sounds simple but isn’t. She finds her voice. A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman.
Melinda French Gates
When people ask me what it’s like to be a parent, I say that it’s among the hardest things you’ll ever do, but in exchange, it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.
Nicholas Sparks
From our first babblings to our last word, we make but one statement, and that is our life.
Richard Paul Evans
Fascinating Facts
John Wilkes Booth is well-known as the person who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. His brother, Edwin Booth is relatively unknown, but about year before Abraham Lincoln was killed Lincoln’s son was accidentally pushed off a train station and would have been crushed by a train he was saved by Edwin Booth (Source: HistoryFacts.com)
“What mammal gains 8 pounds an hour as a baby?
“Baby blue whales gain about 8 pounds an hour. In their first year of life, human babies nearly triple their weight. And while that sounds like an impressive stretch of growth, it’s nothing compared to blue whales. These cetacean newborns, which already weigh around 3 tons at birth, pack on upwards of 200 pounds a day, meaning baby blue whales bulk up at a rate of about 8 pounds an hour. This incredible growth spurt makes sense when you analyze a young blue whale’s diet, which consists exclusively of 100 gallons of its mother’s milk every day — and this isn’t anything like the milk you buy at the grocery store. Where cow-supplied whole milk contains around 3.25% milk fat, a female blue whale’s milk contains upwards of 50% milk fat. A blue whale calf will nurse with its mother for about seven months until reaching around 52 feet in length and tipping the scales at around 23 tons.
Although weighing around 400,000 pounds fully grown seems like a drag (literally), it actually comes with numerous benefits. For one, blue whales have almost no natural predators (other than the occasional orca) due to their immense size, and their massive bulk helps them swim faster to feeding and mating grounds. However, unlike other whale species, blue whales need to eat almost constantly — one adult blue whale can consume up to 4 tons of krill daily. In other words, their voracious appetite isn’t so much a childhood fad as it is a lifelong strategy for survival.” (Source: InterestingFacts.com)
Too Sexy Whales
“Porpoises, sea lions and even whales have been trained to retrieve dummy rockets and other objects from the bottom of the ocean…. The animals, guided by a homing device, would carry grappling hooks to submerged objects…. But whales became too expensive and kept running off to mate, so research now concentrates on smaller sea mammals such as porpoises.” (Source: Science News, December 16, 2023, p. 4).
Counseling News
A Medical Breakthrough for Postpartum Depression Within a Deeply Flawed System
Anyone familiar with mental health is aware of how important it is to have a treatment available for postpartum depression. This article discusses the fact that there are now two rapid-acting and effective treatments, but they are so exorbitantly priced that they will probably be unreachable for all but the extremely rich families.
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Gen Z is scamming companies out of billions each year with staggering rates of ‘friendly fraud’
“Friendly fraud” was a new term for me so I read the article. Almost half of Gen Z members have admitted committing it. It involves ordering something with a credit card, receiving it in good condition and using it, but then asserting that they never received it and asking for a refund. The percentage of Gen Z members committing it is about double the percentage of Millennials who admit to doing it. Only 5% of Baby Boomers confess to this, so apparently this is a rapidly-increasing trend among younger generations.
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6 Ways to Let Go of Guilt
When people who have bipolar disorder are either in a manic or depressed phase they may do things that they later regret. And probably many of us who do not have bipolar disorder as an excuse do also. This author gives some suggestions that I think almost all of us could benefit from. As I read the article it reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s discussion of godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow.
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Cannabis Exposure and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Related to Placental Function
One more research study detailing why women who are pregnant should not use cannabis during their pregnancies. The research found that adverse pregnancy outcomes were higher among those who used cannabis during pregnancy. The adverse outcomes were highest among those who continued to use cannabis during their third trimester.
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CDC: 90% of Congenital Syphilis Cases Could Have Been Prevented
The number of infants born with syphilis is now 10 times higher than it was 10 years ago. Congenital syphilis often has severe physical consequences, including miscarriage and stillbirth as well as neurological problems and deformed bones. Most of these could be prevented by early testing and treatment. If you work with this population and a young person becomes pregnant you may want to encourage them to get early testing.
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Can Vitamin and Mineral Supplementation Prevent Cancer or Cardiovascular Disease?
When people go on the Internet they often find claims that certain vitamins or supplements can prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease, and clients may come to you with this information asking for your thoughts. Now a legitimate medical group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, evaluated more than 17,000 claims and 379 full text articles and found that none of the supplements or vitamins reduced either cancer or cardiovascular diseased (sometimes abbreviated as CVD).
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2023’s Must-Read Books on Bipolar Disorder
Clients with bipolar disorder can often benefit from reading books about their disorder. I have not read these books but they are recommended by an internet site I trust for reliable and valid information.
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Fun sayings on t-shirts
I’m not short: I’m concentrated awesome
Admit it; life would be boring without me
Raising my husband is exhausting
I’m the youngest sister; rules don’t apply to me
To my dear son-in-law; I didn’t give you life, I gave you my gorgeous daughter. Thank you for not selling her to the circus, although I know that is a tempting option some days!
I may look calm, but in my head I’ve slapped you three times
Investigating the Relationship Between Smoking Behavior and Global Brain Volume
If you have clients who need help motivating themselves to quit smoking, here is one more reason. We have known for some time that smoking is associated with cognitive decline and greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. These researchers, studying 32,000 people, found that people who smoked daily had decreased brain volume, and that the more cigarettes they smoked per day, the greater their loss of brain volume.
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Fun Headlines from the Babylon Bee
Clarence The Angel Takes Gavin Newsom to Florida to Show Him What California Would Look Like If He'd Never Been Born
Gingerbread House in California Listed on Zillow for $1.9 Million
Proud Parent Installs 'My Kid Didn't Go to Harvard' Bumper Sticker on Car
Rethinking Codependence
For many years therapists have warned spouses of people struggling with substance abuse issues not to be codependent. Some of us as Christian therapists have felt uncomfortable, thinking that in the attempt to criticize codependency some aspects of true Christian caregiving were being sacrificed. Two respected therapists are now trying to help other therapists and clients to reformulate the difference between codependency and healthy caring. See what you think of their approach.
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Spiritual Issues in Secular Treatment
Sometimes we may feel hesitant to discuss spiritual issues in counseling, but as this Muslim therapist points out, helping clients resolve spiritual issues can often be very helpful to them. I encourage you to read this article and then be open when clients need to work through such issues in their own lives.
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14 Ways MS Has Improved My Life
This seems like a very unlikely title, but the article helps us see that most anything can be turned into a blessing depending on our attitude.
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Prolonged Grief Disorder—What You Need to Know
Prolonged Grief Disorder is receiving increased attention. Here is an article in a psychiatric journal on the status of the diagnosis and a current treatment program for it, although I’m not terribly impressed with the treatment program. I think most of us could develop a better treatment plan using the counseling skills we have learned.
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I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Henry Virkler
