Articles from the Week of April 26, 2024
Explanation: Although I scan the Internet primarily for counseling articles, in the process I run across quotes and interesting facts that I sometimes include in these first two sections. If you’re just interested in the counseling articles, you can skip these first two sections and go directly to the section called Counseling Articles. HV
Interesting Quotes
All men have their frailties; whoever looks for a friend without imperfections, will never find what he seeks.
Cyrus the Great
The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
George Eliot
It is love alone that gives worth to all things.
Teresa of Ávila (16th century nun and mystic)
I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does — even the people that I consider flawless — then you can start to live with the way you are.
Taylor Swift
Fascinating Facts
Have you ever wondered why people in early photographs were never smiling?
The reason may have been that the earliest exposures took up to eight hours. With technical advances the time was shortened to 20 minutes, but these lengthy exposure times probably accounted for why in early photographs people were not smiling. (Source: HistoryFacts.com)
Before he entered politics Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler, winning nearly every match he participated in. He was also one of the few presidents who had an invention for which he received a patent. (Source: HistoryFacts.com)
Do you know the largest number of children born to one woman? Answer: 69(Source: NeedtoKnowFacts.com
Interesting Facts about the Planet Jupiter
“Of all the planets in the Milky Way, Jupiter has the most gravity. This is due to Jupiter being the largest and most massive planet in our galaxy. It is almost 11 times the size of Earth and about 318 times more massive. Jupiter is not like other traditional planets because it is a gas giant and therefore it does not have an actual surface. Theoretically, if a person were to try and stand on Jupiter's surface they would sink right through to its core.” (Source: NeedtoKnowFacts.com)
Counseling Articles
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Often Go Untreated for Parents on Medicaid
This article is from the New York Times so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize the gist. Often serious mental health or substance abuse issues can cause parents on Medicaid to lose custody of their children. This study found that half of the parents on Medicaid who qualified for assistance for mental health or substance abuse treatment do not get such assistance. Spreading the word about this might help some of these families stay together.
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Department of Education’s Revised Title IX Rule
“Under the sweeping new Title IX rule, any K–12 school or institution of higher education that receives any federal funding would have to open girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, housing accommodations, sports teams, and any other sex-separated educational program or offering to biological boys who claim to “identify” as girls. Similarly, boys’ facilities would have to be accessible to biological girls who “identify” as boys.
“The regulations also eliminate due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct (like the right to call witnesses, introduce evidence, or be represented by counsel during an investigation), and violates the First Amendment to the Constitution by forcing teachers and fellow students to use of a student’s “preferred pronouns.”
“The regulations also require K-12 schools to accept a child’s gender identity regardless of biological sex without providing any notice to, much less seeking the approval of the child’s parents.”
Expect that there will be many legal challenges to these new regulations.
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Riley Gaines Says Biden Has ‘Abolished Title IX’; Breaks Down What This Means for Women
Riley Gaines has been a courageous voice saying that only biological girls and women should play women’s sports. Here is her response to the revised Title IX regulations.
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If you would like to hear an excellent analysis of this from a Christian perspective, listen to Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Boyce College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at https://albertmohler.com/2024/04/22/briefing-4-22-24/ While this discussion is 25 minutes long, it is really excellent.
7 Things to Know About Paranoia in Bipolar Disorder
Paranoia sometimes afflicts people with bipolar disorder, even continuing during periods of stable mood. Here’s a well-researched article about the topic.
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Early Evidence Supports Ketogenic Diet for Mental Illness
A pilot study has found that a ketogenic diet reduced the intensity of symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and reversed metabolic disorder, which sometimes causes people who take certain psychiatric medicines to gain substantial weight. While this is a pilot study it will be worth it to watch what fuller studies reveal.
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Live Webinar on May 1: The Journey to Independence: A Parent’s Guide to Delayed Adulthood with ADHD
Children with ADHD often have delays in their progression to adulthood. This psychiatrist offers, in this free webinar, practical advice for parents.
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'Anus-eating' virus that kills 30% of people is spreading – 'something has happened'
A rather gruesome report of an anus-eating virus that kills 30% of the people it infects has been found in all portions of Japan. Though there are no medical reports that it is present in the United States yet, but it will probably emigrate to the States in the near future.
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My year of casual sex: I set out to be ‘fearless’ in the bedroom — but what actually happened will horrify you
This true-life story reflects some of the findings in last week’s article “A Troubling Trend in Teenage Sex” although it occurred in Great Britain rather than in America. I encourage all counselors to read this article: some of the details are such that you probably won’t believe them unless you read her accounts yourself. I think this article and last week’s article on “A Troubling Trend” have implications for the counseling we provide for both young men and young women.
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Not all cultures value happiness over other aspects of well-being
We sometimes are told that the United States ranks 23rd in average happiness compared to other nations. However, these rankings are based on responses to one single question and the reasons people give for ranking their own happiness are likely to be affected by various factors, rather than by how happy they feel. And different cultures may prioritize different concepts (e.g., family cohesion) in stating how happy they feel. For Christians, some may think of happiness in ways quite different than other Christians or non-believers do. And obviously, how happy one feels often varies from day to day and the circumstances that have happened in the recent time-frame. From all of the above it’s clear why researchers believe that the measurement of happiness needs more study.
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Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome Is on the Rise
Another diagnosis has been showing up in increasing frequency in people who have been using marijuana regularly for several years. The most frequent symptoms are nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Since this syndrome was fairly rare until recently, often it has been missed when making a diagnosis. If you have a client who has been using marijuana for a year or longer several times a week and comes complaining of these symptoms, referral to a doctor or preferably a gastroenterologist is appropriate.
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DeSantis says Satanists can’t be part of school chaplain program; Satanic Temple responds
Not a counseling article, but one that may be of interest to those in Florida.
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Top 5 Ways AI Impacts Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence in Kids
A startling article about the ways that AI is starting to impact the development of our children, along with some suggestions for parents about how to counter that impact.
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Ozempic use appears to be changing people’s personalities —experts think they know why
This may start showing up in your counseling offices, which is why I’m including this article. Ozempic and similar medications such as Wegovy, which were initially used to treat diabetes but now have been widely used to aid weight loss, have been accused of causing “Ozempic face,” “Ozempic finger,” and “Ozempic butt,” but the newest thing are increases in mental health symptoms such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. The putative theory for this is that GLP-1 drugs alter the dopamine system, although the mechanism by which they do this is still unproven.
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Sexual Orientation Among Female Nurses Tied to Premature Death
90,000 nurses were part of this study. During the study period the mortality rate for bisexual women was 10%, for lesbian women was 7%, and for heterosexual women was 4.6%.
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Autism Diagnosis Often Takes Longer for Girls
Girls often don’t get diagnosed with autism until later than boys, which can prevent them from getting into treatment programs that could help them. This article explains why this sometimes happens, and the ways that autism often manifests differently in girls than boys. There’s some information in this article that doesn’t appear in the DSM-5. Good information to know, even if working with autistic individuals is not your specialty.
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Back from the Brink: The Intellectual Tide Is Turning on Marriage and Civil Society
You may have been disheartened by the way our society seemed to be turning away from the idea that healthy family relationships were important for individuals and for society, but this article talks about some of the indications that the tide may be turning back, and recognizing the importance of strong, healthy family relationships in nurturing healthy individuals and cultures.
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Confronting the Toll of Hookup Culture
Another article, like the one above, that shows that when individuals and cultures rebel against God’s principles for relationships it leads to emptiness and depression. Although these articles do not say this explicitly, for those of us who know Scripture we see that humans are implicitly rediscovering that when humans return to God’s principles it leads to healthier living.
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Whither Hypergamy?
Hypergamy may not be a word with which you’re familiar. It refers to the trend that has been present in many cultures until recently, for women to “marry up,” i.e., to marry a husband whose education and earning power was greater than their own. But with the shift in women often pursuing more education than men, a new trend has occurred, at least in developed countries—hypogamy—women marrying husbands who had less education and earning power than they did. The early research found that such marriages were less stable than hypergamous ones, but this has leveled out now. However, you may still encounter marriages where this change is causing some friction, and the couple is in need of some assistance in working through this issue.
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I hope you have a wonderful week or weekend,
Henry Virkler