Articles from the Week of May 31, 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
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.
Billy Graham
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie
Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
Dolly Parton
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Albert Einstein
Happiness is having a loving, close-knit family in another city.
George Burns
Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts.
Wayne Huizenga
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
Charles Dickens
The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.
Booker T. Washington
Fascinating Facts
Europeans feared (so didn’t eat) tomatoes for centuries, believing they were poisonous. This same fear was present in America for a time, one American farmer said they were “as poisonous as a rattlesnake.” Apparently fear of tomatoes was overcome when pizza became a favorite food (Source: HistoryFacts.com).
8 Amazing Facts About Antarctica
”Antarctica Is the World’s Largest Desert. Antarctica Is Also the Coldest, Windiest, Driest, and Highest Continent. There’s No Official Time Zone in Antarctica. At Least 11 Babies Have Been Born in Antarctica. Antarctica Has a Lake So Salty It Doesn’t Freeze. Antarctica Is Bigger Than the United States. No One’s Sure Who Discovered Antarctica, and Antarctica Is Officially Dedicated to Peaceful Purposes.” (Source: InterestingFacts.com)
Counseling Articles
Legal Marijuana Leads to More Hospital Trips for Older Adults
With current trends about marijuana going the way they are in the U.S., crushed marijuana and edible marijuana may soon be considered for legalization here in the U.S. It might be wise to pay attention to a study in Canada. When crushed marijuana was legalized there, hospital trips to the E.R. for older adults doubled, and when edible marijuana was legalized, the hospital trips to the E.R. for older adults tripled.
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High-Potency Cannabis Linked to Increased Psychosis Risk in Young Adults: Study
You’re probably aware of the possibility that today’s more potent cannabis can induce a psychotic episode in adolescents. But this research looks at long-term effects. Those who experience one psychotic episode during adolescence from cannabis are significantly more likely to develop either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in their twenties. I know that some legislators are thinking that liberalizing policies about cannabis will result in more votes from young citizens in elections but I hope our legislators will review the research on cannabis before making any more decisions.
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Can Pink Noise Enhance Sleep and Memory? Early Research Drives a Color Noise Buzz
We’re all familiar with “white noise” which is often used to mask background noise. Now some early research is being done on “pink noise,” “brown noise,” and “green noise.” The research is just beginning, but if you’d like to learn a little about these concepts, see the article below.
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Free-Range Kids and the Parental Compass
There’s been many articles on “helicopter parents” (always carefully watching over their children) and “lawnmower parents” (cutting down any obstacles before their children experience them). A countermovement in response to these two kinds of parenting has been called “free range parenting.” This article has some thoughtful comments on free-range parenting and attachment theory. I recommend any parent or counselor take the time to read it.
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Building Resilience in a High-Risk World
This article discusses related concepts to the article above. Building resilience in our children is important, but many adult clients could also benefit from becoming more resilient. And Scripture talks about how trials can produce healthy qualities like endurance. Our children and we ourselves will experience challenges in this world. Perhaps a better goal than trying to protect our children and ourselves would be the goal of intentionally using those challenges to help us (and our children) develop resilience.
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Is the Fight against Assisted Dying a Lost Cause?
Physician-assisted suicide (in Canada it is called MAID—medical assistance in dying) has been legal in that country for some time for people with terminal illness, but a recent push to make it legal for anyone for any reason, is experiencing a great deal of resistance, and politicians are now reconsidering this liberalized law. This issue will probably come up in counseling from one of your clients sometime in the future, so you may want to think through this issue in the coming months.
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Maybe You Shouldn’t Talk to Someone
Here is an essay by someone who for a time, experienced benefits from therapy, but now is deciding not to continue. See what you think about the points she makes.
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Personalized Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Shows Promise in Early AD
This study was small and it was an early study, so it is a pioneer for more comprehensive follow up studies. The researchers worked with those who had early Alzheimer’s Disease and started with a functional MRI, then focused repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to focus on those areas of the hippocampus that showed decreased connectivity with the precuneus. They found that those who had the actual treatment (versus a sham treatment given to the control group) had increased connectivity between the hippocampus and the precuneus. There were also improvements in two external measures of functioning. So this treatment shows promise as a nonpharmacological treatment of early Alzheimer’s Disease.
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One in Five Who Attempt Suicide Have No Prior Mental Illness
This study found that one in five clients who attempt suicide have no prior or diagnosable present mental illness. In light of this, the authors suggest that every client be screened for suicidal thoughts during their intake interview.
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Trans men ‘becoming postmenopausal’ in their 20s
This article is in a British newspaper, the Telegraph, so you may not be able to read it without a subscription. Here are a few quotations taken from it: “68 transgender men who were taking the cross-sex hormones to change their identity from female to male found that 95 per cent had developed pelvic floor dysfunction, a disorder found in women normally after menopause. The participants, who were as young as 18 and had an average age of 28, had bladder and bowel symptoms that medics would expect to see in a woman after menopause. Experts said the impact of the sex-changing drugs on bodily functions are under-researched and under-reported, with people ‘not being informed of the risks at gender clinics.’ Around 87 per cent of the participants had urinary symptoms such as incontinence, frequent toilet visits and bed-wetting, while 74 per cent had bowel issues including constipation or being unable to hold stools or wind in. Some 53 per cent suffered from sexual dysfunction.”
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Dad of 7 Comes Up with a Genius Approach to Limiting Screen Time—And the Results Are Positive
This father of 7 children, a psychiatrist, saw how much time his children, and the children of his patients, were spending looking at screens, and was convinced that it wasn’t healthy. And yet, when screen time was taken totally away from children, they went into responses that showed they had in a sense become addicted to their screens. So he developed a program in his home that didn’t totally eliminate screens, but placed some guidelines about when screens could be used, and apparently it has worked well. Read the article to learn what he did and see what you think about suggesting it to parents to consider.
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She Was 29. And Doctors Helped Her Die.
This is the sad story of Zoraya ter Beek, a 29-year-old woman with autism, depression and an unspecified personality disorder. She had no chronic pain disorder or chronic medical disorder that would have ended her life. But she had a long-standing desire to end her life if her mental suffering could not be ended. After a series of 33 rounds of ECT which did not relieve her depression, she applied for physician-assisted suicide, which is legal in the Netherlands. You can read more about her story, and the factors that led her to choose this way to end her life here.
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Tattoos May Be Risk Factors for Malignant Lymphoma
If you have clients who ask you about the feasibility of getting a tattoo, there are obviously a number of issues you might have them think about. One new consideration found in this research is that it increases the likelihood of getting skin cancer by 20%.
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School finds way to keep students off their phones
Students watching things on their phones or texting each other during classes has been a problem for schools throughout the country. One school in Palm Beach County has garnered significant attention because of the program they have implemented which they say has already resulted in an increase in test scores.
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Experts warn of dangerous weight loss drug side effect: reckless behavior
The rapid weight loss drugs that have been getting quite a bit of attention lately for a variety of reasons now have one more thing to add to that list—sometimes people who take them make very significant life-changing decisions that are quite out of character for them. Probably all counselors should read this article and be aware of this phenomenon.
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Not Recommended
A man appeared for a court appearance via Zoom. He was facing charges of driving on a suspended license. He appeared on a Zoom call to be driving during his court appearance!
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I’m going to be posting these Thursday evening because of an appointment that will take much of Friday. Tomorrow’s news will be included in next week’s posting.
I hope you have a wonderful week or weekend!
Henry Virkler
