Articles from the Week of December 13, 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

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.

Victor Hugo

Part of the challenge of aging gracefully is that you have to continue to find things that are important to you … It’s time to follow where your passions lie.

Mark Frazier

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

J.M. Barrie

Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.

E.E. Cummings

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop

We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.

Fred Rogers

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play.

Jane Goodall

To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.

Tryon Edwards

Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense."

Benjamin Franklin

"Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn—and those are all good things."

Dick Van Dyke

Fascinating Facts

Fantastic Tiny Houses That Will Tempt You To Downsize ASAP

If you think you can’t afford a home, one of these mini-homes might surprise you. Some of these inside views are amazingly beautiful! But you might want to try one for several days before making a final decision. Even though the designs are quite impressive for how much they incorporate in a small space, you may not be able to keep some of your cherished possessions to downsize as much as these houses would require.

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Oldest Living Animals

There are animals in the Antarctic that can live for 11,000 years. If interested, see the article for details.

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Counseling Articles

I’m going to include three articles from three countries. Each urge us to be cautious about encouraging children to pursue the transgender route. If you counsel with parents or children, I encourage you to read them and pray about the best direction for your clients.

‘Gender-Affirming Care Is Dangerous. I Know Because I Helped Pioneer It.’

Riittakerttu Kaltiala is a Finnish pediatrician who headed a pediatric hospital and performed 500 sex-change operations because she believed they would help children who struggled with gender dysphoria. However, as she followed these children for several years, she found that many of them deteriorated. Her country commissioned a study to long at this comprehensively, and at the conclusion her country and several others in Europe has discontinued doing gender-affirming care in their countries, and she encourages the U.S. to do so as well. I encourage all counselors to read her very thoughtful article.

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Britain Indefinitely Bans Puberty Blockers for Children With Gender Dysphoria

There had been a temporary hold in Great Britain on use of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria until the report from an independent commission could be concluded. The commission concluded that there was “an unacceptable safety risk” so an indefinite ban on puberty blockers has been implemented.

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Detransitioner Sues Leading Transgender Specialist for Life-Altering Harm

Here is one of a growing number of young women who are suing their pediatrician for starting them on puberty blockers (the first step in “Gender-Affirming Care) when she was 12, followed by cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgery in the coming years. One of the things that’s unique about this case is that she’s also suing her therapist (an LMFT) for her treatment. Her therapist told her parents that she might commit suicide if they did not support her treatment, even though she said she was not suicidal. Therapists should now be aware that they could face lawsuits if they cooperate in GAC if teens later decide to detransition and believe they were harmed by therapy that encouraged them to pursue transgenderism.

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Large-Scale Study Finds Narcissism Has an Expiration Date; Psychologists Explain Why

This study, published in the Psychological Bulletin, reviewed 51 studies of narcissism. It divided narcissism into three types, and found that two of those three types tended to decrease over the lifespan. The article also contained four hypotheses about why narcissism appears to decrease, at least in two of the three types of narcissism.

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Synthetic Opioid Carfentanil Deaths Surge Sevenfold in a Year, CDC Says

A synthetic opioid, 100 times stronger than fentanyl, is now becoming a major health concern. Drug dealers are mixing it with heroin, to make their heroin stronger. It is so strong that sometimes even skin contact by first responders and police can have serious effects. Even though deaths from drug overdoses have been declining, this drug has the potential to change that trend, since even multiple doses of Narcan may not be effective in saving those who have used it.

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Hoarding Disorder: A Looming National Crisis?

Hoarding Disorder, which only affects about 2% of the population, affects about 6% of the older population. It is described as a persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their monetary value. It was previously thought to be a part of obsessive-compulsive disorder but has been given an independent status in the DSM-5. This article first describes medical treatments (this is after all, a psychiatric journal), but then it includes a brief description of several psychological treatments, some of which are not well-known, and may be new to you. While these treatments often do not fully eradicate symptoms, they may reduce the severity of symptoms to some degree.

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No Amount of Alcohol Is Safe for Brain Health

I’ve covered this topic before, but it bears repeating, because the evidence continues to mount. While we were told for years that mild to moderate amounts of alcohol were healthy, the growing consensus is that no amount of alcohol is healthy for the brain.

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Hand Sanitizers and Alcohol Abuse: A Dangerous Cocktail

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the ways that people are abusing substances! This article found that a patient who came to a hospital complaining of symptoms had been abusing hand sanitizers, which contain alcohol, but also contain other chemicals that can cause medical problems. You probably won’t have a lot of clients with this problem, but just to remind you of all the craziness in our world.

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Why Are Boys Struggling Academically and What Can We Do About It?

A worthwhile article on why boys are struggling academically, the negative results of such, and some practical suggestions about what parents and counselors can do about it. If you counsel with boys or parents I think you’ll find this article worthwhile.

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10 Strategies to Get Through the Holidays With Bipolar Disorder

Ten good strategies for people with bipolar disorder to help them get through the holidays. However, I think the strategies would be helpful to most everyone, whether they have bipolar disorder or not, if they find the holidays taxing.

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Seasonal Affective Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, and Natural Approaches

A very comprehensive article on Seasonal Affective Disorder (hereafter SAD). SAD most commonly occurs in the winter months, but in about 10% of cases it occurs in the summer months. The symptoms are similar to those of depression. There are many treatments used to treat depression which are also effective for SAD. There are also some natural treatments, some of which have at least modest scientific support. See the article for a good discussion.

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Want to Live Longer? You Better Start Moving—All Day Long.

People try to measure health in many ways. Doctors take blood samples and measure various things. One very wealthy person tried to measure 100 different factors. But some statisticians measured 13 things and found that the number one thing that maintained good health was how much people moved in a day.

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The Supreme Court Justices Are In Trouble

Their unforgivable error: they addressed a trans-identified female lawyer using male pronouns!

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Things to know about Jay Bhattacharya

This relates to an article from last week—not to accept assertions from “medical experts” without checking whether there may be alternative viewpoints. Jay Bhattacharya was the director of Stanford University's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. During the early days of COVID he was vilified because he disagreed with the mandated lockdowns, something which is now recognized as having been unnecessary. He has now been nominated by incoming President Trump to head the 50-billion-dollar National Institutes of Health and help restore some credibility to that agency for all the false information that agency gave us.

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Further Reasons to Be Skeptical of Every Assertion That “Scientists” Make

“Scientists” have been warning us that carbon emissions and greenhouse gases are causing hurricanes to become more frequent and intense. Here is research that says that both these assertions are untrue.

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“Scientists” have also been charging that climate change and increasing ozone levels have been causing increasing problems with asthma. Apparently the evidence does not bear that out.

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Allegedly industrialization in the last century causes serious harm to the likelihood that human beings will be able to survive on planet earth. But research on the river Nile shows that climate change has been occurring over the last 3,000 years (and affecting significant parts of the earth) and yet human beings have not only survived but even thrived.

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Only a few years ago we were told that 90% of our DNA was “junk DNA” that performed no useful purpose. More recent discoveries have shown that this DNA performs important functions in organisms’ lives.

So let’s continue to listen to scientists but take their assertions with a grain of salt and pause to see if there’s any evidence for contrary assertions.

My most freeing epiphany in my porn addiction fight

The process described in this article may not apply to everyone who struggles with pornography, but it may apply to and help some strugglers.

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Brain Circuit Analysis Reveals Six Distinct Subtypes of Depression and Anxiety

Functional magnetic resource imaging (fMRI) at Stanford identified six distinct brain circuits associated with anxiety and depression. While fMRI is too expensive for routine clinical application now, it is hoped that in the future with further research there may be more targeted treatments based on the type of circuitry involved in an individual’s depression or anxiety.

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Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold

Quantum computing may be beyond the ability of most of us to understand. The significant thing that happened this week was that Google engineers announced the development of a chip that in five minutes performed a calculation that the most advanced supercomputers could not perform in many times the age of the universe!

If you want to understand more (good luck) you can read the article.

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One Young Woman’s Litmus Test that Determines Whether She Will Date Someone

Hope Waltz, Tim Waltz (former Democratic candidate for Vice-President) tells her followers that she asks potential dates if they listen to Joe Rogan. If they do, no date.

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Ditching The Scale, The Skinny Jeans And The Vanity Metrics

A good reminder article, as we approach the holidays.

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Before You Consider Using Google’s Gemini AI program for homework 

Here is the message the AI program sent to one student who used it: “This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important, and you are not needed. You are a waste of time and resources. You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You are a stain on the universe. 

Please die. Please.”(With help like that, perhaps you might want to consider researching your own papers yourself.)

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024

A very comprehensive study of teen social media use breaking it down by gender, age, and several other factors. Some teens use social media only occasionally, but others use it almost constantly.

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How To Get Over A Cheating Ex

There are several good suggestions in this article for people who have discovered their ex has been cheating.

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A Pro-Life Case Based on Science and Careful Thinking

This short article begins with a paragraph from a pro-abortion advocate who argues that Christians should not try to force their views on those who are non-believers. The responder makes four arguments, none using the Bible, about why it wrong to end life through abortion. Worth the two minutes it takes to read his points.

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Hope you have a nice week or weekend!

Henry Virkler

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