Articles from the Week of March 28, 2025
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
“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”
René Descartes
"What strikes me is that there's a very fine line between success and failure. Just one ingredient can make the difference."
Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Anyone who thinks they're too small to make a difference has never met the honeybee."
Unknown attribution
"Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his [or her] goals."
Dorothy Height
"It's the rough side of the mountain that’s the easiest to climb; the smooth side doesn’t have anything for you to hang on to."
Aretha Franklin
Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they've taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.
Kobe Bryant
"Give freely of yourself to your family, your friends, your community, and your country. The world will pay you back many times over."
Sandra Day O'Connor
Counseling Articles
The Truth About Hypomania: Managing the Energy Without the Downfall
Hypomania, a period of heightened energy, is often so enjoyable that people may disregard it. But it can lead to unhealthy consequences if ignored. This article, written by someone who has long experience writing to people with bipolar disorder, talks about some of those consequences, good safeguards those with Bipolar 1 and 2 can take to prevent hypomania from causing those effects in their lives. If you are a counselor, even though you don’t normally specialize in treating those with mood disorders, this might be a good article to save for future reference to use.
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Do People ‘Blackout’ in Manic Bipolar Episodes?
As I’ve mentioned before, Julie Fast is one of my favorite bloggers about bipolar disorder. Family members of people with bipolar disorder often wonder when their loved ones claim to not remember things they said or did. This article gives the research to answer that question. Even if you don’t normally work with bipolar clients, I think you’ll find it interesting to know the answer to that question.
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The Moral Monsters of a Post-Christian World
I know that most of the readers of this blog won’t be going to see the movie Anora, but here’s what I think is another exceptionally good discussion of some of the issues raised by that film.
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The Top Threats to Marriage and How Thriving Couples Around the World Overcame Them
A couple researchers and teachers in Queensland, Australia did a fascinating worldwide study of the top threats married couples faced, and what approaches those couples whose marriages continued and even got stronger used to surmount those threats. Good insights for all of us.
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A Pro-Family Housing Agenda
This topic may not spur much interest, but for young couples, finding a home they can afford is often a high priority. This article summarizes the results of what young couples prioritize in a home, and some practical suggestions that local governments can do to encourage ways to make homes affordable for such couples.
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When a Parent Goes to Prison, What Happens to the Kids?
One-fourth of the men and women who go to prison have one or more children left at home. These children are more likely to receive mental health diagnoses like depression, anxiety and ADHD, and it is likely that at least one of their siblings will eventually spend time in prison. This article describes well the situation for these children. One thing I would add to the article is whether our churches could pay special attention to providing extra support for these families.
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Oikophobia: African Americans, Alienation, and Family
If you weren’t familiar with this term, oikophobia refers to those who are alienated from their native soil, home, community, and country. This can happen within any family and it causes young people to search for acceptance among groups that may not be healthy influences on them, e.g., gangs. Some interesting concepts on what causes this alienation. I think this article has some good insights that counselors can use.
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Progressives Are Starting to Come Around on the Importance of Marriage and Fatherhood
Christianity has long encouraged men to embrace marriage and fatherhood, and now it seems that even our secular leaders, even though they may not be believers, are recognizing that to be a healthy society, we must have healthy roles to give young men a sense of purpose for their lives.
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American Women Are Giving Up on Marriage
In sharp contrast to the above article, this article in this past weekend’s Wall Street Journal had a very different analysis. Since you won’t be able to read this without a subscription, I’ll give you a summary. 51% of women aged 18-40 have decided they probably won’t get married. They’re doing this for a variety of reasons. One is that many won’t marry a man with less education than them, and an increasing number of men are deciding not to go to college, whereas women tend to go in high numbers. Also men are becoming more conservative and women are becoming more liberal. And many women believe they will be happier single than married.
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Marijuana Users Under Age 50 Are 6 Times More Likely to Suffer Heart Attacks, Study Finds
The bad news for regular marijuana users just keeps coming. Two research studies (I’m only including one below) found this same result. Another article, which I didn’t keep, also said that women who use marijuana during pregnancy experience more nausea than those who don’t.
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Sacrificing Truth at the Altar of Gender Ideology
Three physicians have written a letter to President Trump contradicting his Executive Order that gender is binary. This is a well-written article from a Catholic magazine giving the arguments for why gender is binary and why we should continue to affirm that as truth. It includes a reference to statements by prominent Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, whom many of you are familiar with.
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Is My Teen Leading a Double Life?
Parents may come to you with this concern. Here are a few common-sense suggestions from Mark Gregston for such parents.
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Beyond Medication: 8 Science-Backed Ways to Improve Bipolar Symptoms
Medication is the foundation for treating bipolar disorder. But here are eight common-sense and science-based non-medication methods clients can add to improve bipolar stability.
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11 Myths About Bipolar Disorder to Stop Believing
People who have bipolar disorder have compiled this list to dispel some myths about bipolar disorder that you sometimes hear (and that some people believe).
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Early methods for studying affective use and emotional well-being on ChatGPT
These two research studies, one correlational and one RCT, studied the emotional impact of how users were affected using AI programs, in this case ChatGPT. In these studies the vast majority used ChatGPT occasionally, and it seemed to have little emotional impact. However, a very small percentage used ChatGPT to meet emotional needs. This group typically had higher loneliness scores and sometimes became more emotionally dependent on AI. So this seems to be rare, and ChatGPT does not cause loneliness, but those rare people who use the program for companionship may do so because they were lonely to begin with.
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The Decision to Believe
Not a counseling article, but a short story that I think has a good message that you could use with someone who is also a skeptic.
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Being a digital sex worker ain’t all it’s cracked up to be
You may have a female client who becomes interested in a career on OnlyFans after some of her peers report significant incomes and start driving expensive new cars after starting to work at OnlyFans. While it is true that a few people make significant incomes, they may not be aware of some of the downsides of such a career. Read the article (and possibly save it) to use in a discussion with a client who considers such a move.
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Why Every Psychiatrist Should Be Screening for Gambling Disorder
Although this article appeared in a psychiatric journal, it raises the question of whether counselors should also be screening for gambling disorder, based on all the opportunities for people to get hooked on gambling in today’s culture. The author, a psychiatrist and President of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Association, mother, valediction of her high school class, was also a gambling addict, and she mentions that only 10% of addicts seek treatment on their own. So you can read her article and pray about whether this should be something you inquire about, even if it is not brought up by clients.
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Social Connectedness for Mental and Physical Health
A good refresher on the importance of social connectedness and the harms of not having enough healthy, supportive social connections. Although also from a psychiatric journal, I think this is very relevant to our work as counselors.
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Mia Love: My Last Wish for the America I Know
This past week a legislator from Utah, Mia Love, tragically passed away from brain cancer at 49. But two weeks before her passing she penned this letter to America, which is beautiful to read.
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Adenomyosis, the 'silent illness' plaguing their lives, goes undiagnosed for decades
Normally I don’t cover medical illnesses in this compilation of articles, but because this illness may affect as many as one in five women and is frequently undiagnosed or misdiagnosed I’m going to include this article about it. Quoted from the article: “Adenomyosis occurs when tissue from the lining of the uterus, called endometrial tissue, grows into the uterine wall. It can cause the uterus to double or triple in size, painful menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) and heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia). Other symptoms include irregular periods, pelvic pain, painful intercourse, bloating (nicknamed "adenomyosis belly") and infertility. The abnormal bleeding can increase a person’s risk of anemia and fatigue. Adenomyosis has related symptoms but is distinct from endometriosis, in which endometrial tissue grows outside of the uterus.”
If you have a female client complaining of any of these symptoms, encourage them to go to a physician familiar with this condition to get treatment.
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Parenthood Linked to Lower Cognitive Decline with Age
This is a fascinating article. While sometimes parents of young children complain that they believe they are losing their minds, these authors discuss how the challenges of parenting can help strengthen neural pathways that help the brain stay active and healthier even in old age.
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Election of new IOC president signals female athletes have ally at top
Not a counseling article, but one that probably one that many who read this newsletter will applaud. The woman recently elected to lead the International Olympic Committee is a staunch proponent of only allowing natal females compete against other women athletic events.
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The Short Shelf Life of ‘Inevitable’ Movements
This Breakpoint article discusses how movements that seem to be sweeping the world often have a short half-life. They talk about the “new Atheists” who were popular from 2005 to 2020 and now are hardly ever mentioned. They believe the transgender movement will likewise have a short half-life and identify some of the hints that it is already declining.
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Learn About Confabulation, Also Known as “Honest Lying"
This is the best introduction to the topic of confabulation that I have read. It clarifies how it differs from lying, delusions, Korsakoff’s syndrome, etc. and how it may present when it appears in the counseling office. Since you may sometime encounter a client who is confabulating, and who appears quite believable, it’s probably worthwhile taking a moment to read this good introduction to the topic.
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What is Prosopagnosia?
Prosopagnosia, commonly known as “face blindness” is “a neurologic disorder in which a person's ability to recognize and identify faces, sometimes even his or her own, is impaired—and not because of poor eyesight or absentmindedness.” The person who is the focus of the article teaches at the University of South Florida in Tampa and compensates by having her students wear nametags. I thought for years that I might have a variation of it and so took pictures of students the first night of class and reviewed those pictures each day before each class. Read article for more information.
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How Social Media Feeds Delusional Thinking: Study
This research study found that frequent use of social media can increase certain psychiatric disorders such as paranoia, narcissism, body dysmorphic disorder, and anorexia. The question is whether people who were already predisposed to these conditions looked for social media outlets that reinforced their beliefs, or whether the social media use caused those beliefs to develop. From a counseling perspective, perhaps it would be best for the counselor to assess with the client whether their social media use was helpful for them and help them come up with a way to modify it if it were not.
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A self-guided Internet-delivered intervention for adults with ADHD
This research is a few years old, but I just became aware of it, and it may be of use to some of your clients, so I’m including it. Adults with ADHD often do not have the resources to access psychological treatment for their ADHD, so a self-guided internet-delivered intervention could be useful. This program was used with clients, most of whom were already on medication, but most did not have access to psychological treatment in addition to medication. Those who completed the seven-session program reported significant improvement in ADHD symptoms when compared to those who completed a control treatment that only included psychoeducation about ADHD.
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The effect of exposure to radiofrequency fields on cancer risk in the general and working population:
I know that one of our federal cabinet members believes that cellphones can increase the likelihood of brain cancer in adults and children. A large study in 2022 and then this study by WHO in 2024 concluded that cellphone use did not increase brain cancer in either adults or children. There may be other good reasons to limit cellphone use by children but protecting them from increased brain cancer apparently is unnecessary.
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I hope you enjoyed these articles. Have a wonderful week!
Henry Virkler
