Articles from the Week of May 9, 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
"Now you are beginning to think for yourself instead of letting others think for you. That’s the beginning of wisdom."
Margaret Mitchell, from "Gone with the Wind"
"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light."
Joseph Pulitzer
The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."
Ronald Reagan
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius
"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail."
Edwin H. Land
Fascinating Facts
Doctor Aids In-Air Emergency Birth — With a Wild Plot Twist
This is a fascinating story of how a female physician and a couple nurses and a P.A. helped deliver a significantly premature baby and keep that baby alive, not having any of the medical supplies and instruments normally available at a hospital. The mother didn’t even know she was pregnant until she delivered. An amazing story!
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Child Born with Heart Outside Chest Becomes Solitary Survivor Thanks to Surgical Procedure Invented for Her
In another medical story that illustrates the wonders of modern medicine, a girl in the U.K. who was born with her heart outside her body and was kept in a NICU for the first 14 months of her life, was given a surgery designed specifically for her that put her heart back into her body. She still has many challenges—she is autistic and nonverbal—but she is alive and has the chance for what life will bring.
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Our Solar System May Indeed Have 9 Planets, Paper Finds
Our solar system may really have 9 planets, but the ninth planet is not Pluto. It’s a planet just recently discovered far out in the solar system, that takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the sun once.
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Counseling Articles
How Nearly a Century of Happiness Research Led to One Big Finding
You probably won’t be able to read this article without a subscription to the New York Times, but the gist of 75 years of a Harvard research study on what causes happiness can be summarized in a single sentence: “Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”
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Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Review of Evidence and Best Practices
A 409-page report on pediatric gender dysphoria treatment, written by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, details why the Department believes that the “gender-affirming” approach to treating gender dysphoria is unwise and harmful to children who receive it, and gives evidence that giving such treatments does not reduce the likelihood of children attempting or completing suicide. Quoting from the report, it states the “risks of pediatric medical transition include infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret…. The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain. When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients.”
While some would say this report is biased based on the views of President Trump, the Cass Review, which was based on four years of research done in Great Britain is considered an objective, unbiased and careful medical review, and has caused the entire dismantling of the gender-change services in that country.
In our country the transgender philosophy has ideologically captured the leadership of the AMA and the two APAs, but the general population largely believes that males should not use women’s bathrooms or compete on girl’s athletic teams. This debate will continue.
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The Best—and Worst—Times to Exercise for a Good Night’s Sleep
It is generally believed that the best time to exercise is in the morning, in sync with your circadian rhythm. If you must work out in the evenings because of your schedule or other factors, it’s recommended to do so in the early evening. If you must work out late in the evening, consider non-aerobic activities such as yoga.
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Marriage Isn’t Just a Piece of Paper
Reiterating the research from last week, this Breakpoint article discusses the fact that those who cohabit before getting married have a higher likelihood of divorcing than those who make a marriage commitment first.
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There’s No Contradiction Between God’s Empowerment and Our Efforts to Battle Sin
Some Christians have been taught the living the Christian life is totally done through God’s power. Randy Alcorn makes the point that even though salvation is totally by God’s grace, Scripture tells us that we are to be involved in the process of resisting evil temptations and developing Godly habits.
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Marry Early and Flourish Together
Some young people believe they should be established career-wise and financially before they marry. This author argues that there are several reasons why couples should consider marrying earlier and facing those struggles together.
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My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’
This article is from the New York Times, but I wouldn’t bother reading it. Although Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world for eight years running by some international committee, this evaluation seems questionable. Because of its location, children in this country spend most of their time playing in the dark and must wear reflectors when outside to avoid being hit by cars. It’s famous for its saunas, where men and women spend lots of their time, but perhaps in Finland that’s the most exciting thing to do. I think we can find happiness in better ways than by going to Finland.
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Google Plans to Roll Out Its A.I. Chatbot to Children Under 13
This is from the New York Times, so you may not be able to read it without a subscription, but probably you can get information by going to Google. Google seems to have designed some safeguards into the program, but parents may legitimately be concerned about what an A.I. chatbot will do.
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A Fifth of American Adults Can’t Read. Here’s How to Teach Them.
It is a tragedy that 1/5 of American adults can’t read. As you can imagine, so many important experiences that we all take for granted are unavailable to them. This author, who has tried for many years, using many different methods to teach adults to read, explains what has not worked and what she has found that does work. It seems that phonics, how many of us learned to read 60 or 70 years ago, is experiencing a Renaissance. If you’re interested in the topic, this article is quite educational.
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5 Things Every Doctor (and Parent) Should Know about Girls and ADHD
Girls with ADHD are much more likely not to be diagnosed or treated than boys for reasons that we have heard before. This article is worth reading for any counselor because it has a few things about how ADHD affects girls and their relationships with their counselors.
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What’s Worth Fighting For?
This article by Mark Gregston reminds parents to “pick their battles” and gives them some suggestions about how to decide which issues are important enough to work on with their teen.
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Study Finds Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals in Children’s Mattresses
Infants and young children spend much time sleeping, and a recent study found that about two dozen unhealthy chemicals are found at high levels in children’s bedrooms. This article discusses it and recommends several methods parents can take to reduce such levels.
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Del Bigtree on Push for Vaccine Safety with RFK Jr. as Health Secretary
Del Bigtree has been in the center of controversies about vaccine safety for several years. Here he weighs in on the importance of RFK’s push for vaccine safety. Although some fear that any questioning about vaccine safety could prevent some people from getting vaccines that could prevent disease and cause needless deaths, a case can be made that all vaccines should have mandatory testing for safety before being widely disseminated. One reality is that because of the wide variability within persons, a vaccine that will be safe for most people could have adverse medical effects in a few. As with most treatments, probably one needs to weigh the cost-benefit ratio. Giving consumers empirical information about safety studies allows them to be informed consumers.
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Washington governor signs law threatening seal of confession; bishops push back in defense of religious freedom
Normally priests are forbidden to divulge anything said in the Catholic confessional without the penitent’s permission, but a new law in Washington state would require them to break that oath in the case of confessions of child abuse. Whether this law will stand and whether it will eventually affect counseling in other states remains to be seen.
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Stories of jurisdictions that have tried and failed to introduce legislation against so-called conversion therapy
Some people from many countries have identified discussions about sexual and gender identity that attempted to encourage children to move toward a heterosexual orientation or to accept their natal gender as “conversion therapy.” LGBT activists have often labeled this as child abuse and attempted to develop laws preventing counselors, pastors, and parents from engaging in such discussions. This article, written in Ireland, discusses 7 such countries that have attempted to develop such legislation.
The problem with developing such legislation is the conflict between two rights: in the words of the article, activists “want a broad ‘speech crime’ law to catch the everyday activities of church leaders and parents who do not affirm LGBTQ ideology.… But at the same time, it [the Government] has said any legislation should protect, for example, ‘explorative talking therapies and counselling, the expression of religious belief, discussion within families and so on.’”
None of the 7 countries discussed have found a satisfactory solution to this issue. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. Supreme Court answers this issue this June which has been brought by a Christian counselor in California.
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A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse
This is from the New York Times, so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize its major points. A.I. is getting more powerful and can do some amazing things, but the newest versions of interactive A.I., for unknown reasons, are creating increasing numbers of “hallucinations,” i.e., incorrect answers, some of which are so implausible as to be laughable. And the designers of these systems are confused about why this is occurring. We can be certain that a lot of attention is being paid to this problem and hopefully it will be corrected soon. But for the present time, always evaluate anything you receive from an A.I. bot with some skepticism.
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Meet the Women with AI Boyfriends
An interesting article about women who develop AI boyfriends. Sometimes these women have had negative experiences with real boyfriends. Sometimes they are simply lonely and desire someone to talk with. They generally recognize these relationships are not real. If they do develop feelings, they are usually romantic rather than sexual ones. Interesting article
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Scientists explore where consciousness arises in the brain
For years we believed that consciousness arises in the front of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. However, these research scientists from 12 different laboratories in several countries, studying brain scans when people were viewing various things, concluded that consciousness arises in the posterior cortex of the brain, which is then fed to the prefrontal cortex where thinking and decision-making occurs.
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When Bipolar Symptoms Return
Unfortunately, bipolar disorder is a lifelong illness, so people must always be aware that it could return. A bipolar relapse can be experienced in different ways as this article explains. The most important thing is to see one’s medical provider quickly to make any medication adjustments needed and not let frustration or denial keep one from responding to symptoms quickly
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The Advice I’d Give My Younger Self After a Bipolar Diagnosis
This author has lived with bipolar disorder for several years. She gives some good advice to someone who is just learning that they have a lifelong disorder and may be disheartened by that fact.
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‘Dangerous nonsense’: AI-authored books about ADHD for sale on Amazon
You probably will not be able to read this article unless you have a subscription to The Guardian (a British newspaper), but apparently several self-help books on ADHD are being sold on Amazon that were written by an A.I. chatbot (ChatGBT). Reportedly it was obvious to professionals that these were not written by humans, but your clients may not be so discerning, so if you have a client with ADHD you may wish to recommend a book that you know has valid information.
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He Hears Voices in His Head. He Also Helped Win an Election.
You won’t be able to read this without a New York Times subscription, but it’s the amazing story of Arvind Sooknanan, who lives in New York city and has schizoaffective disorder, which means he has both schizophrenia and episodes of both mania and major depression. Medications do not seem to effectively help him. He was hospitalized 20 times in his teens, has lived in the subways, in forests, and on city streets, but despite all this has earned a college degree with a straight-A average. Even though medication has not helped him and he episodically has hallucinations, delusions, and periods of mania or depression he and is working to find ways to help others with serious mental illness.
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Digital Technology: Friend or Foe to the Brain?
Interesting finding. For children and teens, too much digital exposure is harmful. But for middle aged and older adults, moderate use of digital technology (e.g. Internet use) is helpful, and too little digital technology use (underexposure) is more frequently associated with cognitive decline.
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I hope you enjoyed these articles. Have a wonderful week!
Henry Virkler