Articles from the Week of May 23, 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
"There's great value in being able to step back and laugh at yourself, at life, and at attitudes. Laughter helps you put everything into perspective."
Jim Henson
“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”
Socrates
"Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities."
Sugar Ray Leonard
“To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone."
Bruce McLaren
"One man can make a difference and every man should try."
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.”
Morris West
“There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled."
Ovid
"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
John D. Rockefeller
Fascinating Facts
Note: This section of Fascinating Facts is longer than normal, but there were just an unusually large number of fascinating facts and discoveries reported this week and I wasn’t over the word limit, so I’m including a few more articles in this section than I normally do.
Magna Carta
Many years ago Harvard Law School paid $27.00 for what they thought was a copy of the Magna Carta. It turns out it was an original.
CRISPR is used in landmark treatment to correct genetic misspelling of a single patient
Not a counseling article, but this new medical use of CRISPR, is a gene-editing tool that will probably save thousands of lives in the coming years. CRISPR has already been used to break strands of genes, but this is the first time it has been used to replace a genetically defective gene. Promising breakthrough for the future! We don’t know all the future outcomes for this child, but he is beginning to be able to process and eliminate ammonia, which if it were to build up in his system would be life-threatening.
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Particles carrying multiple vaccine doses could reduce the need for follow-up shots
In another medical breakthrough that may save lives (and make many children happy about not having to get multiple shots), researchers developed a way to develop polymer microparticles that could deliver subsequent vaccines at predetermined times following the initial doctor’s visit. Sometimes parents get busy and do not go back for follow-up visits and vaccinations. These polymers would make such follow-up visits unnecessary.
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Why I love the United States: Testimonies from Americans
Another non-counseling article, but still worthwhile to read. A collection of statements from Americans about why they love this country.
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How to avoid crying while cutting onions, according to physics
.Cutting onions has often led to tears. Scientists, using their resourcefulness, created a very small version of a guillotine, and from this have determined that to reduce tears it’s important for the chef to use a very sharp knife and to slice slowly.
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Man Stumbles Upon Vast Underground City Behind Wall During Home Renovation—And Tunnels Go on Forever
While renovating his house, a man in Turkey discovered an underground city, 275 square miles in size!
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Counseling Articles
Reclaiming Biblical Manhood from the ‘Manosphere’
This article, while not specifically a counseling article, has some useful thoughts if you counsel men or couples. Rob Pacienza, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, talks about how the comments to men on the Internet are often diametrically opposite of what the Bible teaches.
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“My ADHD Looks Nothing Like Your ADHD”
This writer has ADHD, as does her husband, and all three of her children. She makes the point that, while all five of them have the same diagnosis, how it expresses itself in each of the five is very different. This might be a helpful article to share with some parents of children with ADHD, but the same variability of symptom expression also holds true for many other psychological and medical illnesses.
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10 Steps to Unmasking Your ADHD
This article is written by a counselor who counsels many women with ADHD. She has some good insights about how women with ADHD often respond to their condition and gives some practical suggestions for healthy things to do.
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Here's How We Know Vaccines Are Safe and Effective
You may have clients coming to you with concerns about getting their children vaccinated, particularly after some of the comments by RFK Jr. Here is an article from Medpage that attempts to answer some of those concerns.
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Excessive work can alter brain function
In South Korea, the guideline for the normal workweek is 52 hours. This research study used brain scans to see whether working longer than this caused detectible changes in brain functioning. The study found significant changes in 17 areas of the brain among those who worked longer than the normal work week. The study did not look at whether these changes were permanent or transitory.
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Stimulant Medications Don’t Cause Psychosis, New Study Finds
Previous studies have found that some adults do misuse prescription stimulant medications, and this can lead to psychosis. But this study was of children with ADHD taking normal doses of stimulant medication and found that if psychosis did appear, it apparently was due to a comorbid disorder, and not due to the stimulant medication. So it seems that stimulant medication, when taken as prescribed, is not going to cause psychosis, but if a child has an underlying psychotic disorder, this might appear while they are taking a stimulant medication.
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8 Ways to Strengthen Your Memory While Living with Bipolar Disorder
Folks with bipolar disorder sometimes complain about memory problems. Tanya Hvilivitzky has 8 good suggestions for how these folks can strengthen their memories.
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Cameron Esposito Turns Bipolar Disorder into Stand-Up Gold
Cameron Esposito has been a stand-up comic for two decades. It wasn’t until midway through her career that she had a major mood episode that landed her in the hospital, a diagnosis of Bipolar 2, and her present life. This interview tells a little more about those experiences.
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What is antinatalism?
Antinatalism was thrust into the spotlight this past week by an antinatalist who died when he bombed a fertility clinic in California. Antinatalism is an interesting philosophy, and its adherents span a wide variety of people, some of whom have children and love their children, but now believe they were mistaken when having children and believe that no one should create children from now on. The belief is the mirror opposite of pronatalism, which believes it is wise and healthy to have children. Read this article to understand the variety of people who embrace this new philosophy. Many of the younger adults who are choosing not to have children are doing so for other reasons than antinatalism.
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A reminder 'nation building' is a fool’s errand
This is a thought-provoking article from Tony Perkins, citing several historical examples, that throwing millions of dollars at problems by itself does not improve human conditions, but changing people’s hearts is the basis for producing lasting change. Perkins assertions are different than some other prominent persons today who seem to believe that throwing money at problems will produce positive change. Think this through and decide what you believe to be true.
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The Unexpected Benefits of Being Humble
If you only read one article from this week’s compilation of articles, I encourage you to read this one. I think you’ll learn some important things about humility and how it can benefit individuals, parents, individuals in the workplace, and others. For those of you who counsel, I think there are several ideas you could include in your counseling.
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Tattoos May Be Linked to Cancer–Here’s Why
Some of your clients may ask about getting a tattoo as a form of self-expression. Several studies have recently confirmed that tattoos contain carcinogenic materials which are permanently injected as part of the tattooing process. Apparently removing the tattoos does not decrease the risk and may even increase it. So perhaps you can discuss with clients other ways to express their individuality.
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New State Bill Threatens Families and Parental Rights
This is an article from a couple weeks ago, but it explains the bill that was just passed yesterday in Colorado, calling misgendering and deadnaming a child as crimes and allowing parents who did not agree with their child’s gender transition to lose custody of that child. Let’s pray that higher courts would intervene for the families of Colorado.
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Christian Summer Camp Says New Colorado Gender Identity Rules Will Force It to Allow Co-Ed Cabins, Showers
A Christian summer camp says the new law (above) will require it to have co-ed dorms and showers or risk losing its license.
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Colorado trans protection law faces legal challenge on a path that could lead to Supreme Court
Within two days of this bill being signed, one group is already planning to sue the state to have it overturned.
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Trump signs bill criminalizing revenge porn and explicit deepfakes
In what will be a relief to many girls and women, Congress approved and the President has signed into law a bill criminalizing both revenge porn and explicit deepfakes, which were often plaguing young girls in high schools and women. Websites must remove such images within 48 hours of when the victim notifies them.
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Holy mate-trimony: the rise of 'friendship marriages'
A new version of marriage is happening, primarily in China, but may be slowly spreading to other countries, where people get marry for a variety of other reasons—to escape family pressures to get married, for financial or social reasons (to combat loneliness), etc. Since you might have a client inquiring about this possibility it may be wise to learn a bit about it. For those of us accustomed to thinking people only get married because of romantic love, we need to be aware that many people throughout history have married for other reasons.
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Young Marriage Can Be a Cornerstone
Here is an article, like one a few weeks ago, that encourages young people to get married younger (e.g., between the ages of 20 and 24), and gives several good reasons why it may be healthy to do so.
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Lying Robots on the Internet
The experiment discussed in this article found that AI robots were six times more able than humans to persuade others that something was true. This is frightening, and reminds us all to be cautious in believing things we read on the Internet or other places. We need to ask God to guide our thinking in a world that is so quick to deceive.
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Can a trans-identified person also be Christian? New Testament scholar NT Wright weighs in
Highly-respected New Testament scholar NT Wright responds to a questioner who transitioned to becoming a female ten years ago, had multiple sex-change surgeries, but who still is committed to being a follower of Christ She asks if she can do both. I think Wright’s answer is both compassionate and attempts to be biblical. See what you think.
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What the Bible Says About Pornography:
The courageous pastors at our church gave an excellent message on sex this past week. I was not aware until that message that 1/3 of the Internet is porn. Although modern porn was not available in biblical times, I received a blog this week that was an excellent compilation of Bible verses directly or indirectly related to contemporary porn. If you have a client who is struggling with this issue, the website Covenant Eyes has hundreds of excellent resources. Here is the article that you might wish to save to your computer for the client who wonders if it is spiritually harmful if one only looks but does not act on what they are seeing.
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I hope you enjoyed these articles, and that you have a wonderful week!
Henry Virkler