Counseling News from the Week of October 24,2025

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

"The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt to influence things, the universe internal to ourselves and external to us."

Mae Jemison

"You can't make good decisions unless you have good information and can separate facts from opinion and speculation."

Colin Powell

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody’s hand and squeeze it, while there’s time.”

DALE DAUTEN

The reward of suffering is experience.

Harry S Truman

“It can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense.”

Sophocles

"I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life but that great consciousness of life."

Jack Kerouac

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”

Augustine of Hippo, "On Patience"

Fascinating Facts

80-year-old grandmother becomes oldest woman to finish the Ironman World Championship

Proving that you’re never too old to push yourself, Natalie Grabow didn’t know how to swim until she was 59 years old. She learned and eventually completed the grueling Ironman triathlon in Hawaii.

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Report Reveals Which Cars Are Most Likely to Get Pooped On

Some people believe their cars are “poop magnets” and apparently science confirms that they are correct. (Some owners reported having their cars pooped on more than once a day.) Bird’s eyes see some things that human eyes do not see, and they are drawn to brown, red and black cars. Those cars less likely to be pooped on are white and silver.

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The Woman Who Survived a 33,000-Foot Fall from a Plane

In 1972 Vesna Vulović was working as a flight attendant on Yugoslav airlines. Someone put a bomb in luggage, and it blew up mid-flight. The plane blew apart and the 27 crew and passengers all died. Vesna was trapped in the tail fuselage and probably lost consciousness during the descent. Her landing was slowed by trees and snow. Landing in a remote area she was discovered by a retired WWII medic, who kept her alive until she could be transported to a hospital. She had multiple broken bones and injuries and was not expected to live, but miraculously she did. She returned to work for JAT airlines working in a desk position.

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Counseling Articles

Vaporized Psychedelic Linked to Long-Lasting Benefits in Treatment-Resistant Depression

About 1/3 of people with major depression have what is called “treatment-resistant depression” and may not get significant improvement from any of our traditional treatments. Most psychedelic treatments for mental disorders have some questionable results, but this double-blind study from Amsterdam appears to be an exception. Mebufotenin, when it is administered in vaporized form, helped about 75% of patients; some patients showed signs of improvement of their depression within a few hours of treatment. It had mild side effects and did not increase suicidal feelings or behavior. Clearly a medication to pay attention to.

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Is It Healthy to Grieve Before a Loss?

This is from the New York Times, and you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize a few of its points. People sometimes have anticipatory grief, such as when they realize a loved one is in the early stages of dementia. Here are a few suggestions from the author:

• 1.     Recognize this is grief.
• 2.     Deal with unfinished business while it is still possible.
• 3.     Stay in the present. Constant worrying can be demoralizing. It may help to join a support group.
• 4.     Recognize that the loss (when it occurs) may still be hard. Even though you have grieved in anticipation, you will probably still grieve at the time the loss itself occurs.

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Study Finds Adults Aged 65 and Older Aren’t Immune to Fentanyl Crisis

If you work with older adults, be aware of the dangers of them using fentanyl and stimulants such as methamphetamines or cocaine. In the last few years overdoses from these drugs among seniors have increased 9000%!

While the majority of deaths from these drugs were of younger people (aged 25 to 64), older people are also using these drugs, leading to overdoses and sometimes to deaths.

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Forget IVF. Here’s a More Ethical Way to Treat Infertility.

There has been much in the news recently about the administration’s encouragement of IVF to encourage couples to have more children since we, along with most other developed countries, are below the replacement rate (2.1 children per couple). But IVF has its problems—cost, the large number of embryos which are discarded in the process, and somewhat increased risks for the woman who bears a child using IVF. An alternative called “restorative reproductive medicine” (RRM) aims to try to identify and treat what is causing the infertility. One study found that 40% of couples using RRM had natural children successfully when compared with 24% of couples using IVF. Another study found a significant number of couples using RRM after unsuccessfully using IVF ended up having children naturally.

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Autism: A Neurodevelopmental Disorder that Doesn’t Have to Be Lifelong

Some articles on autism are repetitive of the same things we’ve heard many times. This article does repeat a few of the same things, e.g. that autism is primarily genetic and probably has multiple genetic and other causes, but one of the things that’s unique is that it says some people no longer qualify for the diagnosis later in life (approximately 10%) although they may still show some residual effects and their brain scans resemble those who still meet the criteria for autism.

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Michael Youssef unveils faith-based chatbot rooted in Scripture: ‘We want to redeem AI’

This article is about an AI-based digital program designed to give biblically based answers to questions that are given to it. The article gives more information about this program. I’ve downloaded BibleAI and asked it some of the more controversial issues that evangelicals sometimes have different opinions about and been fairly satisfied that the answers reflect the diversity within evangelical thinking.

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Will this Gaza ceasefire hold? Islamic doctrine of hudna may be at play

Most Americans are probably hoping that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will hold. However, this writer, very familiar with Islamic culture, describes hudna as “a temporary truce rooted in Islamic doctrine. Islamic leaders are permitted to make peace with non-Muslims when weakened, to regroup and strike later. This aligns perilously with Ezekiel 38, which foretells an invasion during a deceptive period of security, not amidst war.” I hope that this author is not correct, but let’s pray that this ceasefire is the first step in lasting peace and is not an example of hudna.  Taking a position in support of the above article, Jack Hibbs, another respected evangelical leader, also believes the short ceasefire is an example of “hudna.” Some of Hamas’ actions this week also support this belief.

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Teens Depression and Its Consequences

20% of teens experienced major depressive disorder last year, and suicide was the second most frequent cause of death among this age group, so this is an important topic about which counselors and parents need to be informed.

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How Kindness Can Enhance Your Life—And Your Genes

This is a fascinating article. It begins with a beautiful story and then goes into recent research on the beneficial effects of showing kindness within our bodies and our immune system. While our Christian beliefs should encourage kindness, this article demonstrates that showing kindness can benefit all people, whether or not they are believers.

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Bipolar Disorder: 10 Ways to Control Impulsive Behavior

This article is by Tanya Hvilivitsky, a respected blogger who has lived with bipolar disorder herself for many years. She gives 10 practical suggestions that could probably help anyone who finds themselves prone to impulsive behavior. Only two of the ten would only apply to those with bipolar disorder.

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Decoding Self-Forgiveness: Learn Why It’s So Difficult and Get a Psychologist’s Advice for Releasing Shame

You probably have, or will have, one or more clients who struggle with an inability to forgive themselves. This article identifies several of the factors that can cause people to have difficulty forgiving themselves. You’ll probably get some ideas that will aid you in helping one or more of these clients.

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LAIs Tied to Lower Relapse, Mortality Risk in Schizophrenia

LAIs (Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics), were associated with lower schizophrenia relapse rate and lower overall mortality risk in a large sample (25,000) people in a 30-year study of men and women age 65 and older when compared with people taking oral antipsychotics. Side effects were less with the second-generation LAIs than with the first generation LAIs. So for this population, who may have difficulty remembering to take oral medications each day, these second-generation LAIs seem to be a good advance to encourage clients to use.

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A third of Americans say the Bible is 'totally accurate,' survey finds

Americans views of the Bible vary widely, from those who believe it is totally accurate in the principles it affirms to those who consider it a book of ancient myths. This recent survey reveals those results in depth.

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Guidelines for Early Food Introduction and Patterns of Food Allergies

Some children develop allergies to peanuts and other foods that often are lifelong and can be life-threatening. This important large study found that introducing peanuts and other possible food allergens early in life (between 4-6 months) decreased the likelihood of individuals developing such allergic reactions. A major new insight for parents.

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Eye prosthesis is the first to restore sight lost to macular degeneration

In another new medical triumph, scientists have been able to restore sight to those who have lost their vision due to macular degeneration. (Macular degeneration destroys light-sensitive receptors in the retina, producing blindness.) The latest version of the devices uses a high-tech camera to read what it is seeing, then sends the information wirelessly to a wireless chip in the eye which converts the electrical signals to nerves that can send them to the brain. This new medical treatment, when followed by training of the patient, allowed most people to be able to read books and subway signs. Future research is expected to improve eyesight even further.

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George F. Smoot, Who Showed How the Cosmos Began, Is Dead at 80

You won’t be able to read this article unless you have a subscription to the New York Times so I’ll summarize its major points. Before his findings many scientists hypothesized the universe originated in the “big bang,” but his research (he was a brilliant physicist who eventually won a Nobel Prize in Physics) helped confirm that this occurred by developing a camera that was eventually mounted on satellites that could detect variations in the infrared radiation throughout the universe left over by the initial “big bang” explosion. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (a noted atheist), called it “the greatest discovery of the century, if not of all time.”

Since most scientists agree that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, how all the matter and energy in the universe suddenly appeared at the time of the “big bang,” this is one more piece of evidence for a supernatural Creator.

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13 Slogans for Navigating Life with ADHD

If you have an adult client with ADHD, several of these slogans may be meaningful and encouraging to them.

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4 Reasons Adults Give Up on ADHD Medication: Solving Nonadherence and Treatment Inconsistency

Last week we saw that most parents discontinued their children’s ADHD in 18 months. This article discusses four reasons adults with ADHD discontinue their medication and some solutions to help prevent this from happening.

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‘I’m on Fire’: Testosterone Is Giving Women Back Their Sex Drive — and Then Some

This is from the New York Times, so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription. I’ll summarize a bit of it. A growing number of middle-aged women are finding that taking testosterone can greatly boost their energy and sexual desire and intimacy in the marriages (some women report desiring sex every night).  There are no FDA approved testosterone treatments for women, so many doctors are unwilling to prescribe testosterone for women and insurance will not cover it, but motivated women are finding that they can get testosterone through Wellness Centers, compounding pharmacies, or in other ways (some doctors do prescribe testosterone for post-menopausal women for short periods of time). Although female advocates often are evangelistic in their enthusiasm about their new lives, there are drawbacks for women taking testosterone for long periods of time. Some (not all) women, after being on testosterone for several months, notice a deepening or coarsening of their voices, growth of hair on their lips and in other places on their bodies and sometimes significant loss of hair on their scalps, acne, enlargement of their clitoris and other changes. Although testosterone patches have been approved in New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain (and accepted with great enthusiasm in those countries), medical experts here in the U.S. say the long-term effects of testosterone on women have not been studied and urge caution.

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19 Secrets Women Wish You Knew

This article has some good tips for men, especially if you are working with men who are having difficulty attracting and maintaining relationships with women. Since this is written by a secular source a few of the items (about sex before marriage) I would disagree with, most of the other suggestions are ones that might be helpful to some men.

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The Unexpected Joys of Large Families

Fifty years ago larger families (e.g., 4 or 5 children) were fairly common. Today most families stop at two children or less, and the mother who brings four or five children to the grocery store is likely to be looked at askance. This author discusses the benefits of larger families. Probably for many of us that decision is in our past, but this author does make some points that probably many of us have not considered.

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I hope you enjoyed these articles. Have a wonderful weekend!

Henry Virkler