Counseling News from the Week of January 2,2026

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

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself."

Marlene Dietrich

“One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“I always swing at the ball with all my might. I hit or miss big.”

BABE RUTH

"We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

Jimmy Carter

Fascinating Facts

Baby has world's smallest pacemaker implanted to treat dangerous heart condition

This unborn child was found, in utero, to have a complete heart block, meaning the upper chamber of the heart doesn’t send a signal to the lower chamber. The condition usually is fatal. A tiny pacemaker had been developed called Micra, about the size of a vitamin, but even that was too large for a newborn. So the team applied and was approved to develop an even smaller version, which was implanted in Mikey’s chest a couple weeks after he was born. He spent several weeks in the hospital, but was discharged and about a year later, doctors reported his heart is functioning normally. For myself, an old-timer whose life depends on a pacemaker, it is wonderful to hear that pacemakers can save and prolong even the life of an infant!

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World’s First Mass-Produced Flying Car Prototype Unveiled

Will your next car (or your child’s first car) be a flying car! You may be able to get places faster—150 mph if you wish.

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Counseling Articles

Faith, the Brain, and the Forgotten Dimension of Health

The author is a psychiatrist, who says that although we have better antidepressants, he knows the rates of depression and suicide are increasing. He has a knowledge of trends over the last 30 years. Although people did not change their theological beliefs significantly in the 1970s, what did change was their involvement in their spirituality, i.e., although they continued to believe the same things, their involvement in activities such as church attendance and other spiritually related activities dramatically decreased. His message is that for people to be psychologically healthy, it is important for them to have spiritual beliefs but also to be actively engaged in living out those beliefs in their daily lives.

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Stimulant ADHD medications work differently than thought

Apparently our beliefs about why stimulant ADHD medications work have been incorrect. Brain scans done by researchers at the University of Washington found that, rather than working primarily on the brain systems controlling attention (as previously thought) they work primarily on the systems related to reward and wakefulness. By making these experiences more enjoyable, those with ADHD attend to them more.

The researchers found that stimulants also produced patterns of brain activity that mimicked the effects of good sleep (those with ADHD often do not get restful sleep).

So while we’ve known for some time that stimulants help those with ADHD perform better, we now have additional insight about how they do this.

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 Do meditation apps effectively reduce stress, anxiety, and insomnia?

Meditation apps are widely available, and some research studies have shown they can reduce anxiety, depression and improve sleep. The challenge is to find some way to increase long-term use: approximately 95% of people discontinue using them in 30 days or less. This issue (how to motivate people to continue using these apps) is a topic that could be used in some long-term studies.

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Do GLP-1 agonists enhance or suppress sexual desire through reward and hormonal pathways?

It appears that GLP-1 agonists have different effects based on gender and medical issues. Obese men and men with Type -2 diabetes may experience an increase in sexual desire when on GLP-1s. Some healthy men without Type-2 diabetes didn’t experience any change in sexual desire while on those medications. Some women experienced little change, but a few experienced one or more significant changes in sexual desire or functioning.

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Older Americans Quit Weight-Loss Drugs in Droves

This is a New York Times article, so I’ll summarize its major points. Based on several follow-up studies, about 50% of older Americans taking GLP-1 medication stop taking them within a year, despite their health benefits. Reportedly the two reasons most cited were cost and side effects.

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This Drinking Habit Is More Dangerous Than Bingeing

This is another article from the New York Times, so I’ll summarize its major points. Drinking is associated with the holidays such as Christmas and New Years, which is why this article probably appeared between those two holidays.

Binge drinking is defined as drinking four or five drinks in a two-hour span. This new drinking pattern, which researchers consider more dangerous than binge drinking is called high-intensity drinking. It is defined as eight or more drinks in a row for women or ten or more drinks in a row for men.

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The Amazing Generation by Jonathan Haidt, Catharine Price and Cynthia Cheng

This book was released on December 30, 2025. It is written for Generation Alpha (children born between 2013 and 2025). It is a well-done illustrated parable about smartphones that encourages children to delay getting smartphones and use their childhood and teenage years to immerse themselves in real-life experiences like reading, friendships, music, hobbies and sports. And if they already have been given a smartphone, to choose how much time they spend on their smartphone and how much time they spend on those other activities.

It also includes advice from older teens who regret their overinvolvement with smartphones and social media, saying they missed out on most of their teenage years because they were seduced by the attractive content available online. It includes testimonies from teens who started out using social media too much and then had experiences that caused them to cut back.

It includes an illustrated story of some peers who got smartphones and were the envy of their peers. It also talks about children who grew up without smartphones, who spent their time exploring the neighborhood, developing friends, learning how to work out differences and solving problems. They developed resilience and independence and realized they could overcome the problems that came their way. This contrasted with kids who spent their time gaming and talking with other kids around the country but began to feel increasingly disconnected from their family and friends from the neighborhood and school and decreasingly able to handle the problems that they encountered.

The book gives several examples of things kids can do with their siblings and with others, whether they live in cities or in more suburban or rural areas. It talks about the reasons children moved from play-based experiences to phone-based ones. And it differentiates between apps that are useful and those which are designed to hook kids’ attention but which are “time wasters,” apps like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and games and gaming platforms like Roblox. And the tech-wizards became even more clever when they designed apps that were useful but also had features that made them addictive.

It talks about the psychological consequences for kids (and adults) who started overusing the smartphones—loneliness, anxiety, depression, and insecurity. It also has a section on “Secrets of the Tech Wizards”—the ways they hook kids and adults into getting addicted to their apps, and how these tech wizards either won’t let their own children have smartphones or place limits on how long their children can use them each day because they realize that spending too much time on them is unhealthy.

The book also includes a section on how social media apps make money and how they develop algorithms to focus ads on those kids most likely to respond to them. Free apps aren’t free, because they cost children and adults time and attention, and these algorithms invade your privacy, because they keep track of everything you click on and how much time you spend looking at it.

It concludes with a section on “How to Be a Rebel” and several short anecdotes about people who chose to be rebels.

The book is so interesting and short that I read it through in a couple hours the morning I received it. I recommend every parent of a child or teen and every teacher or counselor read it and then pass it on to every young person you think might benefit from it.  In the past parents who didn’t allow their children get smartphones were considered the “bad guys.” This book is written for children and lets them recognize that it is in their best interest to get an inexpensive alternative phone for communication and emergencies, and spend their childhood and teenage years reading, developing hobbies and friendships.  

Vomiting Syndrome Linked to Cannabis Use Increased Sevenfold

A vomiting syndrome called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), which is often accompanied by screaming in pain (called “Scromiting”) has increased 7-fold in admissions to hospital emergency rooms between 2016 and 2022. The syndrome appears to be caused by the higher potency of today’s cannabis and by the frequent use of pot. Traditional anti-nausea treatments do not appear to be effective, but olanzapine appears to help. Stopping cannabis use seems to be one way to prevent recurrences.

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Chloe Cole on Faith and Her Newfound Wholeness

Chloe Cole has frequently been in the news recently. In this article she shares how she became a Christian, the people who have mentored her, and her thoughts about herself now.

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Bipolar and Relationships: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 

Breaking up is hard for most people, but for those with bipolar disorder it can trigger a manic or depressive episode. This article may be helpful if you work with bipolar clients.

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So You Overspent During the Holidays — Now What?

Although this article is written for those with bipolar disorders (who are particularly tempted to overspend), I think the strategies listed would be useful to almost anyone who finds themselves in that situation.

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How I Became a Wife

This author’s mother told her that ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.’ She explains how, with time and experience, she now completely disagrees with that statement and how she’s come to view men’s and women’s roles.

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Happy New Year!

Henry Virkler