Thinking You’re Sick: The Role of Placebo and Nocebo
What you believe can have an awful lot of impact on your life. For example, you may think you are sick and actually become ill as a result. You may remember it from your childhood
You were sick and didn't want to go to school. You looked a little pale, were pipsqueak and yes, your mom did call the school that it just really wasn't going to be him today.
Then, miraculously, you often got better and could still enjoy your "day off. Very crazy, because how could you pretend to be sick so convincingly.
I also see it in my own children. Those physical symptoms are real, though.
Well, you were probably sick, school sick, at the time, too. Because, of course, you can't consciously create that pale skin. Try it.
Isn’t it interesting when you think about it? For example, if you start thinking really hard about something terrible you ate. Then you suddenly feel your stomach. You might even feel nauseous and things like that.
If you begin to believe that you are nauseated, or getting sick, at some point this belief becomes true. You then actually get physical symptoms. If you then think this through, it can also become "real.
This is interesting though, because it can work the same way the other way around. You think "I feel good," this may be wishful thinking at first. But at some point you feel it. You start to feel better, too, because you start to believe these things.
Thinking about disease placebo effect or nocebo effect
This is an interesting effect. You can get sick just from worrying about school, or you might read a package insert and immediately start experiencing those symptoms (we call that the nocebo effect). Or, if you think positive thoughts—such as believing that a pill will help you feel better—that’s what we call the placebo effect.
Both effects are ultimately effects you cause yourself.
This can happen through something internal—such as a thought. You might think you’re sick and, as a result, become sick or feel even sicker.
Or it can come from something external, such as taking a pill. Then you believe, for example, that that pill will make you better or that a pill will make you perform better.
Even if there is nothing in that pill, this effect can be caused. This has been studied very often.
For example, if a drug is given by a doctor wearing a white coat, the drug works better than if the doctor does not have that coat on. If the doctor then adds that it works very well or is very strong, it works even better.
If he says nothing, it won't work as well.
Placebo is a bit like a scam. People often say, "Yeah, it was just a placebo effect." Or, "So then it wasn't real."
Some people think that when a placebo effect works, it means you weren't really sick either.
That really doesn't have to be the case. When you research this phenomenon, and even placebo surgeries, you find that they are almost as effective as regular surgeries.
I once watched a documentary of a woman who had a broken vertebra. She was given placebo surgery. Nothing actually happened, but she did go to the hospital, she was sedated, but nothing else happened.
She was told that a cement-like substance would be injected into her spine. But that was not what happened. The "surgeon" only pressed on that spot with his thumb. This made it look like it was happening.
Then the woman recovered just fine, thinking she was having surgery.
So I think that, instead of dismissing the placebo effect, you should embrace it. But perhaps doctors could also simply give a placebo pill and offer a few helpful suggestions.
Or that it's a pill with some less active ingredients, because your subconscious believes what such a doctor says and then your body adopts it.
Even if you know it's a placebo it can still work. Why it works even then scientists haven't figured out yet.
Also listen to this podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/195236/1590997-uw-geloof-geneest-u?play=true
Thinking you're sick: hypochondria
You may also suffer from hypochondria. In that case, you don’t need a pill to feel worse. You believe you’re sick, and this belief causes you to experience symptoms. Research shows that people with hypochondria are more likely to have somatic complaints—that is, symptoms they unconsciously create themselves—are more likely to feel anxious, and are more likely to experience panic attacks[1].
When you have hypochondria, you think about—or ruminate on—symptoms much more than when you are depressed. As a result, you start to behave as if you are sick, and you are genuinely afraid of being or becoming sick[2].
In addition, then, you are more likely to search the Internet for illnesses and even medications for what you think you have than people who don't think they are sick. People with hypochondria also change doctors more often[3].
To stop thinking you're sick, cognitive behavioral therapy is often used, but research shows that two-thirds of people later still suffer from hypochondria again compared with people who manage to heal on their own. In fact, this was twice as high[4].
A case study of a 30-year-old man with leg problems, who also suffered from hypochondria—the belief that one is ill—shows that hypnotherapy can also be an effective treatment for hypochondria[5].
What's the point of thinking you're sick
Usually, people do things consciously or unconsciously because it benefits them. For example, you got school sick because it gave you a day off. Super nice right?
Being sick is not fun, of course, but turn it around and see what is the benefit to you of being sick and therefore of thinking you are sick.
After all, there are some things you can get done when you are sick:
- Affection
- Compassion
- Care
- Benefit
- Household Help
These are a few practical things and a few emotional things that I am just about to shake out of my sleeve.
Research also shows that hypochondria can be a defense mechanism of the person suffering from it[6].
Many people with hypochondria also say they have a high pain threshold, so when they experience pain they think it must be something serious. Other symptoms of hypochondria include:
- Many think about the disease you think you have and its symptoms.
- Always lots of anxiety about your health and symptoms.
- You put a lot of time and energy into the disease and symptoms.
- You have been experiencing symptoms off and on for more than six months.
With hypnosis, you can figure out why you subconsciously think you are sick, especially when doctors can't physically find anything wrong with you. Of course, it is important to have this checked first.
Don’t have any specific symptoms? Then hypnosis can help you get rid of pain or other hypochondriacal symptoms.
One way to do that is to find out what benefits you from thinking you are sick. This can be done, for example, with a socratic conversation. In this conversation, the why question is repeated several times, getting to the core belief about what being sick benefits you.
In addition, you can also use regression. Regression is a technique that allows you to go back to the first moment when you were able to see your illness as an advantage. These are usually moments from your childhood, because that is the period in your life when you form your beliefs.
For example, maybe you've seen someone who was sick suddenly get a lot of attention or something similar. When someone in your family is sick, for example, it can lead to hypochondria[7]. This can be different for everyone. So what this may be for you, you will find out during such a session.
In addition, visualizations are incredibly powerful in reducing hypochondria. This is partly because people who suffer from this are very good at imagining what is wrong with them. By changing this image during a hypnosis session, for example with a guided visualization, many symptoms can be reduced or eliminated.
Another way is to visualize the fear itself and make it very big and then defeat it[8].
This can help boost your self-confidence, allowing you to see opportunities to achieve the same results in ways other than by thinking you’re sick.
So thinking that you are sick can come from some kind of side effect, or because you think it might benefit you. In addition, you may simply be suffering from hypochondria.
Hypnotic suggestion plays a role in just about every case, whether given by a doctor or perhaps in your youth by a family member.
Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how it all works? Then join the free online hypnosis masterclass.
Would you like to help people with hypnosis, for example, to get rid of unexplained symptoms? Then sign up right away for one of our training programs.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10615806.2015.1036243
[2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cpp.2089
[3] https://www.jmir.org/2019/6/e10980/
[4] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-42717-004
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5912486/
[6] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207578.2017.1398590?journalCode=ripa20
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6584190/
[8] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara_Craciun/publication/308123075_Theoretical_insertions_regarding_Cognitive-Behavioral_and_Hypnotherapeutic_interventions_applied_in_Hypochondriac_affections/links/59c24a9faca272295a0da456/Theoretical-insertions-regarding-Cognitive-Behavioral-and-Hypnotherapeutic-interventions-applied-in-Hypochondriac-affections.pdf
This article describes practical experiences and insights and is not medical advice. Hypnosis is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment: if you have symptoms, always consult your primary care physician or healthcare provider first.