In health, the power of the mind is also visible, especially through the placebo effect. But, what is the placebo effect?A placebo is a drug, device or treatment that has no therapeutic effect on the human body, but produces substantial symptomatic improvement in the patient, obtaining positive results. This effect has been observed especially in pain, fatigue, anxiety and distress (Wager, T.D., Atlas, L.Y., 2015).
The key behind the placebo effect lies in the patient’s belief that an intervention or drug is going to help them with their problem.This effect has been scientifically studied and, in fact, when drug tests are carried out, their effectiveness must exceed 30%, since this percentage can be associated with an improvement created by the placebo effect.
The usual placebos are: sugar pills pretending to be a drug and placebo surgeries, where the patient believes they have undergone surgery for their health problem even though said operation has not been performed.
This effect reveals that our mind is capable of physically healing us when we believe that an intervention or drug will cure us. When this deep belief occurs in the patient, the body silently begins to work to balance health once again, becoming healers from within.
Placebo Effect and Therapeutic Alliance
I believe that a good therapeutic alliance with health professionals can also become a placebo effect. When a professional trusts in our ability to improve, accompanies us along the way, actively listens to us, attends to our emotional world and accepts our suffering, we begin to believe in our recovery and in ourselves.
The process by which the therapeutic alliance can become a placebo is because, although there is no substance that directly affects the illness or disease, the trust placed in the professional activates complex neurotransmitter systems (endorphins, dopamine, etc.). ) and certain brain areas focused on emotions. And all this can explain the physical improvement (Kaptchuk, T.J., Miller, F.G., 2015).
The variables involved in a response of this type have been studied and it has been found that there are certain factors related to the patient’s personality, such as: optimism, greater suggestibility, empathy, altruism or greater attention to the body and its functions (Corsi, N. ,Colloca, L., 2017).
I consider the placebo effect to be proof of how we can change and heal ourselves from within. When we trust ourselves, in our ability to heal, when we are positive and expect the best in life, we create space for deep healing, one that heals us emotionally and physically.
The Negative Power of the Mind: The Nocebo Effect
You should also know that our mind has the ability to imagine and attract negative effects based on the expectations we have about life but also about certain treatments and interventions.
The nocebo effect has been observed in various studies. Some patients receiving a placebo reported experiencing negative side effects similar to those experienced by patients receiving the actual treatment. It is believed that the fact of previously informing the subjects about the adverse effects of the drug encourages the appearance of these symptoms despite being treated with a placebo.
This negative effect appears in patients who have certain personality characteristics: anxiety, fear of pain, catastrophic interpretation of the presence of pain and great sensitivity to bodily functioning, leading to misinterpreting certain physical symptoms as negative instead of considering them part of bodily functioning. usual (Corsi, N., Colloca, L., 2017).
The Mind’s power
If you think about it carefully, you will understand that your mind has a great sleeping power, one that you do not know and that seems to act anonymously.Your beliefs and expectations have the ability to shape your life, because through them you create the reality that you live every day. Your beliefs help you create a threatening or calm world, which can lead you to think that you live in a chaotic world or one full of harmony.
All possibilities live in you. If you expect things to work out for you, they will work out for you, but if you anticipate that there will be obstacles and it will take a lot of effort to reach your goals, rest assured that they will.
So take care of what you think and feel. Regulate your emotions, be optimistic, expect the best from life and from yourself, love yourself and be your priority.Take care of your thoughts and emotions because they have the power to make you feel abundant and positive or limited and negative.
