Nocebeo Effect ~ Are You Accepting A False Self-Diagnosis

The opposite of the placebo effect is the nocebo effect—less uplifting but just as powerful. With the placebo effect, believing something positive can lead to real benefits. For example, a sugar pill given with the promise of healing often works, even though it contains no medicine.

The nocebo effect, however, stems from negative beliefs. Many have heard of people told they had only weeks to live, and sadly, they passed within that timeframe. Dr. Bruce Lipton shares a striking example in Biology of Belief. In the 1970s, a man diagnosed with throat cancer was told he had months to live. He passed within that time, but an autopsy revealed no cancer—it had been a misdiagnosis.

This raises a critical question: where in your life are you believing something untrue? Could your own thoughts be creating a false diagnosis or limiting belief?

Transcript

I want to take a minute to talk about something cool that I've learned recently.

Everybody's heard about the placebo effect which is you tell someone that something's going to do something but then it's not or like if there's two groups in an experiment one is a control group and then one actually gets the drug.

The one in the control group you can say to them you're getting this particular drug and they'll believe that and that will allow them to heal or the it will take effect because in their mind they've created the idea that they are getting the drug but they're actually just getting a sugar pill but I learned something recently there's something else called the nocebo effect and I was reading it in Bruce Lipton's book and one of the things that's really interesting about that is and I've always believed this ever since I took a health psychology class in college I've always believed and said to myself I don't ever get sick I don't get sick and it's so funny just saying that and feeling that like I haven't had the flu I probably had the flu one time since college and I just say that every year I don't get the flu shot I don't I just say I don't ever get sick and it's interesting you can actually have the opposite on your effect on yourself so in the book he talks about this gentleman in the 70s who was diagnosed with throat cancer and very stressed you know you have this amount of time to live and the doctor the doctor told him you have to go through chemo you have to go through radiation all these kind of things and an interesting thing happened he passed away just as the doctor stated and when they did an autopsy and they looked there was actually no throat cancer he didn't have cancer at all and it's so fascinating because when we go into life and when we tell ourselves I'm just gonna I'm gonna get sick this year or I'm gonna do something in life in general it usually manifests and if our brain is actually causing us to feel as though that thing is happening then our body goes okay well that thing is happening and I even I'm even scared to say it out loud because I don't want my body to hear it but you get my point and also there's a really fascinating thing I'm going to talk more about soon called psychoneuroimmunology and what that is is your thoughts literally are making you sick and there's scientific proof behind that where when you think a bad thought or a negative thought or something that's that's spinning in your head and you can't get out it actually sends proteins to different parts of your body mostly your organs and they've proven that cytokines which are things that go into the body can cause inflammation in organs and cause cancer it can cause heart disease but I'll talk about that a little bit more later but as far as the nocebo effect is concerned try to understand that when something somebody comes to you and gives you a diagnosis or tells you something's going to happen especially a doctor you have to take a moment and say they're a human being and they're looking at something and they're giving their best idea I'm not saying don't listen to your doctor but if you get a diagnosis of something it's really easy to get into a system of of feeling that way and just what you're doing basically is you're pounding on this feeling and of this diagnosis and you're there's just no hope and when you take hope away from the situation and you you really go into a dark despair and you go into a place where this sickness really takes hold and again I'm not saying a doctor shouldn't be listened to please I want to state that clearly but having a joyful or or a lighter outlook and you've heard this before it's when when a doctor comes in and says you have two weeks to live a lot of the time that's how long you live but and what if a doctor came in and said we're going to do the best we can and I need you to remain optimistic and just immediately feeling that you go okay well we're going to do this we're going to take care of it and I've witnessed people in my life that have approached a healing situation from a more joyful perspective and a hopeful perspective I don't want to say positive but it is positive in the sense but a more joyful perspective and as soon as we approach from a more joyful perspective then our body allow it goes okay well let's do our job and let's heal let's repair let's let this light in and let's see if we can try to to um to get rid of this sickness so next time you say a negative thing or you're thinking negative thought when something happens in your life like say you lost your job uh it can't it's not just about healing but say you lost your job and if you're perpetually going oh my god oh my god I'm never going to find another job you're probably not going to find another job because that's the diagnosis you were given a situation in life where you were told that some you weren't good enough or you were told that you were no longer needed well if you perpetuate that you're no longer needed in your mind it'll continue into your future stuff so one of the beautiful things in in buddhism specifically is life is about suffering and we have to understand that everything in life does happen for a so if you do lose your job there's something else out there that you're meant to do and i really believe that and i believe the universe will bring it to you and if you have a positive perspective and don't get me wrong well i've lost my job and i'm currently in a situation where i had a gig on a television show and it's going away and it is stressful and you have to allow yourself to have that stress and i'm feeling that stress but i'm also believing that if i remain positive i know that the universe or if you believe in god whatever you believe in that manifests whatever it is that you're desiring something even more special is going to come out of it as long as you go through the grieving process understand that there's a reason for this and every time that i've done that in life i look back and go wow that happened for a beautiful reason because something else came in and it's happened in relationships it's happened in work it's happened in so many parts of life different cities you move to you grieve the thing and then you know okay something amazing is coming and i can't wait so next time you find yourself in a negative spiral notice yourself or next time you find yourself taking news or something like that and then just perpetually being in the dumps know that you can be there for a second but understand and believe that it's not forever and that you can heal or that you can find something even more beautiful that's coming around the corner and if you believe that i believe that energetically things will come to you and believe it in a positive way don't do the nocebo effect it's no good for no it's no good for i said no good for nobody it's no good for anybody anytime you're feeling like this negative feeling just witness it and let it go peace and love