I’ve always believed in both the placebo and the nocebo effect. The power of the mind to steer the body to heal or harm itself astounds me. What I’ve always found intriguing is that in the West the word Placebo carries the connotation that your body is doing something a drug should be doing, in essence, ignoring that in fact your mind and body are capable of healing themselves.
“A placebo is anything that seems to be a “real” medical treatment — but isn’t. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type of “fake” treatment. What all placebos have in common is that they do not contain an active substance meant to affect health.” WebMd.com
Aren’t those drugs merely mimicking something in nature and within our bodies that can happen naturally? And if those things can happen naturally, why is it such a leap to think that we can have an impact on our own healing, the placebo if you will, or self-harm, the nocebo?
I had my first recognised MS episode in 2015 and was officially diagnosed in 2016. Without hesitation, in 2015 preceding the complete diagnosis which followed in 2016, my neurologist recommended I start taking MS drugs. Much to his disappointment, which has turned into an ongoing theme with us, I turned the offer down. I started educating myself on alternative approaches to managing and curing MS; diet, lifestyle, yoga, meditation, emotional healing and more. Before long I firmly came to believe that MS is curable and at the very least manageable through approaches that help your body heal itself.
Two nights ago, I had a very real example of how powerful our minds can be. First the nocebo, as my mind and body went into MS mode based on a mental interpretation and subsequent chemical reaction in my body resulting from an onslaught of real tangible MS symptoms around me. Then the placebo, as I consciously tapped into my central nervous system to tell my body to relax, let go and come back to itself. Did I really have symptoms to start with? Was I having a panic attack? Does it really matter which it was? I consciously stopped to change something in my body by focussing my mind. For me that speaks volumes in itself.