Real Life Examples - How the Placebo Effect Works

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It has been suggested that the placebo effect can indeed happen in real life, and that people can actually have “placebo effects” when they go to a psychotherapist or go to an otherwise normal life-style change course. So, if this can occur in real life, does that mean there are some placebo effects that can occur in everyday life too?

How This Works ?

A pair of sunglasses on a table

To answer this, we need to ask ourselves how this works, and how it might occur in real life. When someone goes to a therapist or enters into a new life style change program, they are told that this will change their life for the better. They are given medications to take and are told that this is going to make their life better. These life changes can take the form of different physical activities, such as massage therapy or acupuncture, or breathing techniques, or meditation, or a combination of these.

The only problem with the placebo effect is that it can occur in real life without any external guidance. A person can be given a placebo by a professional who is administering some sort of treatment, and not know that the treatment is fake. Likewise, you can be given a pill or potion that supposedly contains the ingredient for a particular disease, and if you eat this pill, you will develop the symptom for that disease. Now, this is where the problem comes in. If the doctor knows that the pill doesn’t work or doesn’t contain the necessary ingredients for the symptom to appear, he is guilty of practicing placebo effect.

Lifestyle Change Programs Are Full Of Falsehoods

A close up of food

This isn’t to say, however, that all psychotherapy and lifestyle change programs are full of falsehoods. There are many psychotherapists and other practitioners out there who do truly provide help to people. But what we are talking about here is the placebo effect, which occurs when a real effect is caused by a fake treatment. This is why some doctors will prescribe antidepressant drugs, even though they don’t actually treat the patient’s illness. The placebo effect takes place when the patient believes that a medicine will cure them when, in fact, it is just a placebo.

Real life examples of the placebo effect take place every day, all the time. People believe in many things that aren’t actually true, and some of these beliefs are very powerful. People will buy toothpaste that tastes like orange juice if they’ve been told that it tastes like oranges, even though the toothpaste probably does not contain citrus flavors.

Illustrates How The Placebo Can Take Place In Real Life

An example that illustrates how the placebo can take place in real life is when a person falls on a crack during a game of football. This person may assume that the pain she feels is because she has tweaked her knee. In her mind, she is having a soccer-themed soccer practice session, when in reality, her knee is just lightly touching the crack on the ground. If she had intentionally injured her knee in an attempt to play through the pain, she probably would have developed a greater degree of faith concerning her ability to play through the pain.

Final Words

It may seem like science is on the verge of understanding the mind at a deeper level, but scientists have been unable to figure out whether the placebo effect occurs at all. The reason why is because all the answers are hidden inside the brain! Only a doctor can access the subconscious mind and figure out how it works, and that’s why psychotherapy is still one of the best options available for controlling pain and healing the mind. Until then, the placebo effect is something that you have to experience for yourself.