50. Placebo: I will please… whom?
Let’s journey a bit on the well-known placebo-effect: getting better from medication until you discover it’s a sugar pill or otherwise doesn’t work in itself. You have probably heard of it. But do you think it’s far from you sickbed? Think again! There’s no medication coming on the market unless it’s been scientifically compared to a placebo… and in the action is found to have itself a placebo effect. So the last time you were under its influence was probably the last time you took medication. We’re all in the placebo boat.
◊◊◊
Fact: the placebo-effect encompasses at the average +/- 50% of the total effect of present-day medication.
◊◊◊
Consequence: this makes placebo the most powerful medication of all. This means: you yourself, the patient as cure, the inner pharmacy…You can heal yourself. This is too good to stay hidden behind a placebo, no?
◊◊◊
Give to medication what belongs to medication
but certainly give to yourself what belongs to yourself!
◊◊◊
The term ‘placebo’ comes from Latin and literally means ‘I will please’. Namely: the doctor pleases the patient with ‘something’ until the patient gets better by himself. This was/is meant to be for the good of the patient, but one can really ask whether in the end this is the case? I think not. In the end, the one who is really pleased, more than the patient, is the doctor him/herself!
◊◊◊
Placebo is a lie. The proverbial sugar pill only works if the taker doesn’t know he’s taking a sugar pill. Now, the following cannot be much of a surprise to you: a lie can never cure! It cannot go deeper than the relief of psychosomatic symptoms. This may ‘please’ in the short run, but certainly not in the long run.
◊◊◊
A lie is a lie.
Health wants truth and nothing but the truth
So help you yourself!
◊◊◊
It’s obvious to me. A placebo heightens a person’s dissociation (see other Sticky Thoughts). In doing so, it brings psychosomatic disease closer by, not further away. It brings you only temporary relief of symptoms. The price you pay is your health and well-being, certainly in the long run, and if you’re unlucky, even your very soul.
◊◊◊
‘Loss of soul.’
Nowadays known as ‘depression’.
◊◊◊
Fact: the placebo-effect encompasses 70-100% of the total effect of modern-day antidepressants.
◊◊◊
Consequence: you may fill this in yourself.
◊◊◊
Related Posts
27. Medicine of war. Medicine of peace.
Present-day Western medicine is based on the philosophy of war. Diseases are the enemy that has to be attacked as effectively as possible. The weapons to do so are medication, surgical procedures, etc. Behavioral therapy in its pure form is the psychological ally in this continuous battle. The goal is to get rid of the Read the full article…
Lisa’s Job in Numbers
Because Lisa is not data-driven but knowledge-driven, she doesn’t have a long and costly learning curve to tackle some new domain. Thus, she can play a role in many domains relatively quickly. How much of a ‘hell of a job’ is awaiting her? This blog contains many numbers from trustworthy sources. Global numbers Around two-thirds Read the full article…
Can Stress Cause MS?
MS = Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that specifically affects the brain and spinal cord. Its symptoms and prognosis are pretty diverse, making causal research challenging but not impossible. According to the National MS Society, almost one million people are living with MS in the United States. Most are diagnosed between the ages of 20 Read the full article…