Switch Up The Frequency: The Power Of The Nocebo Effect
The nocebo effect translates to I shall cause harm or be harmful.
“If your government comes and tells you, ‘You’re under attack. We have to rapidly get you out of there,’ and some people start feeling sick … there’s a possibility of psychological contagion.” - Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, director of the Cuban Neuroscience Center
The mind is a powerful tool and it can also be used as a weapon against you. The TV with the news, and the Internet with social media can be powerful nocebo dosing machines.
You’ve heard of the placebo effect from the Latin: I shall be pleasing or acceptable—when a person feels better from a drug or treatment that doesn’t have any pharmacological or physiological properties, whether they’re aware it’s a placebo or not. The nocebo effect happens in reverse.
Ever wonder why we aren’t seeing tolls of people recovering from Covid-19 on the news? Instead we are constantly hearing and seeing the death tolls posted daily as we watch the news. This is all to create a fear vibration in our psychology that directly impacts our immune system negatively.
“People respond to nocebo even with verbal suggestions. If we just inform someone ‘You are going to feel more pain,’ they show higher pain. With placebo, it usually doesn’t happen so automatically. ”
The nocebo effect is a real form of inception. I particularly find the research fascinating because it demonstrates how the line between psychology and biology gets blurred and it reminds us that our brains are our bodies. We tend to think of stress as something that afflicts an individual who is enduring heavy psychological pain. The nocebo effect is the “rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms among members of a cohesive social group, for which there is no corresponding organic origin.” It happens when something harmless (like watching the news) causes you harm because what you are seeing, or the narrative that is being fed to you, you are believing to be harmful.
“Think of mass psychogenic illness as the placebo effect in reverse. You can often make yourself feel better by taking a sugar pill. You can also make yourself feel sick if you think you are becoming sick. Mass psychogenic illness involves the nervous system, and can mimic a variety of illnesses.””
Now more than ever, the agendas are everywhere. It’s important to know that just as psychological factors like optimism and suggestibility have been linked to the placebo effect, the same happens in reverse. Pessimism and anxiety have been linked to have nocebo effects. Just from watching or listening to the narratives on the news you may catch yourself actually feeling symptoms of the Rona (COVID-19), even though you are perfectly healthy.
One can achieve this state of fear in just a few short minutes, surrounded by the comforts of home. So what can you do about it? What to do if merely telling someone about side effects increases their likelihood?
Train And Retrain Your Brain! Over and over. The work is never done.
It’s important to switch up the frequency. Unplug. Turn off the news for a bit so it’s not all you’re tuning into and hearing all day, everyday. Now more than ever with the pandemic, choice of words is a powerful healing tool. Better communication is needed. Go for a walk. Repeat Your Positive Affirmations , they help by giving words their healing power. Your subconscious mind impacts your overall wellbeing and creates a physical reality of you healing from a disease.
Now affirm with me, I am healthy, my family is healthy and I am safe!