As It Turns Out...

I learned that I am very sensitive to the placebo effect. I learned this at a recent doctor's visit. He was asking me about my reaction to a medication I was taking, and I told him I could feel the effects immediately. As in, that very day. I never thought anything of it. I just knew what the medication claimed to do, and it helped with the condition. I didn't think it was weird that it took no time.

But when I talked to him the other day, he said, "Just so you know, that medication takes 2 weeks to start working". Can you believe? So the improvement was all my brain making the change it was expecting.

I'm sorry, but I don't feel disclosing personal medical information over the internet, so I'm not going into detail about it. Who knows who's reading this? Right?

But anyway, I actually think it's exciting. I love the idea that my brain has a lot of faith and it can fix things. I wouldn't mind if every medication I was on was just a placebo. But I guess maybe that wouldn't work if I knew about it? Why take some sketchy, possibly harmful, and expensive medication when our brains can do the work for us? I'm sure it doesn't always work. But placebo science is fascinating to me. I've heard that a lot of doctors have started giving placebos in situations where no treatment has proven successful for a patient. I think it's a fine idea. But it seems that if you are a patient and you've tried many different medications and none of them have worked for you, doesn't it seem like the placebo effect would be weaker for you? Like maybe your expectations for improvement are lower because you haven't witnessed positive results? I'm not totally sure how it works. Anyone know?