How and Why the Placebo Effect Works for Depression Anxiety Recovery and other Illnesses – A New Theory.
How and why the placebo effect works is still a mystery to scientists. In this article a new theory will be offered to explain how and why the placebo effect works, and how this knowledge can be used not only for depression anxiety recovery, but also for many other related conditions which respond successfully to the placebo effect.
What is the Placebo Effect?
First, it is important to understand what the placebo effect is, to better understand how and why the placebo effect works.
A placebo is a dummy or fake pill or treatment that contains no medicine.
The placebo effect is the positive improvement, in a real condition, from the use of a fake pill or treatment.
A high percentage of people with certain conditions get better taking a placebo pill. Many times the placebo pill works better than real medicine. Learn more.
How the Placebo Effect Works
The placebo effect works by turning off the production of cortisol, a hormone released in response to psychological or physical stress, whose constant release stops the digestive process, and can cause damage and inflammation in the gut, which then leads to inflammation throughout the body and brain, and numerous auto-immune disorders including depression anxiety.
The placebo effect works by stopping psychological stress induced inflammation and its negative health impacts.
Learn More: Gut Brain Connection and Depression Anxiety
Why the Placebo Effect Works
If you think you that the placebo is going to make you better, your stress level and production of cortisol declines, which restores your normal digestive process allowing your gut to heal, which then reduces inflammation allowing the rest of your body and brain to heal.
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The placebo effect explains how many other types of healing or non-medical practices produces positive results. Things like prayer, faith healing, reiki, tarot card reading, counseling, meditation, all can help the individual feel better by reducing their stress levels.
Placebo Effect and Depression Anxiety
Placebo pills work as well or better than psychiatric anti-depressant medications for the vast majority of individuals with depression anxiety. 78% of the benefits from psychiatric drugs can be attributed to the placebo effect.
Psychological cognitive behavior therapy outperforms placebos for anxiety, but under performs placebos for depression, with the exception of PTSD and OCD. Study.
Psychiatric anti-depressant drugs, not only do not work better than placebos, they make 25% of patient conditions worse. Psychological counseling using cognitive behavior therapy or interpersonal behavior therapy, works better than placebos for anxiety but not depression, due to a higher degree of doctor to patient interaction in counseling compared to placebo.
Learn More: Psychology or Psychiatry for Depression Anxiety
However, the placebo effect of psychological counseling is proven by the fact that it makes no difference in outcomes, based on which type of counseling is involved. According to researchers the improvements caused by psychological counseling is due not to the specific treatment, but instead to the emotional relationship between patient and doctor, a healing setting, and a belief by both patient and doctor that the treatment will lead to a restorative outcome.
What Conditions are Affected by the Placebo Effect
Any immuno-inflammatory condition caused by or affected by psychological stress can see improvements using a placebo. The list of conditions responding positively to a placebo include ADHD, arthritis, asthma, numerous gastrointestinal conditions such as IBS, Chron’s, ulcerative colitis, chronic fatigue, pain, headaches and migraines, heart disease, parkinsons, and many more. See full list.
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How to Use the Placebo Effect
The placebo effect is real, powerful, and safe. How the placebo effect works is by turning off the negative physiological impact of psychological stress based on the belief that the treatment will produce positive results.
You can use the placebo effect to dramatically improve your depression anxiety recovery. Depression anxiety in particular is characterized by negative thinking and stress production. Constantly regretting the past and/or worrying about the future is a common feature of depression anxiety.
Stopping these negative thought patterns and replacing them with positive thoughts is how to use the placebo effect for depression anxiety recovery. Easier said than done. With a placebo pill or counseling, your thought process is changed from having someone else telling you that you will get better, with the effect occurring subconsciously.
Trying to use the placebo effect on your own, by consciously changing your own thought processes is more difficult, but can be done, and is critical for full depression anxiety recovery. Two techniques can be used to replicate the placebo effect – Mindfulness and the Power of Positive Thinking.
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A new cognitive behavioral therapy technique based on an ancient Buddhist meditation practice called “Mindfulness” is gaining wide appeal. Mindfulness is a meditation practice, where you forget about the past and future, and focus instead on the present. Mindfulness works by stopping the release of the stress hormone cortisol caused by negative psychological stressful thoughts.
The power of positive thinking uses the placebo effect more directly, by using positive self-messaging, to replace negative thoughts which produce stress, with positive thoughts that turn off the production of stress hormones. The power of positive thinking takes a conscious effort to catch yourself, when you are thinking negative thoughts and replace the negative thinking, with the self-message that you will get better.
The power of positive thinking as a placebo works better when it is associated with a behavioral change. A change in diet, exercise, supplements, some real positive change you can point to, which you can use to reinforce your positive self-messaging, will help make the power of positive thinking more effective.
The Depression Anxiety Diet and the Placebo Effect
The Depression Anxiety Diet, Exercise, and Supplement Plans are scientifically proven to help depression anxiety recovery and relieve symptoms. However, as long as chronic psychological stress is present, with its damaging effects, full depression anxiety recovery will be difficult.
As long as the stress spigot remains open, no amount of diet, supplements, and exercise, will cure your depression anxiety.
If your depression anxiety is caused by psychological stress, to achieve full depression anxiety recovery, requires a combination of physical healing using diet, supplements, exercise, combined with the known psychological stress reduction benefits of the placebo effect, using mindfulness, power of positive thinking, or psychological cognitive behavioral therapy counseling.
Combining positive physical changes with a positive psychological thought process evidenced by the placebo effect maximizes your depression anxiety recovery.
If you have depression anxiety, learn more about our natural depression anxiety alternative, and get started with our step by step Guide to Depression Anxiety Recovery.
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