The Nocebo Effect

I am a person, like many of us, who is prone to the odd spiral. Every now and then I seem to lose my footing in life and slip into what feels like a very dark and gloomy place. It’s happened again recently and what I’m noticing is how my mind used experiences from the past to deepen the spiral.

I’ll give you an example, in October I was gifted a psychic reading for my birthday. I wanted the reading. I was keen to go and left feeling good. The reading was good! I was told that if I carry on putting the work in I’ll become very successful and I’d travel a lot for work in the future – literally the dream for me! There were some challenges to be encountered and some other good things too, but overall I left the session feeling uplifted and positive. HOWEVER! Just at the end of the session, literally as I was getting up to leave, he said do come back again – we’ll read the bones next time. I told him I don’t know what that is and he was shocked. He had mentioned a few times throughout the reading about to me being like him and having psychic abilities and seemed genuinely puzzled when I didn’t know a couple of things he referenced. He said “come on. You know this” and then proceeded to remind me of what he thought I should know – anyway, he made a call to his next client to tell her he would be late and grabbed the basket filled with the ‘bones’. The bones are bits and bobs basically. A few different things like stones, a band, symbols and other objects. You take a handful and throw them on a tray and the reader reads them by interpreting the meanings. This was exciting for me, I like novelty, and all was going well until the penultimate object was read – “you’re being blocked” he said pointing to the black sphere laying on the tray between the tiny silver sword and the almost invisible glass buddha.

He went on to explain how in Freemasonry when choosing members how black cubes are places onto a box as votes and how just one sphere is a big fat hell no – blocked. Initially, I didn’t think too much about it. I felt as though he was gearing up to tell me more about his coven in all honesty and I took it to mean I was being blocked from that and I thought – yeah, quite right really because I’m flaky and probably don’t have what it takes to dedicate myself to the craft. Not to the extent I imagine it would take to truly make it a key feature, join a Coven, be consistent - maybe, who knows, but doubtful knowing myself and how I seem to fall in and out of things.

Anyway since then - since the clarity of the memory has faded and without a recording to replay, that one statement has developed new life for itself. When I lose sight of what I’m aiming for or feel the anxiety that comes from uncertainty wash over me I hear it – you’re being blocked. I feel it like its the truest truth. My mind, being the philosophical, critical, searching spirit it is, goes searching. What if its this, what if its that, what if I’m doomed for life because I’m being blocked from something really important, or what if I’m rejected - cast out because I’m not GOOD enough. I have a complex related to this already as a result of religious ideologies held by key people while I was growing up. It’s a MIND FEILD!

When I fell into this recent spiral what I realised (again – I might add) is that when I enter into a dark patch what happens is all the things at the back of my mind that I haven’t unpicked or re-perspected, It usually things people have done or said that I have internalised, believed and have caused me stress and anxiety and my mind uses them to confirm why I’m shit essentially.

I have worked on this loads so I do have tools and skills to manoeuvre through quicker than I used to but somethings just get rooted in! Like the “you’re being blocked” comment. Some things just stick like ear worms. Like a virus of the mind.

Well this time, in my scramble for air, I learned about something called the nocebo effect. Its like the placebo effect but the opposite. If you don’t know about the placebo effect its something used in medical science where basically x amount of people are given a medicine being trailed and x amount of people are given a sugar pill or something and lots of times the person with the sugar pill experiences the effects/results of the medicine. This has always blown me away, seriously – how is this not magic! But it’s not, really, its biology. I think maybe the human mind is just so phenomenal it is its own special a kind of magic.

What happens in the case of the placebo and nocebo is all to do with what the person BELIEVES. It goes like this:

Belief – Physiological Effect (inner) – Experiential Effect (real world confirmation) – Stronger Belief.

So the blocked comment acted as a nocebo effect. I believed the man, especially because the reading was really good AND I’m the kind of person who contemplates the metaphysical world and likes to learn about and test the things unseen - so for me its already touching on believes I hold or have held and I believed I was being blocked.

My system produced stress and anxiety because ‘being blocked’ felt like a bad thing. I came up against road blocks in my life – business, home etc. I remembered ‘you’re being blocked’ in my head. I believed it more and more. Instead of remembering that I have control over my own choices, that I create my own life, I was lost to a debilitating idea that was literally just a passing comment at the end of a reading. This is how powerful the mind is and why its important to pay attention when things get dark.

I’m so glad that I came across this piece about the nocebo, its literally lifted the spell I had put myself under because it really helped me to contextualise my experiences. The difference between a calm/safe system and a stressed system can really affect the way I experience a day and the way things unfold around me. I have to remember that when a fear is triggered, I need to look at what is showing up in my mind, what story am I telling myself – what am I believing about myself or my situation. And also the inverse is true – when fear eases up, the body often follows.

It really important to know that while the ‘cebo’ effects are generally spoken about in a medical and research settings – they can just as easily occur anywhere in life - like at work, or school, a conversation with a stranger or friend. I think its probably when someone has an air or authority about them or is someone we look up to so much that we just accept what they say without question when the reality is WE’RE ALL HUMAN, them and us, and humans are floored. If you, like me, find yourself stuck in unhelpful beliefs or patterns then think about the nocebo formula and try to shift into an idea that more helpful.

Nocebo: belief → stress response → real symptoms → stronger belief.
Placebo: belief → safety response → real relief → stronger belief.