Hi people, this is an old essay of mine I thought others may gain some insights from:)

Persuading Reality: Social-Psychophysiological Responses to Placebo Effects

Definitions

Placebo Effect: There are multiple versions of placebo effects. This paper will use Dr. Alia Crum’s definition from behavioral health which splits the placebo effect into three components.

1. Social Context (what one learns from external sources which influence their mindsets)
2. Mindsets or Beliefs (One’s core assumptions about their subjective and objective reality which influence their expectations, adaptations, and goals)
3. Natural physiological processes in the brain and body that can produce different outcomes (the mechanisms which underpin the psychophysiological response to various stimuli)

Nocebo Effect: Negative version of a placebo effect.

Perceptual Persuasions: Beliefs and behaviors that one implements to alter their own psychophysiology.

Introduction:

One’s psychophysiology can be altered by their subjective reality. Over time the number of studies that back up this claim have continued to climb. Most of the population will go through their entire life not knowing the power of the mind-body connection. For example, if a person believes healthy food is decadent and nutritious, the food has a higher nutritional value. If an individual believes a medication is going to have adverse side-effects, there is a higher chance that it will. And if one believes stress is an opportunity for growth that enhances them instead of an insurmountable dilemma that diminishes them, their physiological responses indicate they’re correct. There are endless examples of individuals influencing their psychophysiology by changing their expectations. The mind influences outcomes across a person’s entire lifespan. Placebo effects, nocebo effects, and perceptual persuasions continue to prove that the mind-body connection is a key component of one’s overall health.

Placebo effects are one example of how the mind influences the body in miraculous ways. In a study (Mindset Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect, 2007) conducted by Dr. Alia Crum and Ellen Langer, they discovered that mindsets have a substantial impact on one’s health. The study divided 84 female hotel room attendants into two groups. After taking a few key physiological measurements the control group went back to work with no mindset training. The other subjects were then told about the benefits of exercise and how they were vastly exceeding the recommended daily requirements for a healthy lifestyle. After four weeks, Crum and Langer took the same measurements and discovered the women that had been simply told the truth about exercise showed a wide range of positive outcomes. This is just one example of many that have popped up over the years; studies like these show the power of placebo effects. A person’s mindset has an immediate impact on their reality. Crum has some brilliant insights about placebo effects in behavioral psychology. In a study on nutrition (Mind Over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine the Ghrelin Response, 2011), Dr. Crum, Peter Salovey, and Kelly J. Brownell told their subjects they were conducting a study on low-fat and high-fat milkshakes, but the milkshakes were the same for all tests. This allowed them to measure the ghrelin hormone response in the stomach after the subjects consumed the milkshakes (ghrelin is the hunger hormone). When the subjects thought they were drinking a low-fat milkshake, ghrelin increased; when they thought it was high-fat, ghrelin decreased. This shows that one’s perspective on what they’re eating causes a direct physiological response. When a person is eating healthy food it’s good to have the correct mindset. If they think it’s delicious, nutritious, and decadent, the food has a higher nutritional value. If they think healthy food is disgusting, distasteful, and unfulfilling, the person gains less benefits. The nocebos that state healthy food is undesirable, which has permeated throughout cultures around the world, continue to cause long-term issues.

A nocebo effect occurs when an individual only learns about the negative aspects of whatever they are encountering. These notions can cause a plethora of symptoms in any psychosociological event. In a study (Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention, 2007) done by Lisa S Blackwell and her colleagues, they tried to evaluate how a student’s theories about intelligence influenced their outcomes. The test focused on adolescents transitioning from the 7th grade to the 8th grade because of the high stress environment. One group of students were taught that intelligence is a long-term effort-based pursuit. The other students received a standard education with no additional guidance. The students that weren’t given any insights about intelligence mindsets proceeded to struggle in their courses while the others started to excel. This indicates the importance of having an effort-based positive mindset, instead of an end-based negative mindset, when pursuing all forms of intelligence. Negative mindsets usually come from one’s social engagements which makes them very hard to avoid. In medicine, doctors have to be extremely careful with their words, body language, and competency. If they emphasize the adverse effects of a medication, it can increase the chance of a patient having those symptoms. Also, if a health care professional mentions other patients not feeling any effects from a drug the recipient may see little to no benefits from their treatment. The nocebo effect can induce a variety of symptoms over one’s life; most of the time the person doesn’t even know a nocebo is contributing to their issues. This is a major reason people need to learn the power of perceptual persuasions.

When one learns to harness perceptual persuasions, they can manipulate their psychophysiology very reliably. This can increase a person’s ability to leverage anxiety and other forms of stress to achieve their goals. It all starts with the individual’s beliefs that have been instilled over their lifetime. To persuade one’s perceptions, it helps to think of the brain as a computer. The old beliefs are out-of-date software, and it’s going to take a little effort to reformat them to an up-to-date version. For example, most people consider stress to be a bad thing. This is because a lot of cultures constantly promote how awful stress is for an individual’s health. The truth is those statistics only represent one half of the equation. Stress also improves focus, hormone production, and can cause positive adaptations over time. When a person swaps the old belief with a mindset which amplifies the positive aspects of stress, it can have profound effects on their short and long-term health (Crum, Alia J., and Damon J. Phillips. Self-Fulfilling Prophesies, Placebo Effects, and the Social–Psychological Creation of Reality, 2015). As a culture, it would be good to promote the positive aspects of stress opposed to only the negatives. Yes, stress is not ideal, but everyone will encounter it in their life; having the correct mindset can have a massive impact on one’s psychophysiological responses.

Individuals can change their objective reality simply by changing their beliefs. These persuasions become particularly potent when paired with positive inputs, such as pursuing goals, exercising, and eating healthy. Not only does the individual receive the benefits from the objectively positive input, but they can gain increased benefits from their expectations. In some cases, the placebo effect accounts for over 80% of a drug’s effectiveness (Robson, David. The Expectation Effect. Canongate, 2022.), and in other cases, nocebos cause patients to incur negative symptoms. This is enough of a reason to seriously consider the power of one’s beliefs. Placebo effects, nocebo effects, and perceptual persuasions are a core component of a person’s outcomes in all avenues. Thus, when one thinks of all the nonsense they encounter throughout the day trying to tilt them towards a negative mindset, they realize there is a lot of mental reprogramming to be done. Thankfully these mindsets can be changed and have an immediate impact on one’s psychophysiology.

Works Cited

Crum, Alia J., and Ellen J. Langer. "Mindset Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect." Psychology

Science, vol. 18, no. 2, 2007, pp. 165-171, DOI : 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01867.x.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17425538/

Crum, Alia J., et al. "Mind over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine Ghrelin Response."

Health Psychology, vol. 30, no. 4, 2011, pp. 424-9, DOI: 10.1037/a0023467.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21574706/

Crum, Alia J., et al. "Rethinking Stress: The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response." J Pers

Soc Psychol, vol. 104, no. 4, 2013, pp. 716-33, DOI: 10.1037/a0031201.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23437923/

Langer, Ellen J, et al. "Believing Is Seeing: Using Mindlessness (Mindfully) to Improve Visual Acuity."

Psychology Science, vol. 21, no. 5, 2010, pp. 661-6, DOI: 10.1177/0956797610366543.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20483844/

Blackwell, Lisa S, et al. "Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement across an Adolescent

Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention." Child Dev, vol. 78, no. 1, 2007, pp. 246-63,

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00995.x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17328703/

Crum, Alia J., and Damon J. Phillips. "Self-Fulfilling Prophesies, Placebo Effects, and the Social–

Psychological Creation of Reality." Mbl.Stanford.Edu, 15 May, 2015,

mbl.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj26571/files/media/file/2015_crumphilips_emerg_trends_s

oc_behav_sci.pdf.

"How Mindsets Influence Health with Alia Crum." YouTube.Com, uploaded by Stanford Alumni,

10 Feb. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKQwWQxDaM0.

Dr. Andrew Huberman, “Dr. Alia Crum: Science of Mindsets for Health & Performance” Huberman Lab

Podcast, #56, YouTube.com/Spotify.com, 24 Jan. 2022

Robson, David. The Expectation Effect. Canongate, 2022.

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Hi, I’m a legally blind indie author and recently self-published my first book on Amazon/KindleUnlimited. I wrote this book to try to help people dealing with anxiety, depression, and or trauma. It goes over the principles I use to conquer the fears that come from my blindness as well as some of the ups and downs from my life. If you’re a fan of self-improvement, or learning from different perspectives, you may enjoy the book.

Sample from Chapter 2: Meaning Means More Than I Thought It Meant

What is your meaning?

This was a very useful question for me. Honestly before I answered it, I was aimless and almost never happy. I got my joy from external sources like comedies, games, and great people. Don't get me wrong all of these things are amazing. But once I found my meaning, the thing I truly wanted out of life, I was able to find joy chasing goals that move me towards it.

What is meaning?

Meaning for most people is your purpose. The driving force that gets you out of bed in the morning and the thing that keeps you up at night working to reach it. Some people find their meaning in money and objects, some find it in competition, some find it in love, or some find their meaning in a combination of these things.

When I learned this, I was at a low point in my life. My body had become a frail weak shell from a series of perpetual injuries. I just dealt with my third kidney stone, which was not a great experience. On top of that awesome physical bullshit, I was shrouded in self-pity and an I'm worthless mentality from years of letting my mind beat me down.

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The book is available on all Amazon marketplaces.

50 yom/w

I got married at 18, first baby at 18(you know why). 3 more in 9 years. High school diploma. First married job was as a waiter, several more after that. Knew that I had to get a career and not a job to support my family. So I worked at a cabinet shop during the day and went to fire academy at night. I got on after months and months of trying, bought a house, working 2 jobs to keep my wife at home. I can do almost anything I want now, not rich but not poor either. I am not bragging, just trying to instill hope that you can get to where you want to be! We made lots of sacrifices early in our lives so we would not owe more than we could pay. We still live like that, although we don’t have to sacrifice as much. We have 4 grandkids and we feel like we made it!!

Getting ahead in life is an easy formula (like weight loss) but it’s not easy to execute, it takes a lot of sacrifice and hard work, but if I can do it, then you can too.

The reason I think people “don’t make it”, is that they think someone else is responsible for their situation. That can be true, but you are responsible for getting yourself out of whatever you are going through. Get help from family, friends or a Church.

You can do it!!!

You can make a career at most jobs, improve yourself and work harder than the next person and you will be rewarded, if not with money than with experience, use that to get a better job.

I don’t know what came over with me to write this, this is the first post I have ever done, but I hope you read this and it will resonate with you and you will tru your best to get where you want to be.

Hey guys! Thought I might share my own story with you all to possibly give someone else that’s struggling a glims of hope that you can do anything!

I grew up being a very nervous child with authoritarian parents that later became an angry teenager, and for a long time as a young adult I thought that my value as a person was performance based and based on how other people saw me.

I thought that life was suppose to be a struggle and that joy, love and wealth just happened to people that were lucky. I was also taught as a child that ”Rest and recovery is for weak people”.

I was completely disconnected from my own feelings and the signals my body was trying to send me. I faked a smile and a bubbly personality on the outside while on the inside I was exhausted and felt like absolute shit.

I thought extremely low of myself and that nobody could ever accept or love me for who I was. I also thought that I wasn’t worthy of anything good in life; like my dream job, a respectful loving partner, money, or somedays even rest and food.

After reading every psychology and self-development book I could find I realised that what dictated my feeling was my brain, and that my brain was a computer that someone else once programmed with their personal beliefs and thoughts about the world.

This made me the think that; if my brain works like a programmed computer, wouldn’t that mean that I should be able to re-program it?

This was barely 3 years ago and I have to pinch myself when I think about where I am in my life today! Since the day I made the decision to truly start working on myself and completely reprogram my mindset I have;
- Moved to a different country
- I now have my own business doing what I LOVE (and getting fucking paid money for it!!)
- AND I also found a guy so good I didn’t think people like him even existed!

I guess my point is - If you are reading this and you feel like absolute shit inside, PLEASE keep going! I know it feels impossible to get out of that dark hole, but you DESERVE to live the life of your dreams and to be happy!

You are hanging out in these communities for a reason, because you want something better for yourself!

If I can do it, SO CAN YOU!! :)

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It's kind of funny how/when I created this page. I'm in the midst of quite a bit of stress and I came to reddit for support. I'm currently involved in a lot of NGO/VWO planning and on top of that studying; I'm very stressed out. When I came to reddit I typed in a bunch of support-sounding words into the url (for ex. /r/support, /r/helpme) but nothing that I was looking for came up. Then I typed in /r/YouCanDoIt and realized that this could be something big. We can do it, I can do it, you can do it, we just need some support sometimes. Thats why this subreddit is created. I understand /r/YouCanDoIt is pretty young right now and I'm currently looking for some mods to help me run this.

We can sometimes draw courage from ourselves, but often it's from our surroundings in which we can draw our power from. And remember, you can do it.