Not too long ago there was a paradigm shift in the way people viewed the connections between their physical and mental conditions, often treating them as though they were separate entities that didn’t influence each other when in reality that couldn’t be farther from the truth. And thus this article was born to inform people of the deep and powerful connection between the two of them and how they could harness it to perform miracles whilst simultaneously cautioning them towards how when misused this power could negatively affect them using Hypochondriasis, and the placebo and nocebo effects as examples. Hypochondria(Hypochondriasis) is a type of anxiety disorder in which the person with the disorder believes that they have a medical condition even though this is rarely ever the case. ![[associatedsymptoms.png]] *credit: http://tinyurl.com/2d4hk4yl* Recently Hypochondria has become increasingly common. This is due to the paradigm shift to an online lifestyle during the Covid pandemic as more and more people attempted to self diagnose via the internet because at that time going to a hospital or clinic was impossible at worst and inconvenient at best. Unfortunately google and other search engines are not programmed to offer the correct answer for people trying to find self-diagnose on the internet. After all, search engines increasingly utilise advertisements to generate income. However, not all websites run advertisements. This means that google is more likely to promote a website that has ads enabled regardless of whether the information is factual or accurate simply because there is more money to be made that way. The lack of online credibility is a huge problem but it’s not just caused by the nature of search engines, It’s also caused by the very nature of the internet itself as many websites including wikipedia have inaccurate information as they do not carry out thorough background checks before hiring individuals to write pages for them meaning some of the information on there could be wrong due to the people working on the pages not being qualified enough. These exaggerated and often misleading diagnoses offered by google and other search engines are often trusted by the average person who doesn’t know any better leading to them developing Hypochondriasis. This issue has become much more relevant in recent years due to covid increasing the amount of individuals with Hypochondria. ![[hypochondria.png|center]] Credit: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/cyberchondria-internet-making-hypochondriacs However there is a silver lining to everything and this is no exception as with the influx of Hypochondriacs came an opportunity for scientists to deepen their understanding of the human mind and its connection to the body. You see what makes the life of Hypochondriacs so difficult is that once they believe they have a medical condition it becomes internalised in their brain and body and as such they begin to exhibit mental and physical symptoms that didn’t previously exist and were fathomed out of their sheer faith in the fact that they were ill. However what's more interesting is that these symptoms aren’t hallucinations created by their own delusion. Rather these symptoms are confirmed to exist as they can be detected by medical equipment through abnormally high or low high heart rate, bp and other biometrics. Scientists still don’t fully understand this phenomenon. After all, hallucinating symptoms into existence can be seen as possible but actually procuring them into existence purely because you thought they did exist was unheard of for a long time. Scientists have come up with a few theories to explain this phenomenon with the most popular one being the nocebo effect which the average person likely knows as the opposite of the placebo effect. Essentially the placebo effect is when your physical and mental condition improves because you participated in an activity your brain thought should improve your condition. This means your condition will improve purely because your brain thought it should and whether the activity you participated in worked or not doesn’t matter. For example if a doctor gave a patient a pill and told him his symptoms would disappear after he takes the pill and the patient wholeheartedly believed him then the patient would likely display improvement after being administered the medicine even if the pill was a dud purely because the thought that taking the medicine would improve his condition was internalised within the patient and as such his condition was improved after he took the medicine regardless of whether the medicine was a dud or not. ![[placebo.png]] *Credit: Vox* The nocebo effect is the opposite of the placebo effect in the sense that your mental and physical condition becomes degraded purely because your brain thinks it should have been degraded. This can occur by participating in an activity which the brain subconsciously associates with degraded performance regardless of the validity of that activity. For example if a doctor diagnosed a patient with an illness that didn’t exist and gave them a list of symptoms the patient would most likely start exhibiting those symptoms because their brain believes that the doctor is correct and as such internalised the fact that they are sick until the point where it becomes a reality and they start exhibiting those symptoms regardless of whether they were ever sick or not. ![[nocebo2.png]] *Credit: https://rb.gy/j035ku At first mention the nocebo and placebo effects seem like interesting facts that you could share with friends but the reality is they are much much more significant than that. Essentially the placebo and nocebo effects are two sides of the same coin with each of them being the process of physiological or physical manifestations caused by certain mental or psychological beliefs. Essentially they tell us more about our minds, our brains, our body and how we can actually take back control of our life. After all, if we are capable of healing ourselves mentally and physically just because we believe we should be healed then who's to say we can’t combat a multitude of other physical disorders through sheer willpower. They reflect the power of the mind and more importantly the power of your own mindset as the only difference between people experiencing placebo and nocebo effect was that they had differing mindsets and this difference is what allowed some to gain health benefits and others to have their health degraded. The people who suffered from the nocebo effect had a mostly negative outlook on life and were all too ready to accept the fact that they had caught a disease that they were powerless to. Unfortunately for them because they believed that to be the truth the brain reinforced that internally until it really did become the truth like a self fulfilling prophecy. People with the placebo effect on the other hand had a positive outlook on life as they believed that their condition would improve after being administered the medicine and as such their brain internalised it until it became true. The main takeaway from this is that the brain is incredibly mysterious as we understand very little about it despite it being arguably the most important organ in the human body. And as expected of our miniscule amount of knowledge concerning the brain we are unaware of what it is truly capable of and as such we should try to experiment and learn more about it so that we are capable of manipulating our brain into an ideal situation where we are able to avoid being shackled by self imposed negative beliefs such as the nocebo effect, insecurity and impostor syndrome all whilst being able to prosper thanks to self imposed mental positive beliefs such as the placebo effect. ![[nocebo1.png|center]] *credit*:https://rb.gy/8z7dl3 # Glossary 1. *Paradigm* - a world view underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject 2. *Hypochondria* - Hypochondriasis is a psychiatric condition characterized by excessive worry and fear of having a serious medical condition. Individuals with hypochondriasis often misinterprets normal bodily sensations as signs of a severe illness, leading to persistent health concerns and anxiety. It is important to note that hypochondriasis is a psychological disorder and not a physical illness. 3. *Nocebo effect* - People with Nocebo effect have diminished mental and physical conditions purely because they believed engaging in a certain activity would cause them to have such a condition and their brain internalised it to the point of which it became true regardless of whether engaging in that activity would have diminished their condition or not 4. *Placebo effect* - People with Placebo effect have improved mental and physical conditions purely because they believed engaging in a certain activity would improve their condition and their brain internalised it to the point of which it became true regardless of whether engaging in that activity would have improved their condition or not. # References: 1. http://tinyurl.com/2bt3dqvv 2. http://tinyurl.com/27kubkbd 3. http://tinyurl.com/26dzp9gp # About the Author