Perception isn’t just based on what you see. Your perception, meaning your experience of reality, is also based on your physical abilities, your energy levels and feelings, your social identity, and other factors. Read on to find out how your perception of reality may just happen to be a bit distorted!
You’re feeling pretty blah, and you have a handful of symptoms to prove that it isn’t all in your head. Your mother says she might have “just the thing” to make you feel better. In fact, it’s been proven to be just as effective as other medications. Nope, it’s not chicken soup (though that might work, too!). It’s a placebo (pluh-see-bow): any kind of medical treatment that seems to be real but actually isn’t.
The placebo could be a pill, shot, or other form of “fake” cure, but whatever it is, it has no active ingredients that really affect your health. And yet, the placebo can sometimes be just as effective as medication. Scientists have studied the placebo effect — and used it — to help treat everything from pain to depression and more.
How can believing that a treatment will be effective actually make it effective?
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