The Placebo Effect

Doctors will tell you that often patients get better even taking Placebos(pills that look like medicine but aren't) when they are told they are getting medicine. So then, the basis of getting better is I guess a way of tricking your mind into healing you without real medicine.

So, it doesn't really have to do with medicine at all and one could call any belief or even superstitition that helps one get better also a placebo effect.

In my own case I remember the time my daughter now 14 was 4 years old and fell off a large rock at Castle Lake onto her head. She came up to the motor home covered with blood from the top of her head to her waist with blood spurting out the wound on top of her head. My 10 year old who was watching her at the time was trying not to faint from all the blood. So, my wife and I had to become very calm to seem like everything was okay so my 4 year old didn't go into shock. But the funny thing was at first my daughter thought she was going to die. But then I told her I had done this to myself at age 5 with an army surplus shovel that I was trying to use as a pick in the earth and I accidentally hit myself in the head with the blade. This became a placebo effect for my daughter that I had also done this and survived. In fact, my parents didn't even take me to a doctor at that time and just put butterfly bandages on my head to close the gaping wound and to stop the bleeding. So, my 4 year old was okay even though the rest of us were not and I was trying to get to the hospital without wrecking the motor home going down quickly to 3500 feet from over 6000 feet in elevation. So, one never knows what the placebo effect might be. But this kept my 4 year old from going into shock and dying of fear just by telling her that I had survived a similar injury. Though it took the rest of us several days to emotionally recover from this my four year old came through with flying colors because of my story and was fine while the rest of us fought off fainting from the bloody sight. But by telling my story and remaining calm(in appearance) it all turned out okay.