https://youtu.be/wQ1QCbnUjPE

I suffer from a lifelong, chronic auto immune disorder. But when I try to discuss the nocebo effect with fellow patients, they are overwhelmed with defensiveness, convinced I am set on belittling their suffering. It's understandable, as such conditions are often largely invisible and unless you've personal experience of it, the symptoms are impossible to comprehend.

But the nocebo effect is very real.

Remember that morning you woke feeling like you simply couldn't drag yourself out of the house? By going to work, you avoided lying in bed, focusing on how terrible you felt.

Inserts from medication packs are obliged to list every possible side effect. Whether they were documented and directly attributed to the medicine in question, or self reported by a worried parent/carer with no definitive connection whatsoever.

In more than two decades of using Methotrexate, a medicine often feared for the potential side effects, I personally experienced no side effects whatsoever. However, during this time, I honestly wasn't aware of the existence of most of them.

I was lucky, but not alone.

It's similar to how expectant first time mums, hear everyone's horror stories.