# Psychosomatic: can your mind give you a disease? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572 "2013-08-30T09:39:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lazarus86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@lazarus86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazarus86)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/1 "2013-08-30T09:39:52Z")
Let’s say you are a hypochondriac. You’re healthy, you eat healthy and look after yourself. But you worry about getting, say, breast cancer. If your mind spends enough time worrying about it, will it increase the likelihood of it actually happening? Alternatively, if you think positively and have upbeat thoughts about a recovery or about how you’re completely healthy, does that aid in overall physiological health? No changes in lifestyle in either scenario, just mind power. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/2 "2013-08-30T10:24:58Z")
No and no. However, on the latter, that is a guarded ‘no’, because anxiety can indirectly aggravate physical problems. You can’t happy-think yourself out of cancer, but you can certainly worry yourself into an early grave even if nothing else is wrong with you. Stress can open the door to many other ailments. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/3 "2013-08-30T11:25:30Z")
Your mind can certainly give you real, unpleasant, and sometimes genuinely harmful bodily symptoms. That is what psychosomatic disease is. However, it can’t give you a disease that you might otherwise get from an actual physical cause. Your mind can’t give you cancer, but it could, conceivably, give you certain cancer-like symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/4 "2013-08-30T11:48:03Z")
Placebo/[Nocebo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo) effects have been documented; the placebo effect moreso than nocebo. Depending on the depth of your belief and the tenets of your culture, it is possible to literally will yourself to death. The placebo effect is so well-documented that drug companies use marketing strategies to leverage it in order to increase the effectiveness of their drugs. There was a [Salon article](http://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/big_pharmas_placebo_problem/singleton/) recently about just that that I blogged about. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/5 "2013-08-30T15:33:21Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > Placebo/[Nocebo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo) effects have been documented; the placebo effect moreso than nocebo. Depending on the depth of your belief and the tenets of your culture, it is possible to literally will yourself to death. The placebo effect is so well-documented that drug companies use marketing strategies to leverage it in order to increase the effectiveness of their drugs. There was a [Salon article](http://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/big_pharmas_placebo_problem/singleton/) recently about just that that I blogged about. There was nothing in that article about willing yourself to death. Do you have a cite for that claim? ---
**Author:** ![KevinOwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d07c76/32.png) [@KevinOwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KevinOwen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/6 "2013-08-31T06:14:37Z")
The mind can generate illnesses in the body which are called Psychosomatic Illness. If the truama causing the illness is not handled, it can persist for years and even end up killing one. Thinking positively doesn’t help if the truama is causing the illness. Any Psychosomatic Illness can be handled with Workable Psychotherapy [Not Psych Psychotherapy, now obsolete] “The human body was found to be extremely capable of repairing itself when the stored memories of pain were cancelled. Further it was discovered that so long as the stored pain remained, the doctoring of what are called psychosomatic ills, could not result in anything permanent.” [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html) What causes the mind to depart from rational thought and behaviour > **[Official Dianetics Site: Buy Hard Cover, Paperback and Audio Books by L. Ron...](https://www.dianetics.org/#/videos)** > > Indisputably the most widely read and influential book ever written about the mind, Dianetics has remained a bestseller for over 50 years, with over 20 million copies sold. Psychosomatic Illnesses handled with Psychotherapy [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/7 "2013-08-31T09:42:49Z")
> [@KevinOwen](#): > > The mind can generate illnesses in the body which are called Psychosomatic Illness. If the truama causing the illness is not handled, it can persist for years and even end up killing one. Thinking positively doesn’t help if the truama is causing the illness. Any Psychosomatic Illness can be handled with Workable Psychotherapy [Not Psych Psychotherapy, now obsolete] > > “The human body was found to be extremely capable of repairing itself when the stored memories of pain were cancelled. Further it was discovered that so long as the stored pain remained, the doctoring of what are called psychosomatic ills, could not result in anything permanent.” > [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html) > > What causes the mind to depart from rational thought and behaviour > [Official Dianetics Site: Buy Hard Cover, Paperback and Audio Books by L. Ron Hubbard. Unlock the Potential of the Human Mind](http://www.dianetics.org/#/videos) > > Psychosomatic Illnesses handled with Psychotherapy > [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html) Do you have any _non_-pseudoscientific religious cites for your claims? ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/8 "2013-08-31T09:55:19Z")
> [@KevinOwen](#): > > The mind can generate illnesses in the body which are called Psychosomatic Illness. If the truama causing the illness is not handled, it can persist for years and even end up killing one. Thinking positively doesn’t help if the truama is causing the illness. Any Psychosomatic Illness can be handled with Workable Psychotherapy [Not Psych Psychotherapy, now obsolete] > > “The human body was found to be extremely capable of repairing itself when the stored memories of pain were cancelled. Further it was discovered that so long as the stored pain remained, the doctoring of what are called psychosomatic ills, could not result in anything permanent.” > [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/dianetics.html) > > What causes the mind to depart from rational thought and behaviour > [Official Dianetics Site: Buy Hard Cover, Paperback and Audio Books by L. Ron Hubbard. Unlock the Potential of the Human Mind](http://www.dianetics.org/#/videos) > > Psychosomatic Illnesses handled with Psychotherapy > [http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html](http://www.psychosomatic-healing.co.nz/cases.handled.html) [http://www.skeptictank.org/dienetcs.htm](http://www.skeptictank.org/dienetcs.htm) ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/9 "2013-08-31T14:42:00Z")
Truth is relative to time & place. Facts are facts. IIRC, there have been, for example, cancer remissions or complete freedom from a cancer that the medical nor the scientific community have, as yet, been able to explain. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/10 "2013-08-31T15:11:47Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > Truth is relative to time & place. Facts are facts. > > IIRC, there have been, for example, cancer remissions or complete freedom from a cancer that the medical nor the scientific community have, as yet, been able to explain. That is definitely a fact. Tying it in any way to what one believes or how one feels is, at this point, conjecture. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/11 "2013-08-31T15:53:20Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > TIIRC, there have been, for example, cancer remissions or complete freedom from a cancer that the medical nor the scientific community have, as yet, been able to explain. This doesn’t prove anything, unless you are implying that some other community is able to explain it. Let’s hear that explanation. The “positive thinking” movement is nothing less than looking someone in the eye, someone who is wracked with pain and staring death in the face, and suggesting that maybe they’re not getting better because they’re not trying hard enough to be positive. You would have to be a pretty horrible person to say that just so you could feel like you were contributing. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/12 "2013-08-31T18:35:11Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > IIRC, there have been, for example, cancer remissions or complete freedom from a cancer that the medical nor the scientific community have, as yet, been able to explain. Don’t about one-third of all human carcinomas go into remission all by themselves? That may just be my rectal factoid Pez dispenser talking (it _does_ seem to be a remarkably high fraction), but I have heard that figure somewhere before. ---
**Author:** ![KevinOwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d07c76/32.png) [@KevinOwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KevinOwen)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/13 "2013-09-01T00:07:21Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > Truth is relative to time & place. Facts are facts. > > IIRC, there have been, for example, cancer remissions or complete freedom from a cancer that the medical nor the scientific community have, as yet, been able to explain. There have and they cover illnesses across the board. One could call them placebo effects where the person heals themselves. The success rate is around 20% plus that a person will get better no matter what treatment he receives even if the treatment doesn’t work. Those treatments one could call healing by destruction may drop below that level. Most medical treatments are around that success rate. The Neurological Foundation has a 1001 disorders on the books without a single cure Psychiatry and Psychology has 367 disorders without a single cure. The MD also has 100s of illnesses they treat only the symptoms of without any cures. All the above ideologies haven’t realized yet that a person can and does heal him/herself once the Psychosomatic Conditions preventing them from doing so are handled. Psychiatry: No Science No Cures “I have cured non of my patients” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UHu7Ik36128/hqdefault.jpg "CCHR on Psychiatry: No Science, No Cures") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHu7Ik36128) The Marketing of Madness: [Video] Are We All Insane? “The definitive documentary on psychotropic drugging—this is the story of the high-income partnership between drug companies and psychiatry which has created an $80 billion profit from the peddling of psychotropic drugs to an unsuspecting public.” > **[The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane?](https://www.cchr.org/documentaries/marketing-of-madness/)** > > Documentary exposing the truth behind psychiatry and the drug companies’ deadly marketing campaign that has created an $80 billion profit. Get the truth. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/14 "2013-09-01T00:11:06Z")
Scientology bullshit is still bullshit, no matter what cites you try to find to back up your bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/15 "2013-09-01T00:14:57Z")
[CCHR.org](http://CCHR.org) is a Scientology front; the organization has a vested, financial interest in smearing psychiatry, not to mention a long history of doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/16 "2013-09-01T00:49:43Z")
> [@KevinOwen](#): > > There have and they cover illnesses across the board. One could call them placebo effects where the person heals themselves. The success rate is around 20% plus that a person will get better no matter what treatment he receives even if the treatment doesn’t work. Those treatments one could call healing by destruction may drop below that level. Most medical treatments are around that success rate. > The Neurological Foundation has a 1001 disorders on the books without a single cure > Psychiatry and Psychology has 367 disorders without a single cure. The MD also has 100s of illnesses they treat only the symptoms of without any cures. > > All the above ideologies haven’t realized yet that a person can and does heal him/herself once the Psychosomatic Conditions preventing them from doing so are handled. > > Psychiatry: No Science No Cures > “I have cured non of my patients” > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHu7Ik36128](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHu7Ik36128) > > The Marketing of Madness: [Video] > Are We All Insane? > “The definitive documentary on psychotropic drugging—this is the story of the high-income partnership > between drug companies and psychiatry which has created an $80 billion profit from the peddling of > psychotropic drugs to an unsuspecting public.” > [The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane?](http://www.cchr.org/videos/marketing-of-madness.html) What Level are you? Have they told you all about Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy yet? Seen any Thetans lately? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychosomatic-can-your-mind-give-you-a-disease/667572/17 "2013-09-01T12:23:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What Level are you? Have they told you all about Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy yet? Seen any Thetans lately? MODERATOR NOTE: C’mon, **Czarcasm** , you know better than to make such personal comments/insults in this forum. Please refrain. PERSONAL COMMENT: Certainly stress can cause a large variety of symptoms. My personal experience (no cite) is nting that my hypochondriac/OCD mother-in-law has diarrhea when she’s super-stressed, and then starts worry about some intestinal cancer, and that causes more stress with other (very real) symptoms.