Herbal Supplements Help but Why?

[fridaynotes]

I have been a true TMS recovery story for many years, and have had many symptom imperatives that I have gotten over using tried and true techniques such as meditation, journaling, somatic tracking, and facing my fears of the symptoms.
Last year, I developed urinary urgency and bladder discomfort and after a few tests the urologist said "prostatitis" and I said "TMS!" Suffice it to say, the symptoms went away in short order.
Then, six month later they came back!
After four months now, the symptoms were not subsiding no matter what TMS strategies I used, and I am 100% convinced it's TMS causing this bladder urgency, pressure and discomfort in the pelvic region. 100%, not a doubt in my mind!
However, after some true physical suffering and discomfort and my TMS strategies not working, I bought some prostate herbs/vitamins from the company Now, and within a week of taking them ALL my symptoms went away.
What explains this?
I absolutely know these issues are TMS mind/body related.
Yet, an herbal supplement seems to have provided great relief.
Can two things be true at once?
I feel like I've sort of failed at TMS recovery because I have relied on an outside factor to lessen my symptoms. Yet, I do know that mind/body caused this.
How can I fit this square peg into a circle?
Thanks,
Tim

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Can two things be true at once?

It's the power of the placebo! And I don't mind telling you that I use it myself, even though I know I might be doing something that has not been shown to have real benefits. Examples are that I take extra Vit C for several days if I think I've been exposed to a virus, or in the past I took extra C with echinacea for a couple of weeks before the April 15 deadline (when I was under the most stress and least amount of self-care, and thus very vulnerable) or perhaps before a significant vacation - times when getting sick would have been really disruptive. To this day I will take an OTC pain reliever when I just need to take the edge off of a pain symptom (like joint pain) so that I don't obsess about it - it allows me to relax, get out the pen and paper to do some expressive writing, let time pass, and to assume that it will be gone by the next day - which it is.

There are researchers out there trying to harness the power of the placebo effect, but of course as a potential profit source it holds no absolutely no attraction for Big Pharma or Big Biotech, so good luck funding it. Nonetheless, look up Ted Kaptchuk at Harvard Medical. He's been doing this a long time, and he's still active, with lots of search results for just the last year. I missed this opinion piece he wrote in October for the NYT, discussing the recent news that OTC cold decongestants had been debunked as "no better than a placebo".

So I say: take advantage of the placebo effect, and see it as a positive and self-healing tool.