Dr. Ellen Langer

And then you get better.

So it's not the pill, you're doing it yourself.

So my life's work has been to try to find out how to do this more directly.

And what I'm just going to tell you is a procedure that seems to work and that could explain placebos and other things as well.

But it's the answer to your question.

Okay, so if you have three weeks to heal and now you're approaching the second week has passed, what are you doing?

And this is what you might be doing.

When people are given a diagnosis of a chronic disease, they tend to think that the symptoms are going to stay the same or get worse.

Nothing moves in only one direction.

There are always little blips.

It's sort of like the stock market.

If it's going up, it doesn't go straight up.

Goes up, goes down, a little up, okay?

Or down, depending on it.

Sure, sure.

And it's the same thing with any measure you're going to take over time.

There are fluctuations.

Now, what happens is

There are times you're feeling better, but you're not paying any attention to those times.

Because your expectation is it's only going to get worse.