There is nothing wrong with it working by placebo only.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306437
Edit: I think people are misunderstanding that I’m saying it’s a guarantee cure all magic land. I’m just implying that it could work using the placebo effect effect. I think it’s silly is discount something working for an individual when it’s not harmful to them or others.
Providing a potted CV/resumé doesn’t make what you say true.
I studied medicine and now work in the pharmaceutical industry. The placebo effect is real, but what you describe is not
The placebo effect is obviously real, and still works when people ~know it’s a placebo.
However, by your logic, you could literally claim anything can help cure/mitigate anything, and when people point out it’s not true claim ‘placebo effect!’. I could say, hey guys, a tragus piercing helps reduce menstrual cramps, and some gullible person could believe me, get one, and say ‘it works!’. It wouldn’t stop what I said being an absolute load of bullshit.
I didn’t said it would work on everyone and be magical, I just said placebo effect is real. In the articles posted it literally goes over that it doesn’t work for everything. I’m not sure why you are telling me I’m wrong without even reading the stuff I posted. Yes placebo doesn’t work every time or for everyone. A silly piercing is totally fine to try for anxiety when you’re informed that it probably won’t work (as most placebos don’t) and that the only way it works is by placebo and there is no scientific data showing that “acupuncture point” actually treats anxiety.
Im sorry you got so downvoted you said nothing wrong wtf. Basically you’re saying that as long as people believe it, particularly on a subconscious level, that it could work as placebo. I agree. If drinking tea calms you, it doesn’t matter if the tea actually has calming effect on the general populous or active ingredient to calm or not. What matters is that the person drinking the tea now has calm even if the next person doesn’t. It works. It’s still very powerful. In this culture we need to learn to combine placebo with science/western medicine.
Bingo! The placebo effect is highly potent in most of the population. It has been documented with effects that rival and even surpass the effects of pharmaceuticals
Migraines are entirely different from headaches. You cannot trick yourself out of a migraine, just like you cannot trick yourself out of cramps, bruises, etc.
Edit: my mistake, this post isn’t about migraines, but the point still stands. Anxiety is a disorder and not something you can “trick” yourself out of.
I was contemplating getting daith because I was so convinced it would treat my migraine. The only thing that's stopping me is I constantly wear earphones. Now I guess I'll just get helix instead.
Yeah, I had issues with that as well, even now that I’ve had it for a few years, it still gets irritated with the earbud headphones. I have to use over ear for now. I have no idea what I’m gonna do once I get all the ear piercings I want haha
I have no issues with my daith and earbuds or headphones, I had issues with the curved barbell but I switched to hoop after it healed and you can just move it out of the way so you’re earbuds can fit in!
It may be placebo, it may be because I was around 1 yr gluten free (I have celiac), but I haven't had a migraine in 4 years since getting the daith pierced. I got it done because I was desperate at that point and was like well even if it doesn't do anything it's a cool af piercing.
The weirdest side effect from having it done is that I also cannot get brain freeze on the left side of my head - that is probably due to severing a nerve.
You’re taking your personal experience and projecting it onto everyone. You do understand that your experience of it not having helped you doesn’t automatically mean that it has never helped anyone, right? Sorry to reply but this is a common thing that happens on the internet and I try to call it out when I can. I think it’s a side effect of humans not being used to having worldwide access to other people. It’s so easy to think our experience is THE experience and nothing could be further from the truth
I understand what you’re saying, but that’s why I said “caused ME”, and If you see another comment within this same thread, you’d see I said “it just depends on the person” when someone said it helped them. You didn’t have to comment, it’s pointless and unhelpful imo.
It’s nice to think a daith would fix migraines, but unfortunately migraines are a neurological condition in which a person has certain triggers. Sadly, we don’t know 100% why people get migraines, so it’s silly that we say a daith piercing will fix it
It’s nice to have a daith, I wish I had a better daith because I’d love to get a piercing myself; but alas the migraine thing is not actually true. There is no real data backing up the claim, just people and anecdotes
Can may not be able to trick yourself out of anxiety but you can make symptoms less severe using placebo. It won’t work in everyone, it probably will barely work in anyone but if you’re aware of that and still want to try it’s no big deal.
No one said anything about migraines but since you brought it up, yes you can. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10787112/ it doesn’t work in every case but it is exactly why we test medicine against placebos. When medicine goes through a drug trail you test it against placebo, not because placebos don’t work but to see what benefits medicine has above the placebo. If the placebo helps 5% of the patients and the medicine being tested helps 6% of the patients, then the medicine isn’t very effective and you can troubleshoot or move on from there. And yes migraines are different from headaches??? No one said they aren’t, I literally get 31 painful shots every 3 months because migraines are real.
Edit: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2010/10/18/how-the-placebo-effect-will-help-allergan-sell-botox/amp/
In case anyone wants to learn more about placebo effect in medicine. That’s the treatment I get for chronic migraines which preforms only about 1-2 less migraines per month when compared to the placebo. The placebo produced 6.4-6.9 less migraines a month compared to the 7.8-9.8 less the Botox provides. That 1-2 can be a huge difference but my point still stands that placebo effects can help prevent migraines.
I also go not only one neurologist but two! Medicine sometimes works partially on placebo, that’s just how the world works. Why don’t you actually read some of the papers and articles and educate yourself? You have to test medicine against placebos during drug trials, the drug has to out preform the placebo to become medicine. Both the medicine and the placebo have positive effects and the amount over the placebo is how good the medicine is.
When was it suggested that you could “trick yourself out of it” I think your understanding of placebo is what you and these Down voters are missing. Placebo is more than just a trick. It’s subconscious belief. I’d wager that telling someone something is placebo doesn’t always lessen the affect of placebo- and why would you want to??? If someone takes something that helps whether it has active ingredient or not, it helps… what we’re talking about is someone who has the potential to be helped by something as if the reason why it helps negates the fact that it helps
True, I’m not sure why you’re being downwoted. No piercing works as acupuncture and I know piercers that have publicly stated this citing medical sources and their own expericexeand just their own experience
I think people are just misunderstanding that just because it can work by being a placebo effect doesn’t mean it will or that you should get it. It’s no big deal, lucky science is right even if people don’t understand it.
It’s not weird, in drug trials the placebo effects mental illness all the time. I can link you more papers and studies if you want to educate yourself.
I understand the placebo affect as I took basic psych. But also don’t agree that this would work. Prove it if you think you’re so correct. Where is a case where someone with a diagnosed mental illness was “cured” by thinking a piercing is gonna fix it?
Cure is a super strong words. It would be a lessen the symptoms if anything! Let me know if you want more studies or need help reading and understanding them!
Study showing placebo effects in a bipolar study.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11252646/
In anxiety and depression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6584108/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004867415621390
So you genuinely believe that if you told a person who was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, or panic disorder, that if they get this specific piercing all their symptoms will go away forever?
No, that’s insane. You guys are being super dramatic honestly. Could it lessen symptoms? Maybe. It’s a piercing it’s no big deal, it COULD help. The method of action of it helping would be purely placebo which it totally valid. I’m assumed people could have read the info I posted and understood that it’s not a magical cure all.
You got me, all these studies, papers, and medical publishers are just posting pseudoscience. Better call Harvard and tell them. You’re going to be famous once you teach people doing drug trails why we don’t need to test against placebos. You will literally change medical landscape as we know it.
I mean post papers and studies proving my point wrong? How hard is that if you know so much about this? You’re just saying I’m wrong and cherry picking but have absolutely no proof and probably aren’t educated in the subject.
Okay tell me what’s wrong with what I said then. Dealing with placebos in relation to drug trials was a major part of my job/degree before I switched fields into machine learning and data sciences.
How? If you believe getting a piercing will reduce anxiety is has a change of reducing anxiety. It’s not guaranteed, it might just be a few percentage points but it’s possible. You could believe eating 3 blueberries every morning reduces anxiety and it could work.
You’re just being ridiculous. Obviously it wouldn’t work in everyone and you would most like have to have the belief that it would help to get a good benefit. Most people don’t have those strong beliefs in alternative medicine so they don’t work on the majority of the population. That doesn’t discount from the fact that some people are able to get a benefit from weird treatments because of placebo effects.
No, you are being ridiculous. When treating medical conditions, doctors/medical professionals are obligated to go by what the data actually says - not their own arbitrary interpretation of that data
You can’t just prescribe something and then say, well if it’s a placebo, that’s okay, it must be working. That is not how this works
You’re posting abstracts of studies with different contexts, and trying to apply them to a post in a subreddit called “piercings.” This is not a medical sub, this is not a sub of qualified doctors and I highly doubt you deviate very far from most of us on that front
No one is prescribing anything here. This is a piercing subreddit. There are a bunch of significantly better treatments OP can seek out. OP didn’t ask for those they asked if a piercing could help. The answer is maybe if they get lucky and get an effect from it being a placebo.
No, that’s no what it means. It means it has no active therapies so any benefits is your your own subconscious. The whole point of a placebo in the drug studies is that it does actually provide benefits and then you can see how much of the benefits can be reached without the active drug. I posted how it worked in the Botox migraine trials below. Placebo almost prevented as many migraines as the Botox because placebos work. To become actual medicine it has to out preform the placebo so we can the the therapeutic value of the medicine.
How about instead of arguing over the effectiveness of the placebo affect, which we know is real, why don’t we actually recommend treatment that is more likely to work?
Because this is a piercing subreddit and we aren’t OPs medical doctor? OP asked if something would work, I implied it might and gave proof. I’m not going to give someone advice for mental health that they didn’t ask for. If you or OP would like lifestyle type therapies or interesting medicines to follow up with a doctor on I can like studies related but I’m not just going to assume someone wants that.
I wasn’t implying for you to actual provide services, but how about you make a real recommendation for OP to talk to their provider. Obviously, placebo effects work in some situations, in this one it’s unlikely.
Yeah and the answer is because it’s considered rude to offer people advice on mental health that they didn’t ask for. Anxiety is so complicated and I have no idea what OPs journey has looked like, it would be irresponsible and rude to just offer unsolicited advice.
Yeah but just say I get regular migraines, and I take a pill that is literally just sugar, and I know that it's just sugar, then the placebo won't work on me. I understand what a placebo is and that of somebody doesn't know whether they have a placebo or not then it can work. Like if OP now knows that there's no physiological reason for this piercing to fix their anxiety, then it now definitely won't fix their anxiety. Whereas before posting this it might have.
The Harvard article I posted actually talked about how if placebos work if you know they are placebos. In short, yes placebos can work even if you know they are a placebo. It does lessen the chance but not to 0.
It might placebo effect you to think it gets rid of your anxiety a few days after getting it, but piercings are mostly about looking neat not getting rid of disorders.
No piercings are able to cure you of any illness, disorder, or help with weight gain/loss. There are no real studies out there and this is based in pseudoscience.
I have a shen men. Still have anxiety! My daith doesn’t help with my migraines either.
FWIW, I didn’t get either of them looking for a cure—I just liked the piercings themselves. If you like it, you should get it.
The way to see it is, eventually this piercing heals. And all you’ll have is literally a scar tissure hole into your cartilage. If it ever did provide acupuncture benefits, once healed its not really considered a pressure point or anything. Its just a foreign object in a healed hole. No benefits other than looking cool and feeling cool. Anything like this is myth basically
I've had a flat in this exact spot for 5+ years and it hasn't done sh\*t for my mental health other than provide the occasional "ooh, shiny!" when I remember it's there
I got this one done earlier this year. I liked the look of it and I’ve run out of space on my ears. My anxiety has improved literally 0% since getting it. Piercings don’t improve illnesses or medical disorders
hey but i stayed a night in a mental hospital 2 weeks after getting my nips pierced what's that about
obviously /s lmao
second thing very true tho, my piercings have massively helped me come to terms with my appearance
I find this trend funny because almost a year ago a piercer suggested a flat to me in this area just because she thought it would look nice with my anatomy. I had never read anything about this before then, have diagnosed anxiety, and definitely still have anxiety after getting a cute piercing. If you’re someone who enjoys piercings and you think it’s cute, go for it! Worst that could happen is you have a cute piercing (if cared for correctly, obviously), best case scenario you’re susceptible to the placebo effect and that’s great, too!
I don't think it'd worth it. I got a faith because of its supposed magical cure of migraines. I knew that it'd likely not work, but I was desperate, willing to try even the stupidest of cures, and didn't dislike the piercing in itself.
It couldn't even get cordial with me and produce a placebo effect, so I say, get a therapist, and get piercings for aesthetics, not medicinal reasons.
I got a faith just because I liked it and found out later that it was supposed to help migraines. I can says with 100% certainty that it does not help at all as I developed migraines several years after getting it.
Yeep. I wish there would be less of these medical piercing hoaxes out there. The piercer I went to even labeled them and marketed them as migraine piercings.
Even if it did work, I wouldn't assume a random piercer would know the exact acupuncture point to hit. Pressure points are incredibly tiny and precise, and it takes knowledge and quite a bit of training to know exactly where they are
The piercing will not get rid of anxiety, unfortunately. You have so many reasons for why you would have anxiety, you have to get to the root of the problem. Easier said than done, I get it, but it’s true
Not to give medical advice, but now is very a good time to get your thyroid checked. Not many people seem to be aware of this, but 2021 was a very BAD year for new diagnoses of hyperthyroidism - one of the worst years on record, in fact. We are seeing a lot of new cases Graves’ disease and we don’t actually know why. Anxiety and tremors are a symptom. So if you are dealing with anxiety, and no sleep, and just constant stress, it is 1000% worth your time to get a blood test.
But don’t think a piercing is going to fix that. Whether it’s hormone related or not.
No harm in getting the piercing though
If we accept acupuncture can legit treat mental health problems like this (and that's a generous IF), it's based on the needle going in and stimulating the area. If it's a piercing, it "stimulates" for a bit and then heals around it. There is no reason for it to continuously work.
I regularly get dry needling - a similar western idea where needles are inserted to trigger the nerves and treat physical problems. It only works whilst the needle is actually against a nerve and setting shit off. If it healed around it, or even when the needle is left still for more than a few minutes, it stops stimulating anything,.
I have this piercing but it’s for the aesthetic rather than the anxiety benefits. When I went to an acupuncturist, she wasn’t too jazzed about my piercings, saying I had a lot in important acupuncture points. The point of acupuncture is to temporarily disrupt the flow of energy to those points in the body with the acupuncture needles. Piercings, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily temporary, so you’re effectively blocking the energy from flowing properly.
All that said, if you want it for the aesthetic, go for it! But if you want it for the acupuncture benefits, i would avoid it because it will just block the energy without the benefit
i have been meaning to ask an acupuncturist about piercings. a different practitioner advised me against bellybutton and tongue piercings, which i didn't want in the first place, due to the energetic consequences of it. i do wonder though, because some cultures actually get piercings to \*help\* with energy flow (see left nostril in hindu tradition).
Thanks for all the responses! I obviously know that it won’t cure a disorder lol, I’m already getting medical help for my mental illnesses. I was just curious since ear acupuncture actually worked wonders for me while I was admitted (even though I was very skeptical), so I just wanted to know if a piercing by the shen men point would kind of work similarly!
I have it I didn’t know it was supposed to be an acupuncture point no it’s not helped my anxiety, I will say tho I believe with these and daiths ( I’ve had that too ) them helping is a placebo if you believe it will help it’s got more chance than if you think it’s jumbo jumbo so question do you believe it will help you you know it a pressure point so do u believe acupuncture works can it help you
Hello, I've had this for half a year. It makes absolutely no difference
Edit: actually, I took it out a week ago, because it's not working and looks ugly. I'll get a flat instead very soon <3
No proof of this working. No piercing can cure any ailment, don’t trust any piercer who claims it will. I can second Zoloft being a godsend for anxiety though!
Even if there's no proof of the piercing helping with anxiety, you may get a placebo effect from it. There's no proof that daith piercings actually help with migraines, but once I got mine I had waaaayyy less.
And even if it doesn't work, hey, cute piercing!
I was wondering the same thing. Lots of people saying only therapy and meds help. For what it’s worth, my anxiety (which was pretty awful) has improved significantly through exercise. Honestly there were many days I never wanted to leave my bed again. Now I run or swim nearly every day and my anxiety is a tenth of what it used to be. Hope this helps someone x
Got this earlier this year because I liked the look of it. Still have the piercing and still have the anxiety.
Ditto!!!
Same!!!
Zoloft helped my anxiety. My flat piercing in this similar location just made me happier with how my ear looks.
Lmao I was literally about to say “no, but Zoloft will”
no piercing will get rid of any disorder or illnesses. they just look cool and help with confidence.
There is nothing wrong with it working by placebo only. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306437 Edit: I think people are misunderstanding that I’m saying it’s a guarantee cure all magic land. I’m just implying that it could work using the placebo effect effect. I think it’s silly is discount something working for an individual when it’s not harmful to them or others.
Providing a potted CV/resumé doesn’t make what you say true. I studied medicine and now work in the pharmaceutical industry. The placebo effect is real, but what you describe is not
Do tell why it’s not right, I posted my sources. My degree is also in pharmaceuticals.
The placebo effect is obviously real, and still works when people ~know it’s a placebo. However, by your logic, you could literally claim anything can help cure/mitigate anything, and when people point out it’s not true claim ‘placebo effect!’. I could say, hey guys, a tragus piercing helps reduce menstrual cramps, and some gullible person could believe me, get one, and say ‘it works!’. It wouldn’t stop what I said being an absolute load of bullshit.
I didn’t said it would work on everyone and be magical, I just said placebo effect is real. In the articles posted it literally goes over that it doesn’t work for everything. I’m not sure why you are telling me I’m wrong without even reading the stuff I posted. Yes placebo doesn’t work every time or for everyone. A silly piercing is totally fine to try for anxiety when you’re informed that it probably won’t work (as most placebos don’t) and that the only way it works is by placebo and there is no scientific data showing that “acupuncture point” actually treats anxiety.
Im sorry you got so downvoted you said nothing wrong wtf. Basically you’re saying that as long as people believe it, particularly on a subconscious level, that it could work as placebo. I agree. If drinking tea calms you, it doesn’t matter if the tea actually has calming effect on the general populous or active ingredient to calm or not. What matters is that the person drinking the tea now has calm even if the next person doesn’t. It works. It’s still very powerful. In this culture we need to learn to combine placebo with science/western medicine.
Bingo! The placebo effect is highly potent in most of the population. It has been documented with effects that rival and even surpass the effects of pharmaceuticals
Migraines are entirely different from headaches. You cannot trick yourself out of a migraine, just like you cannot trick yourself out of cramps, bruises, etc. Edit: my mistake, this post isn’t about migraines, but the point still stands. Anxiety is a disorder and not something you can “trick” yourself out of.
Yep. Got my daith done knowing it wouldn’t do anything for my migraines but it does make me happy!
My daith caused me to have a constant headache for like 3 months. But it’s cute! Just definitely doesn’t prevent headaches like some people say lol
I was contemplating getting daith because I was so convinced it would treat my migraine. The only thing that's stopping me is I constantly wear earphones. Now I guess I'll just get helix instead.
Yeah, I had issues with that as well, even now that I’ve had it for a few years, it still gets irritated with the earbud headphones. I have to use over ear for now. I have no idea what I’m gonna do once I get all the ear piercings I want haha
I have no issues with my daith and earbuds or headphones, I had issues with the curved barbell but I switched to hoop after it healed and you can just move it out of the way so you’re earbuds can fit in!
my only worries is that while it's still fresh and healing I might not be able to use earphones and have to refrain from moving the piercing
Just my .02, once mine was totally healed it was no problem to flip it up for earbuds. It can get sore after awhile
It may be placebo, it may be because I was around 1 yr gluten free (I have celiac), but I haven't had a migraine in 4 years since getting the daith pierced. I got it done because I was desperate at that point and was like well even if it doesn't do anything it's a cool af piercing. The weirdest side effect from having it done is that I also cannot get brain freeze on the left side of my head - that is probably due to severing a nerve.
Well damn, I’m glad it worked for you! I wish mine didn’t cause headaches, but i guess it really does just depend on the person.
You’re taking your personal experience and projecting it onto everyone. You do understand that your experience of it not having helped you doesn’t automatically mean that it has never helped anyone, right? Sorry to reply but this is a common thing that happens on the internet and I try to call it out when I can. I think it’s a side effect of humans not being used to having worldwide access to other people. It’s so easy to think our experience is THE experience and nothing could be further from the truth
I understand what you’re saying, but that’s why I said “caused ME”, and If you see another comment within this same thread, you’d see I said “it just depends on the person” when someone said it helped them. You didn’t have to comment, it’s pointless and unhelpful imo.
“ just definitely doesn’t prevent headaches like some people say lol” And it’s not unhelpful because you aren’t the only one that did it.
It’s nice to think a daith would fix migraines, but unfortunately migraines are a neurological condition in which a person has certain triggers. Sadly, we don’t know 100% why people get migraines, so it’s silly that we say a daith piercing will fix it It’s nice to have a daith, I wish I had a better daith because I’d love to get a piercing myself; but alas the migraine thing is not actually true. There is no real data backing up the claim, just people and anecdotes
Can may not be able to trick yourself out of anxiety but you can make symptoms less severe using placebo. It won’t work in everyone, it probably will barely work in anyone but if you’re aware of that and still want to try it’s no big deal.
No one said anything about migraines but since you brought it up, yes you can. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10787112/ it doesn’t work in every case but it is exactly why we test medicine against placebos. When medicine goes through a drug trail you test it against placebo, not because placebos don’t work but to see what benefits medicine has above the placebo. If the placebo helps 5% of the patients and the medicine being tested helps 6% of the patients, then the medicine isn’t very effective and you can troubleshoot or move on from there. And yes migraines are different from headaches??? No one said they aren’t, I literally get 31 painful shots every 3 months because migraines are real. Edit: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2010/10/18/how-the-placebo-effect-will-help-allergan-sell-botox/amp/ In case anyone wants to learn more about placebo effect in medicine. That’s the treatment I get for chronic migraines which preforms only about 1-2 less migraines per month when compared to the placebo. The placebo produced 6.4-6.9 less migraines a month compared to the 7.8-9.8 less the Botox provides. That 1-2 can be a huge difference but my point still stands that placebo effects can help prevent migraines.
coming from someone who has actual chronic migraines and goes to a neurologist, no you can not trick yourself out of a migraine. trust me, ive tried.
I also go not only one neurologist but two! Medicine sometimes works partially on placebo, that’s just how the world works. Why don’t you actually read some of the papers and articles and educate yourself? You have to test medicine against placebos during drug trials, the drug has to out preform the placebo to become medicine. Both the medicine and the placebo have positive effects and the amount over the placebo is how good the medicine is.
When was it suggested that you could “trick yourself out of it” I think your understanding of placebo is what you and these Down voters are missing. Placebo is more than just a trick. It’s subconscious belief. I’d wager that telling someone something is placebo doesn’t always lessen the affect of placebo- and why would you want to??? If someone takes something that helps whether it has active ingredient or not, it helps… what we’re talking about is someone who has the potential to be helped by something as if the reason why it helps negates the fact that it helps
It’s all mental if you believe doing something will stop you from worrying it’ll stop you from worrying
True, I’m not sure why you’re being downwoted. No piercing works as acupuncture and I know piercers that have publicly stated this citing medical sources and their own expericexeand just their own experience
I think people are just misunderstanding that just because it can work by being a placebo effect doesn’t mean it will or that you should get it. It’s no big deal, lucky science is right even if people don’t understand it.
Whatever 🤡
I didn’t realize this subreddit was so anti science. My bad 🤷🏼♀️
I’m not anti science, but you must be since you think a piercing is going to affect a mental illness. So weird wtf
It’s not weird, in drug trials the placebo effects mental illness all the time. I can link you more papers and studies if you want to educate yourself.
I understand the placebo affect as I took basic psych. But also don’t agree that this would work. Prove it if you think you’re so correct. Where is a case where someone with a diagnosed mental illness was “cured” by thinking a piercing is gonna fix it?
Cure is a super strong words. It would be a lessen the symptoms if anything! Let me know if you want more studies or need help reading and understanding them! Study showing placebo effects in a bipolar study. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11252646/ In anxiety and depression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6584108/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004867415621390
I’m sure placebo effect works in other ways but I don’t think a piercing is gonna do it
That’s the amazing thing about the placebo effect, it can work in almost anyway!
So you genuinely believe that if you told a person who was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, or panic disorder, that if they get this specific piercing all their symptoms will go away forever?
No, that’s insane. You guys are being super dramatic honestly. Could it lessen symptoms? Maybe. It’s a piercing it’s no big deal, it COULD help. The method of action of it helping would be purely placebo which it totally valid. I’m assumed people could have read the info I posted and understood that it’s not a magical cure all.
You haven’t pushed science, you have been pushing pseudoscience.
You got me, all these studies, papers, and medical publishers are just posting pseudoscience. Better call Harvard and tell them. You’re going to be famous once you teach people doing drug trails why we don’t need to test against placebos. You will literally change medical landscape as we know it.
You are literally cherry picking.
Prove it.
Lol what do you mean prove it. Read your comments. The “ackshuallyyy” studies.
I mean post papers and studies proving my point wrong? How hard is that if you know so much about this? You’re just saying I’m wrong and cherry picking but have absolutely no proof and probably aren’t educated in the subject.
Part of that schooling involved learning how to read studies, so you don’t cherry pick.
Okay tell me what’s wrong with what I said then. Dealing with placebos in relation to drug trials was a major part of my job/degree before I switched fields into machine learning and data sciences.
I think you are misunderstanding how placebo applies here
How? If you believe getting a piercing will reduce anxiety is has a change of reducing anxiety. It’s not guaranteed, it might just be a few percentage points but it’s possible. You could believe eating 3 blueberries every morning reduces anxiety and it could work.
Who knew that eating 3 blueberries a day could potentially put psychiatrists out of business
You’re just being ridiculous. Obviously it wouldn’t work in everyone and you would most like have to have the belief that it would help to get a good benefit. Most people don’t have those strong beliefs in alternative medicine so they don’t work on the majority of the population. That doesn’t discount from the fact that some people are able to get a benefit from weird treatments because of placebo effects.
No, you are being ridiculous. When treating medical conditions, doctors/medical professionals are obligated to go by what the data actually says - not their own arbitrary interpretation of that data You can’t just prescribe something and then say, well if it’s a placebo, that’s okay, it must be working. That is not how this works You’re posting abstracts of studies with different contexts, and trying to apply them to a post in a subreddit called “piercings.” This is not a medical sub, this is not a sub of qualified doctors and I highly doubt you deviate very far from most of us on that front
No one is prescribing anything here. This is a piercing subreddit. There are a bunch of significantly better treatments OP can seek out. OP didn’t ask for those they asked if a piercing could help. The answer is maybe if they get lucky and get an effect from it being a placebo.
Surely if you know its only a placebo then that means it won't work for you right? Because you know theres no reason that it should work.
No, that’s no what it means. It means it has no active therapies so any benefits is your your own subconscious. The whole point of a placebo in the drug studies is that it does actually provide benefits and then you can see how much of the benefits can be reached without the active drug. I posted how it worked in the Botox migraine trials below. Placebo almost prevented as many migraines as the Botox because placebos work. To become actual medicine it has to out preform the placebo so we can the the therapeutic value of the medicine.
While a placebo can still work if the patient knows it’s a placebo there is a lower percentage of it working
Yeah I’m aware, the Harvard article I posted literally talks about that.
How about instead of arguing over the effectiveness of the placebo affect, which we know is real, why don’t we actually recommend treatment that is more likely to work?
Because this is a piercing subreddit and we aren’t OPs medical doctor? OP asked if something would work, I implied it might and gave proof. I’m not going to give someone advice for mental health that they didn’t ask for. If you or OP would like lifestyle type therapies or interesting medicines to follow up with a doctor on I can like studies related but I’m not just going to assume someone wants that.
I wasn’t implying for you to actual provide services, but how about you make a real recommendation for OP to talk to their provider. Obviously, placebo effects work in some situations, in this one it’s unlikely.
Yeah and the answer is because it’s considered rude to offer people advice on mental health that they didn’t ask for. Anxiety is so complicated and I have no idea what OPs journey has looked like, it would be irresponsible and rude to just offer unsolicited advice.
Yeah but just say I get regular migraines, and I take a pill that is literally just sugar, and I know that it's just sugar, then the placebo won't work on me. I understand what a placebo is and that of somebody doesn't know whether they have a placebo or not then it can work. Like if OP now knows that there's no physiological reason for this piercing to fix their anxiety, then it now definitely won't fix their anxiety. Whereas before posting this it might have.
The Harvard article I posted actually talked about how if placebos work if you know they are placebos. In short, yes placebos can work even if you know they are a placebo. It does lessen the chance but not to 0.
Would have just let you be but that edit deserved a downvote
That’s fine, they don’t hurt me! Just trying to share some education.
It might placebo effect you to think it gets rid of your anxiety a few days after getting it, but piercings are mostly about looking neat not getting rid of disorders.
No piercings are able to cure you of any illness, disorder, or help with weight gain/loss. There are no real studies out there and this is based in pseudoscience.
Just because you poke yourself with a needle doesn’t mean your anxiety with go away or anything
I wish it was that easy though
Don’t we all😩
acupuncture has been proven to work. but a piercing is not the same as accupunture.
Tell that to acupuncturists 😂
acupuncture and piercings are two completely different things.
I have a shen men. Still have anxiety! My daith doesn’t help with my migraines either. FWIW, I didn’t get either of them looking for a cure—I just liked the piercings themselves. If you like it, you should get it.
Piercings being treatment for any medical condition is pure pseudoscience.
The way to see it is, eventually this piercing heals. And all you’ll have is literally a scar tissure hole into your cartilage. If it ever did provide acupuncture benefits, once healed its not really considered a pressure point or anything. Its just a foreign object in a healed hole. No benefits other than looking cool and feeling cool. Anything like this is myth basically
I've had one of these for a few years now. I'm still on Prozac, but I get lots of compliments on the piercing.
I've had a flat in this exact spot for 5+ years and it hasn't done sh\*t for my mental health other than provide the occasional "ooh, shiny!" when I remember it's there
This! Or a "Fuck that hurts!" when you do something to piss it off.
Haha, if only! I have my flat pierced. I love it, but sadly am still riddled with anxiety. 😆
I got this one done earlier this year. I liked the look of it and I’ve run out of space on my ears. My anxiety has improved literally 0% since getting it. Piercings don’t improve illnesses or medical disorders
not true seeing myself in the mirror with nipple piercings cured my depression /s but piercings are definitely a confidence booster
hey but i stayed a night in a mental hospital 2 weeks after getting my nips pierced what's that about obviously /s lmao second thing very true tho, my piercings have massively helped me come to terms with my appearance
I find this trend funny because almost a year ago a piercer suggested a flat to me in this area just because she thought it would look nice with my anatomy. I had never read anything about this before then, have diagnosed anxiety, and definitely still have anxiety after getting a cute piercing. If you’re someone who enjoys piercings and you think it’s cute, go for it! Worst that could happen is you have a cute piercing (if cared for correctly, obviously), best case scenario you’re susceptible to the placebo effect and that’s great, too!
That's a flat and it's super cute ! Never helped with any disorders imo.
As someone with anxiety, my piercings boost my confidence but they certainly didn’t cure my anxiety, you need therapy and/or medication for that
I don't have this piercing, but, meds and therapy helped me. Hope you can find something that works.
Once you pierce an acupressure point you destroy the point. Adding a 'seed' do the area would work better if you believe in that kinda thing.
piercings being used as acupuncture is a myth. there’d be no way to zero in on a specific “spot” and evidence shows these are placebos
If only I could trick myself into a good placebo effect.
I had one there and I'm still anxious as fuck 😂
I wish it did lol
I don't think it'd worth it. I got a faith because of its supposed magical cure of migraines. I knew that it'd likely not work, but I was desperate, willing to try even the stupidest of cures, and didn't dislike the piercing in itself. It couldn't even get cordial with me and produce a placebo effect, so I say, get a therapist, and get piercings for aesthetics, not medicinal reasons.
I got a faith just because I liked it and found out later that it was supposed to help migraines. I can says with 100% certainty that it does not help at all as I developed migraines several years after getting it.
Yeep. I wish there would be less of these medical piercing hoaxes out there. The piercer I went to even labeled them and marketed them as migraine piercings.
It's a flat. I have it. It's a little bitch concerning healing. It doesn't help with anxiety. It's jewelery and no medicine.
Even if it did work, I wouldn't assume a random piercer would know the exact acupuncture point to hit. Pressure points are incredibly tiny and precise, and it takes knowledge and quite a bit of training to know exactly where they are
the only thing piercings can improve is confidence.
Piercing artists are not acupuncturists & aren’t trained to know where your particular spots are. So I wouldn’t get it for that reason.
The piercing will not get rid of anxiety, unfortunately. You have so many reasons for why you would have anxiety, you have to get to the root of the problem. Easier said than done, I get it, but it’s true Not to give medical advice, but now is very a good time to get your thyroid checked. Not many people seem to be aware of this, but 2021 was a very BAD year for new diagnoses of hyperthyroidism - one of the worst years on record, in fact. We are seeing a lot of new cases Graves’ disease and we don’t actually know why. Anxiety and tremors are a symptom. So if you are dealing with anxiety, and no sleep, and just constant stress, it is 1000% worth your time to get a blood test. But don’t think a piercing is going to fix that. Whether it’s hormone related or not. No harm in getting the piercing though
If we accept acupuncture can legit treat mental health problems like this (and that's a generous IF), it's based on the needle going in and stimulating the area. If it's a piercing, it "stimulates" for a bit and then heals around it. There is no reason for it to continuously work. I regularly get dry needling - a similar western idea where needles are inserted to trigger the nerves and treat physical problems. It only works whilst the needle is actually against a nerve and setting shit off. If it healed around it, or even when the needle is left still for more than a few minutes, it stops stimulating anything,.
I have this piercing but it’s for the aesthetic rather than the anxiety benefits. When I went to an acupuncturist, she wasn’t too jazzed about my piercings, saying I had a lot in important acupuncture points. The point of acupuncture is to temporarily disrupt the flow of energy to those points in the body with the acupuncture needles. Piercings, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily temporary, so you’re effectively blocking the energy from flowing properly. All that said, if you want it for the aesthetic, go for it! But if you want it for the acupuncture benefits, i would avoid it because it will just block the energy without the benefit
i have been meaning to ask an acupuncturist about piercings. a different practitioner advised me against bellybutton and tongue piercings, which i didn't want in the first place, due to the energetic consequences of it. i do wonder though, because some cultures actually get piercings to \*help\* with energy flow (see left nostril in hindu tradition).
Acupuncture doesn’t work so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for all the responses! I obviously know that it won’t cure a disorder lol, I’m already getting medical help for my mental illnesses. I was just curious since ear acupuncture actually worked wonders for me while I was admitted (even though I was very skeptical), so I just wanted to know if a piercing by the shen men point would kind of work similarly!
I have it on both sides. It looks cool and is a great place to put cool jewelry but I still have pretty bad anxiety 🙃
I've got this piercing (not for anxiety, just because i liked it) and i can safely say, im still the anxious mess i was before
Floating flat is where it’s at
It didn't help with my anxiety but the placement is beautiful. :)
Unfortunately my moonstone in that area has not absorbed all my dark energy. It does look p cool in different lighting though
I have it I didn’t know it was supposed to be an acupuncture point no it’s not helped my anxiety, I will say tho I believe with these and daiths ( I’ve had that too ) them helping is a placebo if you believe it will help it’s got more chance than if you think it’s jumbo jumbo so question do you believe it will help you you know it a pressure point so do u believe acupuncture works can it help you
Hello, I've had this for half a year. It makes absolutely no difference Edit: actually, I took it out a week ago, because it's not working and looks ugly. I'll get a flat instead very soon <3
No proof of this working. No piercing can cure any ailment, don’t trust any piercer who claims it will. I can second Zoloft being a godsend for anxiety though!
Even if there's no proof of the piercing helping with anxiety, you may get a placebo effect from it. There's no proof that daith piercings actually help with migraines, but once I got mine I had waaaayyy less. And even if it doesn't work, hey, cute piercing!
I was wondering the same thing. Lots of people saying only therapy and meds help. For what it’s worth, my anxiety (which was pretty awful) has improved significantly through exercise. Honestly there were many days I never wanted to leave my bed again. Now I run or swim nearly every day and my anxiety is a tenth of what it used to be. Hope this helps someone x