Guatemalan Worry People

The legend of the worry people began in Guatemala, children and adults use these dolls, these dolls provide a huge comfort for the individuals who use them. The dolls come in their own homemade wooden baskets and come with a slip of paper that tells the stories of the individual Guatemalan worry people.

The idea of worry people was first introduced to me through a friend. My friend brought them to me after she had returned from vacation, and brought me the small bag of homemade worry dolls. She told me that they were supposed to take my worries away, if I whispered my worries to the dolls, they would hold them for me and make them go away. However, in order for them to work, I had to place them under my pillow while I slept.
On the website, there was a story illustrating the beneficial effects of the worry people in schools and hospitals. Those schools and hospitals that have used the worry people, saw positive results, especially in children with life-threatening illnesses, and learning and behavioral issues. I think it would be very interesting to see more research and/or information about the usage of the worry people with children and adults.
I think the best reason to explain the continued usage of the worry people; can be compared to a placebo effect, common in psychology. Just like a placebo effect, individuals who use the dolls ‘believe’ their worries will go away, so they ‘do’. Whether you believe in the worth of worry people or not, I find them to be a nice idea for children who have a lot to worry about and need a way to make their lives better.

http://www.delaselva.com/sistema/mp01.htm
http://www.spectrumwellbeing.co.uk/guatemalanworrydolls.htm

Is it all in your head?

Something that I have always found very interesting is the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which an inert substance or procedure results in a person’s medical improvement due to perception and expectation. Simply put, if a person believes something is going to be helpful, it can heal. In the book this went along with my first blog post on trepanation, they stated that the reason trepanation could have worked for Peter Halvorson’s depression might have been the positive expectation that the treatment would work. The placebo effect points out how big of a role the brain plays in physical health.

Placebos are commonly used in medical research, one group is given the medication and another is given a placebo to act as a control. The control group is used to view the differences, to see if the medical improvement is mental or if it is being caused by the medication. Many people view this as a deception and do not approve of it, but I think that if your mind is able to make you better, then shouldn’t you do that before using medication. I think the fact that your brain is able to trick yourself into feeling better is just amazing!

In a study done by Kaptchuk et al., they were testing the placebo effect; they had one group who was placed on a waiting list for a treatment, one who received the placebo treatment, and another group who received the placebo and an increased patient-practitioner relationship. The results showed that when given additional attention and reassurance from the doctor the response to a placebo increased from 44% to 62%. I think this shows us just how much are brain can alter our conditions. Just by hearing from a doctor that we are going to feel better the results can go up by twenty percent and just from a placebo drug almost fifty percent experienced improvement. This is all very interesting to me, I think that if people can think themselves into feeling better that is awesome and should used more than drugs! What do you think?

Reference:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/336/7651/999
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo