Evidence?
Clinical trials. Participants in placebo groups routinely report headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and other complaints, and a meaningful share drop out of trials citing side effects, despite taking nothing active.
COVID vaccine trials. A 2022 analysis in JAMA Network Open found that roughly three-quarters of the systemic side effects (headache, fatigue) reported after the first dose also showed up in the placebo groups at similar rates.
Statins. In the 2020 SAMSON trial, patients rotated through months on statins, months on placebo, and months on nothing. About 90% of the muscle aches and other symptoms they felt on statins also appeared on placebo.
People on placebos experience real side effects, caused mostly by expectation and misattribution rather than the pill.
You may want to start visualizing yourself as taking a pill you expect will make you more persistent, thoughtful, and kind and then monitor yourself for these side effects. As long as you're going to have imagined side effects, it may as well act more like a side kick who helps you out.
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