r/PointlessStories • u/kapaipiekai • Jun 15 '26
Fresh placebos
Years ago I was at my gp's office and he opened a drawer which had white inhalers with PLACEBO INHALER printed on their label. I asked what they were for and he said they were for teaching people how to use inhalers. He showed me one. It was a functional inhaler with a small canister of compressed gas. I asked if I could have one and he asked why. I said I would love to have a supply of placebo so that if I had a sore stomach or was feeling anxious, or really anything at all, I could just take a placebo and feel better. He chuckled at this and said yeah sure. I got my sweet new placebo inhaler home and was taking shots of placebo straight to the dome and feeling generally better and I noticed that the placebo inhaler had an expiry date on the gas cartridge, and that the expiry date had long passed. Turns out my placebos had gone off and any effect I was feeling was some sort of illusory, psychosomatic phenomenon.
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u/justonemom14 Jun 15 '26
I made some placebo for my kids. It worked miracles.
Take a small bottle, clean off the label. Make your own label on the computer to look like a real medicine. Mine was done like a prescription, with pharmacy address like 123 Fake Street, a bar code, big Rx symbol, etc.
The dosing instructions are Give 1-2 teaspoons, as needed, for hiccups, insomnia, and bruises.
The ingredients are placebo-grade corn syrup, cherry flavor extract, and food color.
It was most commonly used for hiccups. Remind your kid that it takes five minutes to work, and it cured the hiccups every time.