The Nocebo Effect

Everybody knows about the placebo effect - a bunch of medicine does nothing in reality, but does something because you think it does something.

Not too many people know about the nocebo effect - the complete opposite. Some imaginary radio waves are giving you a headache even though they're not even there, allergies are a lot worse when you focus too much on them, you keep running into trouble because you think you've been cursed even though witchcraft isn't real... wait, what was that last one?

James has been through hell in the past several months. He's been paraded, humiliated, stripped and shorn of his dignity and pride, lost several jobs, you name it. He thinks it's because he's under a curse from a spurned Tinder date, but he eventually finds out that the curse isn't real, witchcraft isn't real, and that he's lost everything all over nothing. All of this will, of course, make his humiliation ten times worse.