When you catch yourself catastrophizing about the pain, what do you do to snap out of it?

I just spent hours researching and catastrophizing about my facial pain. During times like this, what are some techniques to calm down the nervous system? What are some good phrases to say to yourself to feel safe?

 

1. you need to be firm, and make a promise to yourself that you are not going to doom scroll or Dr. Google anymore. This is a promise to yourself that you are going to keep. It will show your mind that you are serious about changing your thoughts and attitudes towards yours symptoms.
2. Tell yourself "I am Safe". Remind yourself of basic safety - you have a roof over your head, food to eat, clothing to wear, you are alive and breathing. It sounds silly but your brain is simply trying to tell you there is something "wrong" so begin with the basics, over and over and over again.
3. Begin to write a new narrative but make it one that is 100% believable - whatever works for you - "I'm learning to believe this pain has a psychological cause. I will begin to think psychologically" or if you are ready to go there "this pain has a psychological cause, therefor I will think psychologically".
4. Remind yourself that this "need" to find a "fix" is simply anxiety. The best ways to curb anxiety are taught by Dr. Claire Weekes in any of her books. The "need" to scroll and "fix" are simply thoughts. They are absolutely benign and mean nothing - she will teach you to work with them by letting the thoughts "float" on by. You just sort of let them come and go and learn to do it without the anxiety that is associated with them. The most important part of this lesson is to allow the anxiety. Fixing and Doom Scrolling is often a way to attempt to push away the physical feelings of anxiety. That feeling WILL effect the nervous system, ramping it up for a few moments exactly the way emotions do. You learn that this is simply a sensation. Nothing more than chemicals released in the body and they will quickly dissipate and your nervous system will learn to regulate.

If you'd like to learn more about nervous system regulation (also called calming), you can try a variety of tactics: meditation, breathing exercises, do some qui gong (youtube has some great ones, find some that show very slow and easy movements), head out into nature and chill a bit with the birds and critters, do anything enjoyable .... disengage from screen use while doing these things.