Intentional Physical Self-Harm to Distract Yourself from Symptoms?

[Shea]

Today is a great day. But I know it won't last. Probably. However, I'm being (or trying to) optimistic and saying to myself, "Maybe it WILL last. Maybe THIS time I can beat it." Over the past week or so - and I thank several people here (you know who you are) in helping me with this - I've been trying to just give in to my anxiety and face the fact that I have it and nothing else (since my tests are all clear). I've been trying to remain positive and not struggle to fight the physical symptoms and just let them run their course, knowing that it, too, shall pass. I've also been trying - with great success, I might add! - to ignore and/or distract myself when the symptoms come on. Instead of feeling and focusing and worry about my symptoms, I immediately distract myself and start thinking/looking/writing/reading something else. This helps immensely.

However, last week I had a few very bad days and I actually thought of a "home remedy" - stupid as it may seem. You know how pain is relative? For example, you might have a bludgeoning headache (the kind that radiates  and takes over your entire body, making you weak and sick and nauseous and unable to do the simplest tasks), and you think, "Oh my god, this is HORRIBLE pain, the worst!" And it IS bad pain ... BUT ... think about the pain of having your legs smashed in a car accident. Or being a victim of torture and being forced to take a scalding hot shower. Or having lung cancer and not being able to breathe and die a slow, slow death. Now your headache doesn't seem so bad, does it?

That said, I guess you're wondering about the subject title. OK. Because I got to the point last week where I just couldn't take the physical symptoms anymore, I was seriously considering self-inflicting a little harm. Nothing major. Just enough so that the pain from my self-injury would override the anxiety pain. Because to me, I'd rather feel real pain and KNOW what the cause is rather than wonder and worry and be unsure about the physical symptoms that may or may not be caused by anxiety. So I was going to: 1) cut myself, 2) pinch myself REALLY hard, 3) lie my hand down flat on the table and smack one of my fingers with something hard and metal, or 4) dig my fingernails into my arm until it bled.

Yes, I was THAT desperate. However, that was before all my mental exercises and improvements described in the first paragraph. I'm writing this post in retrospect of that bad week. But I'm curious: Has anyone else here ever actually done self-harm for this reason? Did it work?

[ento23]

i've used #2 before when all else fails and it seems to provide temporary relief.  i would never go to such lengths as to make myself bleed or cause severe pain.  all of these 'strategies' take your mind off of it but i find reading to be the best when i'm experiencing gad.

[decenda]

When I am feeling just a TINY but anxious, I will take the fingernail of my middle finger and poke it into the tip of my thumb until it hurts. not hard enough to cause a mark but its enough to snap me out of a light case of panic.  Probably has to do more with negative reinforcement than the actual pain, though :)

[ento23]

another (non-pain oriented) strategy that has worked for me is popping in a vitamin c drop once i began to feel anxiety coming on.  often it would refocus my mind just enough so that it wouldn't become a full-blown attack.

[Shea]

another (non-pain oriented) strategy that has worked for me is popping in a vitamin c drop once i began to feel anxiety coming on.  often it would refocus my mind just enough so that it wouldn't become a full-blown attack.

Why vitamin C?

[ento23]

another (non-pain oriented) strategy that has worked for me is popping in a vitamin c drop once i began to feel anxiety coming on.  often it would refocus my mind just enough so that it wouldn't become a full-blown attack.

Why vitamin C?

no particular reason.  any suck candy would do.  i always end up chewing breath mints.

[Xalatimo]

Placebo effect.

[ento23]

Placebo effect.

Definitely.  No link b/t vitamin c and anxiety, as far as I know of.  Just another form of distraction like all of the other ones mentioned here.

[paddyshack]

I sometimes bite my cheek.  It's now synonamous with "Hey, knock it off!".  I think that's probably the more valuable effect than the relative pain logic.  Just provide an outlet for another part of your brain to break the anxiety spiral.