Tip for health anxiety - a metaphore

Yesterday in therapy my therapist gave me a tool to help with health anxiety.

She told me to think of a crying baby, screaming, with tears and wriggling around. She told me that instead of comforting the baby by holding and soothing the baby, i panic, i don't know what to do with the child and i run away.

So when i get a sudden bout of health anxiety, e.g. pain in the chest, i panic, i don't know what to do and i run away with my wild ideas.

She asked me if i had any pain right now and i said i do on my shoulders. She told me to close my eyes and touch where it hurt. She asked, if they could speak to you right now what would they say?

I told her they said "i'm feeling tense." Then she told me to rub it lovingly and talk to them inside my head, as if i was comforting a child.

She told me to be kind and comforting to myself. We think that running to the doctors or searching google is doing just that, when infact it is not helping or being kind to ourselves at all. Patience. And then if it is something that is not going away then see a doctor (but not Dr. Google).

She told me that i was not used to being comforted as a child, so i came up with my own ways of dealing with things, so i need to learn how to comfort myself.

I'm going to try this technique out and see if it works, although she said it will not happen overnight, i did try it when i woke up because i had chest pain and it seemed to do the job!

Great metaphor,

I've used a simliar one that my meditation teacher told me about.

She said to imagine yourself as a person who's helping someone who's fallen over, you wouldn't run away, or shout at them or give them a hard time. you'd help them up, maybe even give them a hug and some nice words :)

Sorry if that didn't make much sense, but essentially you have to treat yourself in the same way that your technique describes :)