Has it ever happened to you that you suddenly found yourself in some unusual bodily sensation? For example, does it hurt somewhere, does your heart beat faster than usual? You begin to listen anxiously to this feeling, and it becomes stronger and stronger. This can go on for a long time until you go to the doctor and he tells you that there is no serious problem.
In the case of disorders such as panic disorder and hypochondria, patients sometimes suffer from inexplicable sensations for years, visit many doctors and worry about their health.
When we pay too much attention to some incomprehensible sensation in the body, it intensifies. This phenomenon is called «somatosensory amplification» (amplification means «intensification or kindling»).
Why is this happening?
This complex neurobiological process can be described using a metaphor. Imagine a bank located in several buildings.
At the beginning of the working day, the director calls one of the departments from another building and asks: “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” they answer him.
The director hangs up. Employees are surprised, but continue to work. Half an hour later, another call from the director — «Are you all right there?».
«Yes, what happened?» employee is worried.
«Nothing,» the director replies.
The more we listen to our feelings, the more clear and frightening they become.
Employees are concerned, but so far they do not give anything away. But after the third, fourth, fifth calls, panic sets in in the department. Everyone is trying to figure out what’s going on, checking the papers, rushing from place to place.
The director looks out the window, sees the commotion in the building opposite, and thinks, “No, something is definitely wrong with them!”
Approximately such a process occurs in our body. The more we listen to our feelings, the more clear and frightening they become.
Try this experiment. Close your eyes and for two minutes think of your right big toe. Move it, mentally press on it, feel how it touches the sole of the shoe, the neighboring toe.
Focus on all the sensations in your right big toe. And after two minutes, compare your sensations with the big toe of your left foot. Isn’t there a difference?
The only way to overcome somatosensory amplification (after you have made sure that there is no reason for real anxiety, of course) is to live with unpleasant sensations without doing anything about them, without trying to concentrate on these thoughts, but without driving them away either.
And after a while, your brain-director will calm down and forget about the thumbs.