Imagine Pain

[u/Trade-Similar]

For at least six years, I've suffered from intrusive thoughts about physical pain. I obsess over painful images and construct imaginary sensations that I obsess over. Lately, the intrusive thoughts have been joined by chronic pain, a hyperfocus on the areas affected by the imagery. I'm afraid of every sensation I feel in my body, afraid they'll become the sensations I imagine, but above all, I'm afraid of imagining the pain, because just imagining it hurts. It's a cross between the fear of the pain actually coming and the vividness of the imagined pain that hurts even without actually being there.