Constantly looking at yourself, scanning for symptoms, is a recipe for having them show up.

Part of PN is the sensations you feel, the other part is how your brain interprets those sensations. Much research is being done, about how the brain creates pathways in chronic pain. It is much like learning to ride a bike or play an instrument. You brain will favor pathways to the learning task, so it becomes easier each time so you can master it. With pain, you are making pathways, to perceive pain more easily and faster.
This is a bitter unproductive cycle, and distracting yourself is going to be more useful for you in the long run.

What to do with all that energy? Look at your life, your house, your diet, all the things you put into your body, and see what could be a trigger for all this. Take this energy and find solutions, and avoid the pitfalls of focusing on symptoms or looking for symptoms. Find comfortable clothing, comfortable shoes, focus on your family, watch some comedies on TV to make you laugh, or shows or music that give you pleasure. This activates the brain in a positive way, and reinforces NON pain events.

One of Dr. Amen's suggestions for his patients who have anxiety, and ADHD, OCD and other disorders is to learn about ANTs. (abolish negative thoughts).
Dr. Amen appears on PBS with his books occasionally during pledge weeks. He is very down to earth, and sensible about living with mental issues and frank brain damage. (he is doing work now with athletes who have concussive damage from sports.)

Here are his basic tennents:
http://www.creativityatwork.com/7-wa...ain-your-life/
ANTs are very important, and as some others recently have shared, it is ultimately YOU who lives with yourself and how you decide to do that will result in either good responses, or painful ones.

PN for the most part is a sensory disorder. The more serious types, which will affect movement (motor) or autonomic, are less common. Just because you have odd or uncomfortable sensations, does not mean you have a terrible disease looming on the horizon. For the most part, those are not that common.
Medical students, are well known for reacting easily while in school learning all the diseases. Most people do not realize how complicated the body really is, and when they learn all the stuff that can go wrong, they rather freak out. Medical students are huge examples of this, and it is well known, and even laughed about by the teachers. But it illustrates the power of the mind, which can trick you into thinking all sorts of horrible things that are happening to you or may happen.

One just has to sit down and have a conversation with that part of yourself that is out of control. It sounds weird but it does work.