Hold ice long enough and it feels like it burns. Too much of anything, even cold comfort, hurts.

What soothes in small amounts damages in large ones. Ice helps a bruise for ten minutes and harms the skin after thirty, and the same curve shows up in whatever you reach for to feel better: sleep, games, distance from people, the one friend who always agrees with you. None of those are bad. The dose is the whole question.

Pick the comfort you have been using most and work out how long is actually helping. Set the limit before you start rather than during, since you will not want to stop at the right moment. Then put something warmer in the space afterwards.