I eventually found out that the problems were psychosomatic. The key observation was that when I started reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription", my symptoms suddenly started shifting from wrists to ankles. "Hey wait a minute…" was my thought — and it turned out that my mind was the cause. I don't buy all of Sarno's stuff, but even thinking about this and considering it carefully caused major effects for me.
Fast forward many years, and taking care of my mind helped my overall health tremendously. Many problems I had are simply gone. And I have a finely tuned radar now whenever something new appears — if it isn't easily diagnosable and attributable to a medical problem, it's likely psychosomatic.
For those unaware: psychosomatic issues are not "hallucinated" nor are they hypochondria. These are real issues, just caused by your mind, for example causing muscle tension or restricted blood flow.
Looking around me, I can see many people whose issues are likely psychosomatic. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to help them, because "no one can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself" — you have to be ready to accept this explanation and deal with the mental problems.
Obviously not all RSI problems are psychosomatic, but at least some are, so it's worth looking at.
Funnily enough, I'm facing an issue at the moment, which I assume is related, but I haven't quite figured out how to resolve.
Basically my body gets really hot when I try to fall asleep and it really sucks, but I get the sense it's related. Like I can't let it go, so it becomes this whole thing, except I'm not quite sure how to approach it in this context.
Another trick is to take a hot shower before bed. Does that work?
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-faqs/why-do-i-get-so-h...
But trust me when I say I have more-or-less tried everything as far as I'm aware. Cold showers. Hot showers. Magnesium etc.
1. Have you tried a weighted blanket? I bought one this summer as I don't have a/c but find it hard to fall asleep without the feeling of a big blanket covering me. I found this one[0] from Bearaby which is wonderful. It's weaved together so doesn't provide much/any warmth. Just a lot of soothing weight.
2. This article - "How to Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes or Less" - helped me fall asleep quickly: https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/health/fall-as....
Having a small fan blowing air over me also helps quite a bit (the Vornado 5303DC has a remote and can adjust in 1% increments which is very nice for adjusting temp a bit during the night).
I would advise against cold showers/baths/immersion as the will shock you into wakefullness and vigilance. Can't see how there's any evidence for that actually working. Its like saying "Ya, I turned my phone as bright and blue as it goes up to and I STILL couldn't sleep" :/
Passed the book to my dad, who had similar issues, and he’s had only a few such incidents in the intervening years - a huge improvement.
Then I did a little research and found a YouTube video that recommended muscle exercise instead of rest, using torsion bars. I bought those and did the exercises for a few weeks. Pain went away and hasn't returned.
Chronic pain is culturally dependent, some countries have a lot of RSI, some don’t. Chronic neck pain from whiplash is a bigger deal in some places or in some decades than others.
If you give an X-ray to some one with chronic back pain a certain percentage of them will show bulging disks. If you give X-rays to a random group of people of the same demographics a similar percentage of them will show bulging disks, with no correlation to back pain.
The Tyler method you used for golfers elbow is a different example of a a rethink in treating other types of pain. It does have a plausible mechanism that runs counter to the traditional treatment, and it probably works as explained, encouraging healing and tissue remodelling through increased exercise-induced inflammation from eccentric reps. But… it’s also plausible that the quality of the paper describing it and the thrill of counter-knowledge helps make it work even better.
Obviously people should watch out for the signs of common chronic diseases, but in my experience I get far more aches and pains when being less active. Going to the gym once or twice a week and doing some compound exercises will help vastly, even after just a few weeks of regular exercise.
Oh, and get a good chair if you are sitting a lot, it's definitely worth it.
Interestingly, I got the idea from a coder on his blog detailing how he literally tried everything for his RSI, and wasn't until he tried this approach that it all went away.
Some people (like myself) must fail every single way before finding the solution (because we're stubborn) but this also keenly describes the idea of "the solution is the problem". It's not until we give up, do we actually find what we're looking for.
I think this is what RSI represents for a lot of people. It's such a shitty experience that they literally pour all their effort to try and resolve it, not realising that it's actually making it worse and only until they let go, will it be resolved.
So it's only fair I share my knowledge and pass it on so others can hopefully get the relief they need.
I mean when should you bet on the pain being a mental issue? My worry is that if I bet wrongly it could have dire outcomes later.
Say, spending 3 hours to save $10 is usually a bad deal, that time can be invested much better. But if one keeps doing that, they end up in a situation where spending 3 hours for $10 is what they have to do, because they don't have a spare $10, and there are pressing needs.
It's a trap. But it ensnares you through a mindset, not through a want of $10 initially.
To add to this: if one keeps doing that, or they're unlucky: Being born into the wrong family, or socioeconomic class. Being the victim of a crime. Having your transportation stolen or break down. Etc.
There is a mindset to some degree with feelings of poverty. Though, yes, real poverty is a reality.
Your idea that RSI is in your head has the same issue: "It doesn't work that way." SOME pain is in the mind. Some pain in the body can be mitigated with mental techniques. Some.
> all pain is just based on expectation
This statement is wildly false.
Now, I studied pain control, and when I fell into a hole and was injured in Bali, I was able to function and even continue to speak Indonesian until I got to medical help and could pass out, simply with breath control. I almost never take painkillers. The technical of detaching from pain has significant value, and I have taught it to others.
But some things are wildly painful and can't be dismissed that way...
You know, I'm not even going to type about some miserable things I have briefly experienced, and some horrible things I saw happen to other people, other stoic people even, or about objectively provable imaging (X-rays, etc) of damage caused to people by RSI.
Life is too short for such downers. We both know they exist.
Your ideas do not agree with the consensus of medicine, or the experience of humans. You should re-examine your beliefs.
I do hope you never get first-hand experience of how very wrong you are.
While my understanding/explanation might be wrong the result was undeniable: I had terrible RSI and now I don't.
I personally could care less why it happened. All I know is that it happened, and this is what I did to make it happen. Ultimately if it works, it works. And you can't deny in this particular case, that it worked.
If expressing my experience can help at least 1 person, in the same way that someone else had expressed the very same experience to me, then I'll take my chances.
It's still an ok suggestion because at least it's safe and cheap, but you can't really say "it works" with n=1
Given the myriad comments in agreement, you seem to be either behind on research or research itself is behind. I hope you’re able to expand your thinking.
> "The technical of detaching from pain has significant value, and I have taught it to others. But some things are wildly painful and can't be dismissed that way..."
They explicitly aren't dismissing the pain, controlling the pain, being stoic about the pain, or arguing that you should ignore or suffer through pain. Read it again.
Both times was when RSI ) carpal tunnel was a very popular fad topic to discuss. Both times my interventions had no effect and the pain cleared up on its own.
I never developed "good typing habits" and when smartphones came out I developed new terrible habits, but that never caused RSI / carpal tunnel pain.
Everyone has insomnia sometimes, it's abnormal to be able to sleep easily. Candlelight is bad for the air around you and for your eyes the flickering damages your eyes, although the higher CO2 might help with oxygen diffusion.
Ha, i wish i could read in bed without falling asleep. One or two books did something to my brain where i could read them in bed, all the rest i have to fight sleep and re-read paragraphs after 20 mins max.
The same thing happened to my left ankle. A double sprain (both tear) made me walk with an angle and a locked feet for years, which didn't help with rehab at all and caused pain (because I was locking it in uncomfortable positions). Part of it was psychosomatic: like you said, expectation of pain, most of it was real pain caused by myself.
Also I stopped doing sport, kept eating the same, became fat and changed carrier towards CS, because clearly I couldn't keep working my jobs without the ability to run.
So definitely not as simple as you made it to be but true enough that this can be good advice to people with chronic pain.
Basically, the news was “everyone is getting rsi from computers!” And then everyone did. And the news fad faded and most cases, obviously many people do get it, also faded away. The brain is weird.
Anyone suffering from any sort of chronic pain should give this book or a similar book a try.
Similar to you, I convinced myself out a chronic tendonitis that would just not disappear even after physical therapy. It was gone a few weeks later. Just by following the recommendations in the book. It's basically self talk therapy.
I was trying to keep a death grip on sobriety. The clenching and clawing while putting up appearances... life brings us sadness. sometimes at times of desperation, the only thing I have left is my reaction.
When I look back on my mistakes, it all feels insane; the pathology of feedback loop neurosis had me chasing tornados with a butterfly net. What would catching it do for me?
Recognize the stillness where you are _right now_ my friend, and we can sit here for awhile and watch those clouds join the others as they roll over the horizon.
This is a new quote to me and I love it. Do you remember where it's from?
My post is kind of a shitty abridged version of that which does it no justice.
Simultaneously this hinders precision movements with the mouse, so my other fingers also tensed up as a result of it.
The solution that cured my RSI for 90% was to route mouse button triggers to keys on an external number-pad, which I operate with my other hand. (I use the "Karabiner" app on macOS to route keys).
In other words: I move the mouse with one hand, and do the clicking with the other hand. This relieves so much tension my RSI was basically gone in a few months.
It people tell you constantly something causes back pain, odds are you'll be more susceptible to experience it yourself. Even though your back is physically fine.
I used to have debilitating RSI when typing. I tried everything and it just got worse over time. Stretches. Typing a certain way. Taking breaks etc. My wrist would become locked after 10 minutes of typing and stay that way for the rest of the day.
I then read a book claiming that all pain is just based on expectation, so if you think it'll be painful it'll be painful, and get worse overtime as the expectation reinforces.
Quite literally within the space of 5 minutes, it all went away. All gone. That was around 8 years ago and I've not had it since. Doesn't matter how long I type, in what position etc. Doesn't affect me at all.
As per Acceptance and Commitment therapy (not the book, something I discovered much later) this can be defined as "the solution is the problem". When you focus on the solution, it defines itself as the problem and it simply becomes worse (think for example, someone who's overweight so eats to make themselves feel better, thereby becoming more overweight and the cycle repeating itself etc.)
Interestingly, the only time my wrist gets sore is when I get really stressed. So I think there's some merit to it being a response from the brain.
I think a large part of it has to do with the eastern idea of letting go. The basic idea is that suffering is a result of holding on too tightly, as opposed to observing intently. Once you observe, the suffering goes away.