I've helped people with a variety of diagnoses and symptoms. Some of them had nerve conduction studies that purported to show permanent damage, yet they are now working full time with computers and living full lives outside of work as well.
As Damany & Bellis explain in their book, It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: "... if you've been typing for several years, all of those micro-maladies are downstream symptoms-trivialities almost-of your broader RSI problem," p. 97. See also the section titled, "Are all RSI Patients the Same?" starting on page 45.
There are some situations in which sufferers experience RSI-like symptoms without any repetitive motion to cause it, such as pregnancy. In those situations, removal of the stimuli generally leads to the cessation of symptoms unless the individual has a history of RSI, which puts them into the vicious cycle again.
Absolutely. The pain of RSI is as real as the pain of a broken leg. Further, in both cases, one can use the mind to reduce the pain and/or speed healing.
The difference is that it is possible to use the mind to make RSI pain go away completely. This is because it is the nervous system - not a broken bone - that is creating the conditions underlying RSI pain.
In my experience, it is not only possible but also necessary for severe RSI sufferers to use their minds to make RSI pain go away completely and permanently and to remove all of their RSI-related limitations. Again, this is due to the nervous system involvement. No matter how much physical treatment you get, the pain will return if your nervous system is continually creating the conditions causing the pain.
How do you get the nervous system to cease its unhealthy pattern? You have to persuade it to react in a new way, and beliefs are the solution, because beliefs are a continuous command to your unconscious mind as to how to interpret stimuli.
The best part is, once you get it, you don't have to do anything.
Enduring the pain is not the goal, and telling yourself, "I am going to do this even though it hurts," is not quite right.
The way your body responds to activity depends on your beliefs. This includes whether an activity causes you RSI pain. If you disrespect your RSI pain, it will go away. You won't have to endure it for very long.
The crux of RSI is an acquired, maladaptive, nervous system response. Specifically, whenever you do an activity that you associate with your symptoms, your nervous system's knee-jerk response is to reduce the blood flow to your arms (by compressing the thoracic outlet). It's like an allergic reaction - an otherwise benign stimulus results in discomfort because the body acts as if there is a threat.
If your conscious beliefs confirm your nervous system's interpretation of events (i.e., that the activity is a threat), then your nervous system's response is strengthened. Blood flow is reduced even more, your pain increases, and you are stuck. The more you persist in the activity, the better your nervous system gets at stopping the blood.
On the other hand, if your conscious beliefs contradict your nervous system's interpretation of events - in other words, if you consciously believe that the activity is harmless - then you will dampen the nervous system's initial reaction. If your conscious mind vetoes that initial reaction frequently (and it will for activities you do often), your nervous system will learn a new way of responding - it will allow the blood to flow.
The way to health, therefore, is convincing yourself that blood flow is the key and that your nervous system is in control of your blood flow. It follows that you will heal quickly and completely once blood flow is restored - and you will be capable of pre-injury levels of activity.
Thus, doing exercises that hurt is often not a good idea. Unless you understand and accept what's going on, you are reinforcing your RSI.
With the right attitude, activity is ok. Further, enduring some pain is necessary, because it will take some time to decondition yourself thoroughly. Still, if the pain weakens your conviction, then you must gradually increase activity in small steps.
No. Rather, reinterpret the pain. Dissociate the pain from the threatening meanings it has acquired, such as, every time you feel pain you are prolonging your recovery, or your pain means you will never work again.
Be clear in your understanding that the pain is an indicator of a neuro-physiological process that can be reversed. The pain has no meaning beyond that.
The advantage of a mind-body approach over biofeedback is that beliefs are always on. Those I know who have had great success with biofeedback still describe themselves as having RSI, and they experience symptoms if they are not careful. Furthermore, some of the individuals I know who recovered from RSI via a mind-body approach had not had success with biofeedback.
With a mind-body approach, you don't have to work at it. You don't end up with a flare up because you got caught off guard or got lazy and forgot to apply your biofeedback training. In addition, your body repairs much more effectively and quickly if you expect it will, so your beliefs are helping you all the time, whether you're doing activity or not - even when you're sleeping.
Unquestionably. For example, smiling has been shown to make people happier.
So in RSI, the physical symptoms are a trigger for the mind's unhealthy reaction - which in turn exacerbates the symptoms.
Conversely, many people discover through stretching or a neuromuscular retraining program (such as Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais) that they can move in ways they previously could not. They learn to use their bodies in a new way, and their beliefs about what is physically possible change.
There are certain beliefs, however, that a physical approach can't reach. A different tack is required for beliefs such as, typing is bad, lifting weights above your head is bad, your thorax grew too skinny, your nerves will never work right again, you have to do certain stretches every hour or whenever your arm starts to feel fatigued, every time you feel pain you are prolonging your recovery, etc.
Thus, a mind-body approach can tackle problems that a physical one cannot.
This page is from conquerrsi.com, a website written by former RSI sufferer Nate. Since the website is now inactive, Nate has given the PTPN permission to repost the content on the wiki. These pages may be out-of-date as they have only been updated sparingly. They are part of an ongoing effort by the PTPN to archive inactive TMS websites.
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