Hi Everyone,
I've just joined this forum so I can relate what's going on with me, get some opinions about it, and hopefully help others who can see bits of themselves in my situation.
My problems with RSI began about 8 yrs ago (I’m in my 40’s now). I had been doing quite a lot of typing both for school, and for the job I had at the time. Also, I was playing a lot of guitar with various bands on the weekends as well as practicing whenever I had the time. After going on at that pace for a while, I began to notice some clumsiness in my left hand pinky, along with pain and a burning sensation at both the elbow and wrist. I figured I'd been overdoing it, so slowed down as much as practicable. This slowing down didn't really help much and I soon found myself at various doctor's offices practically begging for help. All I got from them - it was 2 hand surgeons, one chiropractor, my family doctor, and a neurologist who gave me a nerve conduction test that found nothing wrong - was a recommendation to rest it. It was at this point that I started panicking.
The pain, spasms and clumsiness increased as time went on and had taken up residence in my right arm as well. My guitar, one of the biggest sources of pleasure in my life to that point, was unceremoniously abandoned. Life wasn’t as grand as it had been. I was sad.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’d had a passing acquaintance with anxiety attacks in my late teens and early 20’s. I finally got on top of the anxiety by learning how to meditate. I came to discover that the body can create any sensation it needs to, and that all anxiety was, was an artificial set of symptoms triggered mainly by various unresolved conflicts and fears I was barely if at all aware of. At its worst, my anxiety had allowed me to wrongly suspect for a time that I might have had MS due to the various symptoms that I was experiencing at the time.
Moving to the present day, I have come to believe, though not with absolute conviction yet, that TMS is more than likely responsible for the persistence of my symptoms. I was acquainted with Dr. Sarno’s theories from about 2 yrs ago, but didn’t really dig in and investigate them until recently. I have been doing a lot of icing/soaking lately and it simply wasn’t helping me, so I started a renewed effort to find out as much as I could about my problem as possible. It was then that I became reacquainted with the concept of TMS and so I re-purchased “The Mindbody Prescription” and downloaded it to my Kindle.
I started jumping around the book, and also looking at what others on this site and others had to say about their experiences. Suddenly, I became aware that the pain in my arms wasn’t there. It was truly amazing. And trust me, I’m not the type to be given to magical thinking whatsoever.
I was able to go over to my keyboard and start typing without worrying about the pain. Until that time, typing more than a paragraph or two would have made both arms flare up, but not this time. I then picked up my guitar and while the pinky was still as uncooperative as ever, I had to admit that there was no real pain to speak of. I thought for sure I was on my way, only now I’m not quite so sure. This is why I’m writing now.
The pain is starting to come back. It’s been about a week or so since my epiphany, but now I’m starting to feel some doubt. The root of the doubt is that if TMS was the cause for all my symptoms, why is it that my pinky is still not allowing me to play my guitar like I once was able to if all the other pain melted away? It leaves part of me thinking that I’ve just fooled myself into believing I had been healed, but that there is actually something going on with that nerve that all the positivity in the world isn’t going to clear up.
I have to say that as it stands, I can go either way. I guess I just need a bit of encouragement and perhaps some specific experiences from others, which might help me to renew my waning confidence in my fleeting cure.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for making the efforts you all obviously are to help people like me.
Regards,
Sam
I've just joined this forum so I can relate what's going on with me, get some opinions about it, and hopefully help others who can see bits of themselves in my situation.
My problems with RSI began about 8 yrs ago (I’m in my 40’s now). I had been doing quite a lot of typing both for school, and for the job I had at the time. Also, I was playing a lot of guitar with various bands on the weekends as well as practicing whenever I had the time. After going on at that pace for a while, I began to notice some clumsiness in my left hand pinky, along with pain and a burning sensation at both the elbow and wrist. I figured I'd been overdoing it, so slowed down as much as practicable. This slowing down didn't really help much and I soon found myself at various doctor's offices practically begging for help. All I got from them - it was 2 hand surgeons, one chiropractor, my family doctor, and a neurologist who gave me a nerve conduction test that found nothing wrong - was a recommendation to rest it. It was at this point that I started panicking.
The pain, spasms and clumsiness increased as time went on and had taken up residence in my right arm as well. My guitar, one of the biggest sources of pleasure in my life to that point, was unceremoniously abandoned. Life wasn’t as grand as it had been. I was sad.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’d had a passing acquaintance with anxiety attacks in my late teens and early 20’s. I finally got on top of the anxiety by learning how to meditate. I came to discover that the body can create any sensation it needs to, and that all anxiety was, was an artificial set of symptoms triggered mainly by various unresolved conflicts and fears I was barely if at all aware of. At its worst, my anxiety had allowed me to wrongly suspect for a time that I might have had MS due to the various symptoms that I was experiencing at the time.
Moving to the present day, I have come to believe, though not with absolute conviction yet, that TMS is more than likely responsible for the persistence of my symptoms. I was acquainted with Dr. Sarno’s theories from about 2 yrs ago, but didn’t really dig in and investigate them until recently. I have been doing a lot of icing/soaking lately and it simply wasn’t helping me, so I started a renewed effort to find out as much as I could about my problem as possible. It was then that I became reacquainted with the concept of TMS and so I re-purchased “The Mindbody Prescription” and downloaded it to my Kindle.
I started jumping around the book, and also looking at what others on this site and others had to say about their experiences. Suddenly, I became aware that the pain in my arms wasn’t there. It was truly amazing. And trust me, I’m not the type to be given to magical thinking whatsoever.
I was able to go over to my keyboard and start typing without worrying about the pain. Until that time, typing more than a paragraph or two would have made both arms flare up, but not this time. I then picked up my guitar and while the pinky was still as uncooperative as ever, I had to admit that there was no real pain to speak of. I thought for sure I was on my way, only now I’m not quite so sure. This is why I’m writing now.
The pain is starting to come back. It’s been about a week or so since my epiphany, but now I’m starting to feel some doubt. The root of the doubt is that if TMS was the cause for all my symptoms, why is it that my pinky is still not allowing me to play my guitar like I once was able to if all the other pain melted away? It leaves part of me thinking that I’ve just fooled myself into believing I had been healed, but that there is actually something going on with that nerve that all the positivity in the world isn’t going to clear up.
I have to say that as it stands, I can go either way. I guess I just need a bit of encouragement and perhaps some specific experiences from others, which might help me to renew my waning confidence in my fleeting cure.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for making the efforts you all obviously are to help people like me.
Regards,
Sam
