Stephmcdade
New Member
Hello All
I wanted to share my success story from RSI caused by TMS, and how this has changed my life. My story started when I was in my early 20’s and I was working as a secretary. I went to a seminar on RSI where they had a lady telling us about what happened to her when she got RSI and how it destroyed her life, and that put the fear into me from that point that I never wanted to get RSI.
During my teens I did have back pains and over ailments which I think back now were TMS.
I’m a competitive person, always trying to do my best, always trying hard to please people and be liked, all the classic TMS personality traits. I would occasionally get twinges from RSI from working too hard, or from gardening but it would settle after a while, but over the years it got worse and worse to the point I had to stop doing everything I loved. What was happening is just what the lady had told me would happen, adding more fear. I couldn’t do needle craft anymore, do jig saw puzzles or write for long as that would bring on RSI symptoms and when I stopped doing these things the pain would stop. So my life became limited. I tried riding a bike and doing duathlon’s but that didn’t last as riding a bike brought on RSI really bad. I’m in finance and use a computer a lot, and occasionally I would go through a bad period of pain but it would eventually go away. Until I got a promotion and moved my family from the Taranaki in NZ to Canterbury NZ and then the pain got 100% worse. I had to now drive a car 30 min to work everyday, was under pressure at work to perform and was the main bread winner while my husband set up his business in the new location. My hands and arms hurt 24/7. I would spend my weekends sitting on the couch resting my arms as I had to go to work on Monday, I was depressed and constantly worried I would have to give up my job, and then what would happen to the family. Just got a huge mortgage, and my husband wasn’t in a position to contribute. I went to many physio’s who tried to help and had the odd massage which helped for 5 mins. I tried a lot of trigger point therapy at home but that also helped for 5 mins. All I thought about all day was my RSI, it took over my life.
I cannot remember how I stumbled on TMS but even though it showed my personality traits and I believed this could be me, like some people I didn’t get better straight away. I read all the books and listened to many podcasts on the subject and always felt better after listening to them which helped to convince me I was onto something. So slowly I started doing more and stopped listening to the fear that I was going to end up like the lady I talked about where her life became absolute hell, and in fact my life had become hell. Slow steps, day by day I started to do things. I found too much stretching seemed to reinforce in my head that it wasn’t TMS so I stopped that but I can stretch now. Then I decided to do triathlons and I brought a bike, that put the fear into me as the last time I rode a bike it flared my RSI up bad. Went for first bike ride, that was ok and then slowly went for longer ones and yes it did hurt but I kept it up and started training for a Half Ironman. I went swimming one time and my shoulder started to get really sore but I swam it out and it just went away. I came to a conclusion that the podcasts were good but was keeping my mind focussed on the TMS so I stopped listening to them, and slowly over time the pain went away as I wasn’t constantly reminding my brain about it and I stopped thinking about it altogether. I occasionally get pain now but I don’t worry about it, and think what is bothering me.
My life now, well I completed my Half Ironman, over 4 hours on a bike with no pain. I can swim, never thought I’d be able to do that. I lift weights, never thought that would be possible. I still work all the time on the computer with no pain. I garden without having pain afterwards, basically I got my life back and can do things with my husband and kids I never thought I would be able too. I faced my fear face on and came out the other side. I hope this helps anyone who is trying to overcome RSI caused by TMS.
I wanted to share my success story from RSI caused by TMS, and how this has changed my life. My story started when I was in my early 20’s and I was working as a secretary. I went to a seminar on RSI where they had a lady telling us about what happened to her when she got RSI and how it destroyed her life, and that put the fear into me from that point that I never wanted to get RSI.
During my teens I did have back pains and over ailments which I think back now were TMS.
I’m a competitive person, always trying to do my best, always trying hard to please people and be liked, all the classic TMS personality traits. I would occasionally get twinges from RSI from working too hard, or from gardening but it would settle after a while, but over the years it got worse and worse to the point I had to stop doing everything I loved. What was happening is just what the lady had told me would happen, adding more fear. I couldn’t do needle craft anymore, do jig saw puzzles or write for long as that would bring on RSI symptoms and when I stopped doing these things the pain would stop. So my life became limited. I tried riding a bike and doing duathlon’s but that didn’t last as riding a bike brought on RSI really bad. I’m in finance and use a computer a lot, and occasionally I would go through a bad period of pain but it would eventually go away. Until I got a promotion and moved my family from the Taranaki in NZ to Canterbury NZ and then the pain got 100% worse. I had to now drive a car 30 min to work everyday, was under pressure at work to perform and was the main bread winner while my husband set up his business in the new location. My hands and arms hurt 24/7. I would spend my weekends sitting on the couch resting my arms as I had to go to work on Monday, I was depressed and constantly worried I would have to give up my job, and then what would happen to the family. Just got a huge mortgage, and my husband wasn’t in a position to contribute. I went to many physio’s who tried to help and had the odd massage which helped for 5 mins. I tried a lot of trigger point therapy at home but that also helped for 5 mins. All I thought about all day was my RSI, it took over my life.
I cannot remember how I stumbled on TMS but even though it showed my personality traits and I believed this could be me, like some people I didn’t get better straight away. I read all the books and listened to many podcasts on the subject and always felt better after listening to them which helped to convince me I was onto something. So slowly I started doing more and stopped listening to the fear that I was going to end up like the lady I talked about where her life became absolute hell, and in fact my life had become hell. Slow steps, day by day I started to do things. I found too much stretching seemed to reinforce in my head that it wasn’t TMS so I stopped that but I can stretch now. Then I decided to do triathlons and I brought a bike, that put the fear into me as the last time I rode a bike it flared my RSI up bad. Went for first bike ride, that was ok and then slowly went for longer ones and yes it did hurt but I kept it up and started training for a Half Ironman. I went swimming one time and my shoulder started to get really sore but I swam it out and it just went away. I came to a conclusion that the podcasts were good but was keeping my mind focussed on the TMS so I stopped listening to them, and slowly over time the pain went away as I wasn’t constantly reminding my brain about it and I stopped thinking about it altogether. I occasionally get pain now but I don’t worry about it, and think what is bothering me.
My life now, well I completed my Half Ironman, over 4 hours on a bike with no pain. I can swim, never thought I’d be able to do that. I lift weights, never thought that would be possible. I still work all the time on the computer with no pain. I garden without having pain afterwards, basically I got my life back and can do things with my husband and kids I never thought I would be able too. I faced my fear face on and came out the other side. I hope this helps anyone who is trying to overcome RSI caused by TMS.
