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How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

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Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#11

Post by typpo »

zwegner wrote: post #6

I'm another person cured of RSI by the same approach. Initially, when learning of TMS, the RSI got worse (progressing from just constant pain to feelings of numbness and nerve damage). Certainly worth a look if you have RSI--clearly if people can be cured more or less overnight by just reading, there's SOME mental component, whether or not Dr. Sarno's explanations of the mechanisms of TMS are correct.

Me too. I spent about a year after college in constant pain from carpal tunnel and sciatica. Even basic actions like opening a door were extremely painful.

I blew a lot of money on ergonomic equipment, PT, steroidal treatments, and was strongly considering surgery until I treated my chronic pain as TMS. My desk setup has not changed at all but I've been completely pain free for about a year now. It was eye-opening to realize that such severe pain, which inhibited simple daily activities, could be entirely psychosomatic.

The nocebo effect[1] is a well-documented phenomenon that is closely related. When you expect an autonomic symptom, you are much more likely to experience it.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/beware-the-...

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#14

Post by Apes »

Please be careful with this article. It is not remotely skeptical, and seems to be highly biased in the favor of Dr. Sarno's book. Chiropractic medicine for anything other than lower back pain and Acupuncture are two forms of alternative medicine that are well known to work off the placebo effect, yet the article mentions their use despite alleging to be a skeptic. This is a major red flag.

There is not a large amount of unbiased information about Dr Sarno's methods that I could find quickly, but from what is available TMS appears to be a form of alternative medicine that has no basis in science, and instead relies on pseudoscience and the placebo effect.

Rather than the pain relief being due to TMS, there is probably a more likely cause behind the result. Perhaps stretching exercises or pain medicine was involved. Or perhaps even just the placebo effect itself.

Please read this article for more information. It even contains a brief mention of Dr. Sarno.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/why-do-people-turn-to-al...

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#15

Post by lunix »

Claims to be sceptical but then:

"The first medical specialist I consulted was a chiropractor"

Chiropractic was founded by magnetic healer, D.D. Palmer. Magnetic healing is also a pseudoscience but less people take it seriously.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#16

Post by jakebellacera »

pawrvx wrote: post #4
skore wrote: post #3

"Relax" to ease pain stemming from tension. Who would've thought.

It's actually hard to impossible to relax when you don't know the source of the tension. Finding that tension within a network of hundreds of billions of neurons can be like finding a single sand on the beach. Worse, as time goes on you tend to compensate instead of resolving the root cause, leading to an increasingly complex web which you have to untangle first before being able to reach the root cause. Most people…

This is why I think that the methods taught in this book seem to work for some people. When you're stressed beyond all means and don't deal with it mentally, the tension you give yourself causes physical harm. Sort of like how stress can cause you to grind your teeth at night. Dealing with your problems and just simply relaxing can help tremendously.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#19

Post by jongraehl »

The book helped me try to stress out less about some frightening RSI I had years ago. The speculative mechanical explanation for the "stress -> pain", something like: stress means less oxygenated blood to extremities, was never convincing - more like a dumbo's feather for those skeptical of general mind-body woo.

Coincidentally, I got better. That was probably just rest and time, but I'm grateful that the book helped me not worry so much.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain (2010)

#20

Post by sillysaurus »

Apes wrote: post #14

Please be careful with this article. It is not remotely skeptical, and seems to be highly biased in the favor of Dr. Sarno's book. Chiropractic medicine for anything other than lower back pain and Acupuncture are two forms of alternative medicine that are well known to work off the placebo effect, yet the article mentions their use despite alleging to be a skeptic. This is a major red flag. There is not a large amoun…

Chiropractic medicine for anything other than lower back pain and Acupuncture are two forms of alternative medicine that are well known to work off the placebo effect, yet the article mentions their use despite alleging to be a skeptic. This is a major red flag.

Trying something to check whether it works is orthogonal to being skeptical about it. In fact, it's the heart of science.

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