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If you have chronic pain, especially back pain or RSI, please read up on TMS. I probably would have written it off as new-age garbage if not for this excellent

If you have chronic pain, especially back pain or RSI, please read up on TMS. I probably would have written it off as new-age garbage if not for this excellent post by Y Combinator's very own Aaron Iba: http://aaroniba.net/how-i-cured-my-rsi-pain http://aaroniba.net/how-i-cured-my-rsi-pain Actually I did write it off the first time, but after a year of wrist pain I was ready to give it a try. Within a week my pain was 90% gone, and a month after that it was just a bad memory. I consider myself very lucky; not everyone's condition can be cured this way. But there's very little downside to trying. (Sorry to be "that guy," but I figure that if even one person finds relief because of my post, it's worth the social cost.)

graeme 8y ago
As a counter anecdote: I tried this, gave it a willing shot, saw no improvement. Also tried a large amount of physio, ergonomic things, etc. In the end, there were four specific things that made a difference: * Trigger point massage * A specific physio who used MAT * A sit/stand desk that let me get my desk low enough, as well as standing. * The handshoe mouse (mice and trackpads had been a big cause of my rsi) Those are out of a long list that didn't work. So, if you're reading this, have rsi, and nothing has improved it: there might still be something that does. It can be a very difficult problem to assess accurately. But in my own case, when something worked, it worked near instantly. Writing this to point out that failure to resolve the problem with physical methods doesn't necessarily mean others won't work. Took me eight months to find the first two, and eight years before the problem worsened again and forced me to seek out the final two.
code_duck 8y ago
But what if the pain is truly warning you of a dangerous physical condition, or something that could cause irreversible damage?
- nemo1618 8y ago
  That is a risk, I admit. You should do your best to rule out any clear structural causes for your pain. The tricky thing is that doctors will often provide structural explanations for your pain that are believable when you actually have TMS. In Aaron's story, four different hand surgeons gave him four different interpretations of an imaging scan. My advice is to only consider the TMS diagnosis after you've had consistent pain for many months. Our bodies are strong and can heal from most structural injuries in this time. A sprained wrist should not be causing you pain a year later. Lastly, you can reintroduce movement gradually. Dr. Sarno advised not resuming physical activity until the pain had already improved a bit. He also said that, of his many patients, none ever reported that resuming physical activity permanently worsened their condition.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    It seems that this is fairly specific to certain types of chronic pain. In my case, I did my best to overlook, work around and ignore discomfort and pain for years, and that was a grave mistake. I was very good at it and suffered for a long time, over twice the average time that people go undiagnosed. The medical system also failed to accurately diagnose me several times when they had the chance. This delay in treatment may have created permanent nerve and digestive system damage that could have been avoided.

graeme 8y ago

As a counter anecdote: I tried this, gave it a willing shot, saw no improvement. Also tried a large amount of physio, ergonomic things, etc. In the end, there were four specific things that made a difference: * Trigger point massage * A specific physio who used MAT * A sit/stand desk that let me get my desk low enough, as well as standing. * The handshoe mouse (mice and trackpads had been a big cause of my rsi) Those are out of a long list that didn't work. So, if you're reading this, have rsi, and nothing has improved it: there might still be something that does. It can be a very difficult problem to assess accurately. But in my own case, when something worked, it worked near instantly. Writing this to point out that failure to resolve the problem with physical methods doesn't necessarily mean others won't work. Took me eight months to find the first two, and eight years before the problem worsened again and forced me to seek out the final two.

code_duck 8y ago

But what if the pain is truly warning you of a dangerous physical condition, or something that could cause irreversible damage?

nemo1618 8y ago
That is a risk, I admit. You should do your best to rule out any clear structural causes for your pain. The tricky thing is that doctors will often provide structural explanations for your pain that are believable when you actually have TMS. In Aaron's story, four different hand surgeons gave him four different interpretations of an imaging scan. My advice is to only consider the TMS diagnosis after you've had consistent pain for many months. Our bodies are strong and can heal from most structural injuries in this time. A sprained wrist should not be causing you pain a year later. Lastly, you can reintroduce movement gradually. Dr. Sarno advised not resuming physical activity until the pain had already improved a bit. He also said that, of his many patients, none ever reported that resuming physical activity permanently worsened their condition.
- code_duck 8y ago
  It seems that this is fairly specific to certain types of chronic pain. In my case, I did my best to overlook, work around and ignore discomfort and pain for years, and that was a grave mistake. I was very good at it and suffered for a long time, over twice the average time that people go undiagnosed. The medical system also failed to accurately diagnose me several times when they had the chance. This delay in treatment may have created permanent nerve and digestive system damage that could have been avoided.