4 ms·
I’ve learned a lot about RSI over the past year, having spent about 8 months completely unable to type or use a mouse, trying dozens of things and talking to do
by joshwcomeau 6y ago
I’ve learned a lot about RSI over the past year, having spent about 8 months completely unable to type or use a mouse, trying dozens of things and talking to dozens of people. And the main thing I’ve learned is that every story is unique; the right thing for one person might be an absolutely terrible idea for another.
Folks in the comments seem to be making pretty broad statements about what is good or bad, and I just want to let readers know to take everything with a huge grain of salt.
In my case, fear of making things worse was the biggest obstacle — pushing myself to trust that typing isn’t dangerous, even though it hurt, was critical in my recovery. This is awful advice for many people with RSI, though.
My advice: see a physical therapist first. They can often help, or point you in the right direction. If months pass and nothing seems to help, seek out alternative explanations and keep an open mind. Check out The Mindbody Prescription” by Dr Sarno. It was the missing puzzle piece for me.
- rlp 6y agoI totally agree, the prevailing RSI advice about posture and exercise and fancy chairs and input devices and taking breaks is not one-size-fits-all. In my case, Sarno's book showed me how my neurotic fixation on RSI was making it worse. I wrote this comment in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12990976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12990976. My RSI continues to be totally gone (it's been gone 14+ years now, the RSI started a couple years before that), and I never even think about it anymore. If you have RSI and you are reading this, please try to keep an open mind. Not all cases are the same, and fixating on/worrying about the RSI constantly is not necessarily the best path forward.
- joshwcomeau 6y agoI wish I found your comment a year ago! I had cubital tunnel syndrome as well, and was days from spending a lot of money on the ulnar transposition surgery. It’s been ~4 months since then and it’s 95% better, and improving steadily
- rlp 6y agoThat's great! Like you, it did take me a while to get to 100%. Old habits die hard, I guess. You really know you're there when you realize you forgot to think about RSI for a whole week/month/whatever.
- nemo1618 6y agoYep, I'm in the same boat. Suffered for about a year, read the book, 100% cured within a month. Still no issues three years later. I have terrible posture and type all day on a laptop. I shudder to think of the alternate future in which I continued grappling with wrist pain for the rest of my career.