His experience matches mind as well. Horrible RSI persisting for years, with non of the conventional treatments effective beyond a short amount of time.
After doing a _lot_ of research into this, I experienced an almost complete short-term recovery. It wasn't just lack of pain... muscles that felt perpetually taut and ropey were suddenly softened, and I became extraordinarily thirsty for a couple of days as healing started again.
Unfortunately, I only have speculation about what's going on here medically. As a seasoned skeptic, Dr. Sarno's explanation of psychological causes is unsatisfying to me. My hypothesis is that RSI is caused by a problem in the autonomic nervous system (i.e. the part that regulates your body). Sympathetic nervous system activity is provoked when your body is in "danger" mode: muscles are tensed, ready to act, etc. Now, what happens in RSI is that your muscles are being stressed through use (typing). This isn't normally a problem: when you stop typing, your muscles heal the tiny amount of damage that was inflicted. But if you are stressed out, then your sympathetic nervous system activity is heightened and your muscles don't get a chance to heal.
Now this is the insidious bit: the pain and injury eventually becomes a danger signal to your body. The injury thus provokes further sympathetic nerve activity. This negative feedback loop can thus perpetuate without the person feeling actively stressed any more, but is obviously exacerbated by feelings of worry about the RSI. Every time you try to be careful, you make the problem worse.
So that's all well and good, but what about the "cure"? Well, it seems that many people have virtually instantly solved their problems by adopting positive beliefs about the nature of the problem, that it is a problem caused by problematic nervous system signals and NOT an insoluble muscular injury. How does that work, exactly? I have no idea. Obviously, some stress is reduced, but that can't explain the magnitude and suddenness of the change. If anyone has ideas, I'd be very interested in hearing them.
If you suffer from RSI, the advice I would have is to think about this explanation while researching the ideas thoroughly to see if you're convinced. In the meantime, the best thing to do is daily exercise that isn't too intense, but gets your blood flowing for 20-30 minutes. Biking, running, yoga all have good benefits. You can do things like lift weights as well, but it is easy to overdo it, so I don't recommend it if your symptoms are severe. It's worth reading Dr. Sarno's book, but keep in mind that he uses words like "freudian unconscious rage", which made it hard to take anything he said seriously. In my mind, he is inaccurately explaining something which isn't true but corresponds to _some_ true phenomenon.
I've wanted to write this up for a while, but while I'm relatively convinced that I have a better explanation for RSI than most doctors, I don't really understand how "the solution" works (nor for how many people it does). I also realize that it sounds exceptionally hokey, which fuels my reticence. We'll see how it goes over here... ask me anything.
Being a medical person, I am skeptical by nature, so I looked into Sarno's academic publication record. According to NYU, at least, he hasn't published in a journal for 7 years. That doesn't mean anything necessarily; it just calibrates my expectations.
His explanation for what is going on is not credible - but that does not mean that I don't find his solution credible. Biofeedback techniques are noninvasive and always merit a try.
In the absence of actual evidence, I cannot conclude that the technique works any better than placebo - but I am certainly glad that your pain is gone. The placebo effect (if that's what this is, which it may not be) is quite real.
You also have to completely believe in the TMS diagnosis.
That means that you have to completely accept the fact
that your symptoms are emotionally induced. If you still
believe that there may be something physically or
structurally "wrong" with you, you're not yet "cured."
You're not paying attention to the underlying emotions,
which means that the symptoms can still work as a
distraction, and it's likely that they will return.
Sounds like a self-imposed placebo to me. If it works it's still good, of course; it'd be very useful for "standard" medicine to learn how to use the placebo efficiently and ethically.
It also sounds like a good excuse to explain the people who aren't helped by the therapy - if they don't get better they don't believe in it enough and have themselves to blame (or they have the wrong diagnosis).
This is exactly what I was getting at in paragraph 5 of "The Cure" section ("If you find the idea...").
The problem with stress as the root cause is that after I resolved my RSI pain, I have been through tremendously stressful situations during which I was typing a lot, but these have not triggered any RSI pain. So I think there's something more going on unconsciously, and yes I agree with you it sounds pretty far out.
As for exercise, I should have mentioned in the article that I have always exercised regularly and exercise is a big part of my life, even while I was typing a lot, so in my experience exercise (while having may other benefits) did not help my RSI pain.
I got partway into the book. At the first mention of Freud, I wanted to put it down, but I'm so desperate for pain relief, I convinced myself to keep going. Shit, if it cures my pain, I'll believe in pyramid-building aliens.
Then I hit the next chapter where he lists Deepak Chopra as a supporting figure for the TMP idea. At that point, it's an instant Home, Left Arrow, Remove From Device.
Comments
His experience matches mind as well. Horrible RSI persisting for years, with non of the conventional treatments effective beyond a short amount of time.
After doing a _lot_ of research into this, I experienced an almost complete short-term recovery. It wasn't just lack of pain... muscles that felt perpetually taut and ropey were suddenly softened, and I became extraordinarily thirsty for a couple of days as healing started again.
Unfortunately, I only have speculation about what's going on here medically. As a seasoned skeptic, Dr. Sarno's explanation of psychological causes is unsatisfying to me. My hypothesis is that RSI is caused by a problem in the autonomic nervous system (i.e. the part that regulates your body). Sympathetic nervous system activity is provoked when your body is in "danger" mode: muscles are tensed, ready to act, etc. Now, what happens in RSI is that your muscles are being stressed through use (typing). This isn't normally a problem: when you stop typing, your muscles heal the tiny amount of damage that was inflicted. But if you are stressed out, then your sympathetic nervous system activity is heightened and your muscles don't get a chance to heal.
Now this is the insidious bit: the pain and injury eventually becomes a danger signal to your body. The injury thus provokes further sympathetic nerve activity. This negative feedback loop can thus perpetuate without the person feeling actively stressed any more, but is obviously exacerbated by feelings of worry about the RSI. Every time you try to be careful, you make the problem worse.
For a more medical take, some pieces are conveyed in this article: http://www.aapb.org/tl_files/AAPB/files/biof_34_2_pain.pdf . Some people speculate that similar issues underlie more serious problems, like RSDS and fibromyalgia
So that's all well and good, but what about the "cure"? Well, it seems that many people have virtually instantly solved their problems by adopting positive beliefs about the nature of the problem, that it is a problem caused by problematic nervous system signals and NOT an insoluble muscular injury. How does that work, exactly? I have no idea. Obviously, some stress is reduced, but that can't explain the magnitude and suddenness of the change. If anyone has ideas, I'd be very interested in hearing them.
If you suffer from RSI, the advice I would have is to think about this explanation while researching the ideas thoroughly to see if you're convinced. In the meantime, the best thing to do is daily exercise that isn't too intense, but gets your blood flowing for 20-30 minutes. Biking, running, yoga all have good benefits. You can do things like lift weights as well, but it is easy to overdo it, so I don't recommend it if your symptoms are severe. It's worth reading Dr. Sarno's book, but keep in mind that he uses words like "freudian unconscious rage", which made it hard to take anything he said seriously. In my mind, he is inaccurately explaining something which isn't true but corresponds to _some_ true phenomenon.
I've wanted to write this up for a while, but while I'm relatively convinced that I have a better explanation for RSI than most doctors, I don't really understand how "the solution" works (nor for how many people it does). I also realize that it sounds exceptionally hokey, which fuels my reticence. We'll see how it goes over here... ask me anything.
Being a medical person, I am skeptical by nature, so I looked into Sarno's academic publication record. According to NYU, at least, he hasn't published in a journal for 7 years. That doesn't mean anything necessarily; it just calibrates my expectations.
His explanation for what is going on is not credible - but that does not mean that I don't find his solution credible. Biofeedback techniques are noninvasive and always merit a try.
In the absence of actual evidence, I cannot conclude that the technique works any better than placebo - but I am certainly glad that your pain is gone. The placebo effect (if that's what this is, which it may not be) is quite real.
In one of the articles I read while following links from here ( http://www.tarpityoga.com/how.html ) they say:
Sounds like a self-imposed placebo to me. If it works it's still good, of course; it'd be very useful for "standard" medicine to learn how to use the placebo efficiently and ethically.It also sounds like a good excuse to explain the people who aren't helped by the therapy - if they don't get better they don't believe in it enough and have themselves to blame (or they have the wrong diagnosis).
This is exactly what I was getting at in paragraph 5 of "The Cure" section ("If you find the idea...").
The problem with stress as the root cause is that after I resolved my RSI pain, I have been through tremendously stressful situations during which I was typing a lot, but these have not triggered any RSI pain. So I think there's something more going on unconsciously, and yes I agree with you it sounds pretty far out.
As for exercise, I should have mentioned in the article that I have always exercised regularly and exercise is a big part of my life, even while I was typing a lot, so in my experience exercise (while having may other benefits) did not help my RSI pain.
I got partway into the book. At the first mention of Freud, I wanted to put it down, but I'm so desperate for pain relief, I convinced myself to keep going. Shit, if it cures my pain, I'll believe in pyramid-building aliens.
Then I hit the next chapter where he lists Deepak Chopra as a supporting figure for the TMP idea. At that point, it's an instant Home, Left Arrow, Remove From Device.