Day 1 Just sharing

Hi everyone, I’ll keep it short. Been having RSI (carpal and cubital) for some three years now, started having back pain and occasionally neck/shoulder pains a year and a half ago I think. Funnily enough RSI started after I quit smoking as I spent all my breaks at the laptop/phone, which aggravated pre-existing bad posture etc. (I’m overweight). Typing a lot for work makes it much worse. The worst thing is that I gave up music entirely.
I am quite skeptic about the program, but I thought I’d give it a try. It can’t hurt, and in the worst case scenario I’ll have done some self-reflection. Posting because it is recommended on day 1!

 

Hi Blem,

Thanks for sharing this. I hope you have kept going at the program, it does work - I managed to help practically all my RSI and sciatica pain through it plus a few other techniques!

You said: Typing a lot for work makes it much worse - this is your belief, and if you are following this approach, it is a false/wrong belief. It may be true that for now typing hurts, but you have to acknowledge that typing is just a trigger. You also mention bad posture - though bad posture is not recommended, you also have to believe that your pain is not being caused due to this, if you think you've got TMS.

So here you've got two beliefs related to pain i) that typing makes pain worse and ii) that bad posture creates pain - that are in conflict with the approach, and this means that your brain is getting mixed messages; on the one hand the pain is being blamed on a structural cause, but on the other hand you are trying the TMS approach and trying to convince your brain that there is nothing structurally wrong. I blog on this and other important issues that keep people stuck with TMS on my blog, https://www.painoutsidethebox.com/tms-blog (Blog — PainOutsideTheBox)

I am pointing this out because it is what makes most people stuck - thinking that something structural is still partially to blame for pain. Of course, I do realise that you were only on Day 1 of the program when you wrote this ;-) But thought I'd comment seeing that you have symptoms similar to ones I had.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Miriam Gauci

TMS Coach at painoutsidethebox.com