RSI Awareness

Twenty RSI Tidbits I’ve Learned…

There is so much I wish people understood about repetitive strain injuries, things that I keep telling people again, and again, and again that never seem to sink in. Here is a list of 20 things I’ve learned over the years:

1- Do NOT ignore pain. STOP. That pain may become a constant companion if you try to tough it out. Take frequent breaks and try to stop before you have any pain in the first place—because once it surfaces, it can be relentless.

2- Get help from some sort of medical professional early on. Don’t wait! And if person #1 doesn’t seem to help, find someone who does.

3- Be active. Exercise. I’ve learned far too many years down the line that movement is an excellent pain preventative and pain reliever. Resistance training, if not too heavy and performed carefully and with proper form, has helped me immensely. I’ve heard some say it has banished their pain altogether. However, any gentle movements can be a tremendous help. As for me—a combination of multiple practices is the key.

4- Ergonomics and the proper equipment can sometimes help. Finding the proper ergonomic tools that specifically agree with your body can drive you mad. There is so much out there, and sometimes a tool that can bring relief to one body can be agonizing to another. Consider the LAMY Safari fountain pen, which people either love or despise. Consider vertical mice (and penguin mice, and pen mice, and finger mice, and bar mice…), and split keyboards, and wrist rests. You could go broke experimenting with all of these! 

5- But I also believe that proper movement and posture help more (and it certainly costs less). I’d rather build up the strength to sit straight properly than have a chair do it for me and make my muscles go dormant. And don’t keep yourself fixed in awkward positions for great lengths of time! This also creates problems.

6- Be careful with pain medications! They may mask the pain, but they don’t solve the problem. If you continue to partake in a damaging activity even though you feel better, you’re only going to make your problem worse further down the road and cause further injuries.

7- Step away from your computer and tech devices once in a while! It’s terrible to be glued to that stuff all day, both physically and psychologically.

8- Creatives—it’s wonderful to be dedicated to your work, but there is such a thing is getting absorbed in your art to the point of wrecking your body. Our bodies weren’t designed to be planted in front of desks all day. Take breaks. Move around a little. Be careful with posture. Because if you put your body at risk, you’re putting your art at risk as well. And trust me—it’s agonizing to be torn from an activity you’re passionate about because it hurts you to do it. Please take care of yourselves. Listen to your body—not your ambition.

9- Young people—you aren’t immune. My pain started when I was 18. Everyone around me always said I was too young for that. 18 years later, people are still telling me I’m too young. That got old 18 years ago. And you know what? Now I’m seeing it happening to people who are younger than I was. Do you really want to be trapped in a state of pain? Do you want pain to dictate your career? Your daily routine? Your life? Because it can.

10- These injuries heal slowly. Maddeningly slowly. These are not papercuts and therefore do not vanish like papercuts. You may need to refrain from the offending activity for months. Healing is not always linear—sometimes you suddenly get worse after you thought you were better! “You’re STILL dealing with that?” many a person has asked me over the years in disbelief, which is always wonderful for killing my frail morale. Well, yes, I am. It’s the nature of the beast. It’s a journey of many ups and downs.

11- Loosen your grip on your pens, pencils, steering wheel, whatever!

12- Don’t grow too dependent on orthopedic braces. I did in the beginning because a. I was poorly advised and b. didn’t know any better. What happened was I grew weaker and weaker over time due to muscle atrophy (and people wonder why I now like resistance training so much). Sometimes they help when you’re having a bad flare-up, but too much immobility can be harmful. I wish I had known how much physical therapy exercises can help early on rather than over 10 years later.

13- Dictation can help to a point. I use it sometimes for transcribing. But I’m not a verbal thinker. I cannot compose rough drafts through speech—not everyone can be as eloquent as John Milton. Plus, when dictation technology hears me incorrectly, that creates a whole other annoying hell on top of the one I’m already dealing with. When dealing with revisions, or art—dictation is not the answer to everything, folks.

14- This is a problem you’re going to need to manage in the long term—don’t expect it to vanish. It takes hard work. For me, and for many others, RSIs require permanent lifestyle modifications. If you go back to your old habits… Guess what? Your pain is going to return! Listen to your body when it tells you it cannot handle something!

15- When dealing with others who have RSIs, tread lightly. When we’re at our worst, our nerves are not just pinched—they’re raw. Not only do we feel awful, but we often are either torn from activities that bring us joy and relaxation or are struggling to perform tasks we need to do to make a living—or both. This can be emotionally draining, to say the least. Our tempers might snap. Try to understand and put yourself in that person’s shoes. Try to get it. The lack of understanding in others around us creates a whole new dimension of frustration.

16– Accept that something is wrong. Some people clearly don’t approve of this, but I found that acceptance of my situation was one of the best, most helpful things that happened to me, rather than dreaming of a miracle cure. It was also my first step to better behavior. No doctor is going to magically whisk it away. This is going to be a bumpy road. Effort is required.

17– RICE alone doesn’t cut it. RICE was pretty much all I was told to do back in 2006 and that was about all the Internet had to say as well. I needed far more than that.

18– Every case is different, just as every person is different! That also means that what works for one person may not work for someone else. Don’t let anyone tell you that their solution is THE solution.

19- It helps to have a positive frame of mind, or at least TRY to have one. I know this is easier said than done. Which do you think helps more—to view yourself as an RSI victim or an RSI warrior? Thought so. I’ve even heard of orthopedic braces referred to as “armor” somewhere—I like that, too! Reached a bump in the road? You’ll get through it. Rather than despair, problem solve. I often feel like a mad scientist trying to figure myself out. Being a fan of tales of mad science, this works well for me.

20- You are not alone, although it may feel like it.