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Comment by auganov | Hacker News Reader

I've been touch typing naturally for way over a decade without paying much attention to technique. I have never felt (or paid attention to?) discomfort before reading about RSIs on HN. After looking into the lack of science around it and reading Dr. Sarno's book I have decided it's not something that's worth caring or thinking about. And perhaps even a dangerous idea.

I feel terrible for everyone experiencing this pain, but I'm not convinced it's something that can be reliably developed or avoided.

Obviously if you're feeling pain or discomfort for your own sake take a break or switch to a different finger for a few minutes. Just like you'd switch sides in bed or change your sitting style when feeling discomfort. But IMO this obsessing about developing an RSI is unhealthy.

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You are unconvinced until it hits you. I never heard about it before it started bothering me.

It's individual. I have a friend, overweight, never played any sport, never saw him run, sits 16h a day, sleeps 8h a day, has no problem with his back. Another one, skinny, does sports, sits on a pilates ball at work, uses standing table, stretching, and still has back problems.

You can't make conclusions based on your own case. We are all different people, different physiology. Medicine is not maths, 2 + 2 is not always 4. The fact that they can't explain RSI doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's just that we don't fully understand what's going on there (yet).

Right which is why you can read about physically unexplainable chronic pain conditions at large. It doesn't mean that people don't have RSIs, TMJ or whatever. There's simply no evidence that these are reliably linked to some specific physical aliment. There is no reason to worry about developing these things. That you feel discomfort in your fingers doens't mean you're developing an RSI. Just like a little disordered thinking doesn't mean you're developing schizophrenia.

Just the sheer understanding that fingers/wrists of an RSI sufferer are no different from these of non-sufferers helps many people resolve or greatly reduce their pain.

> Another one, skinny, does sports, sits on a pilates ball at work, uses standing table, stretching, and still has back problems.

And if they are a chronic pain sufferer from a similarly weird (or untreatable) condition I would greatly recommend looking beyond the physical explanation of their pain.

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