from Hacker News

That pain in your back? It's a pain in your brain

by michaelrkn on 1/29/24, 10:05 PM with 12 comments

  • by rsithroway on 1/30/24, 2:44 AM

    So I had horrible RSI wrist pain using a computer that no ergo keyboard or touchpad/mouse could solve and I did eventually figure out the source and get better, in part from discussions here on HN. Talking to other people who overcame RSI, they recommended the book The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno. So I got the book and I did get better, even though over 90% of the book is Freudian quackery I just skimmed over.

    The 10% meat of the book presents evidence the brain has the ability to control bloodflow to extremities. For example, we all know an embarrassed person can blush red in the face due to increased bloodflow caused by the brain processing the emotion of embarrassment. And reproductive arousal certainly involves bloodflow to various regions (not just genitals, but also lips and nipples for women, etc.).

    So the theory is that the brain can restrict bloodflow to the arms which causes the numbness and burning that so many with RSI wrist/hand pain experience. The brain does this to us in response to us not processing certain negative emotions. In my case it was abuse from a parent I never consciously thought about. The book goes into stories such as a woman who was sexually abused by her father who, once she began consciously processing her hurt and rage, literally started crying out the chronic pain in her back. I had a somewhat similar experience, but slower and less dramatic. I had tremendous anger at the abusive parent and telling myself "I AM MAD AS F---ING HELL" made the pain go away.

    Before this I literally tried thousands on ergo equipment, tried stretches and exercises and pushups and all that, none of it worked. It was my brain causing the problem, and my reluctance to not see it as a brain health issue made my healing process much slower.

  • by phmqk76 on 1/29/24, 11:55 PM

    Biofeedback has always intrigued me as a pain management device, although it went from being in the popular consciousness to not being talked about anymore. If there’s any validity to it, that could be a killer feature of VR - a headset that connects to biofeedback sensors, and uses its own sensors, in immersive biofeedback routines. Thats a use case that would justify the cost of Quest 3 (or even Apple Vision) alone.

  • by Terr_ on 1/30/24, 12:01 AM

    This reminds me of how phantom pain (such as from a missing arm) maybe treatable by using the rubber hand illusion.

    "Hey brain, you can see it's undamaged and sending signals that kinda-match other input, so calm down and reset the alarm..."

  • by winrid on 1/30/24, 1:46 AM

    I did find that my RSI etc was always way worse doing work I hated. Maybe there's some kinda feedback loop there, or with stress.

    Been almost gone since I got into better jobs.

  • by KevinMS on 1/30/24, 1:14 AM

  • by bamboozled on 1/29/24, 11:04 PM

    It’s arguably a pain in the universe since your brain is in the universe.

  • by apantel on 1/30/24, 3:43 AM

    Dr John Sarno got all of this right in the 90’s. Thirty years ago.