<story><title>Online activists are silencing us, scientists say</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/science-socialmedia/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcv</author><text>You mean that stress can play a factor in RSI? I don&amp;#x27;t think that&amp;#x27;s in any way controversial, but that doesn&amp;#x27;t make it in any way less real, or less physical. Although in the case of RSI, there are a lot more factors than that: bad posture, lack of exercise, and most importantly of course repetitive motions that very slowly build up strain on surrounding tissue, wrists, shoulders, back, etc.</text></item><item><author>hirundo</author><text>John Sarno&amp;#x27;s theory is that such pain is indeed caused by physical mechanisms ... which are triggered by psychological mechanisms. Such things are common, like a blush to the cheeks, hair on your arm raised by fright, erections and other sexual responses, etc.&lt;p&gt;He was also clear that this is not always the case, and that direct physical causes should be looked for by a specialist before pursuing psychological remedies.</text></item><item><author>mcv</author><text>&amp;gt; those without a clear physical mechanism, such as RSI or chronic back pain&lt;p&gt;But RSI has a clear physical mechanism. I don&amp;#x27;t know as much about chronic back pain, but considering how much physical stuff there is in our back, I&amp;#x27;d assume it&amp;#x27;s similar.&lt;p&gt;Or does &amp;quot;physical mechanism&amp;quot; mean something other than it seems to mean?</text></item><item><author>nateberkopec</author><text>Over the next 20 or so years, expect a lot of syndromes&amp;#x2F;conditions to be reclassified, as Michael Sharpe puts in the article, as &amp;quot;biological condition[s] that can be perpetuated by social and psychological factors.&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I struggled with RSI for a couple of years until I read John Sarno&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;The Mind-Body Connection&amp;quot; on the recommendation of someone from HN. Sarno&amp;#x27;s thesis is that many chronic pain conditions (those without a clear physical mechanism, such as RSI or chronic back pain) are psychosomatic.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people struggle with this idea, and take it, as they did in the article, as &amp;quot;my pain isn&amp;#x27;t real&amp;quot;. Sarno&amp;#x27;s book very clearly lays out that the pain &lt;i&gt;is real&lt;/i&gt;, it&amp;#x27;s just caused by processes in your brain, not the rest of your body.&lt;p&gt;Societally it&amp;#x27;s all very strange. We accept a &amp;quot;mind-body&amp;quot; connection for certain types of disorders, but, not for others. Anxiety sufferers can fool themselves into thinking they&amp;#x27;re having a heart attack and hyperventilate. Why is it crazy or anti-scientific to think that the same can cause other symptoms? We&amp;#x27;ve searched for decades for body-based mechanisms for these chronic pain conditions, why not consider causes in the brain?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hisnameisjimmy</author><text>The implication by Sarno is that stress, or other psychological factors, is the &lt;i&gt;whole&lt;/i&gt; reason for the physical pain. Not always, but in many (if not a majority) of cases.&lt;p&gt;The idea is the pain is very, very real, and very, very painful. But that the cause is psychological.&lt;p&gt;The reason why RSI and back pain type issues persist is because psychologically they are very easy to justify. Of course we put load on our backs! Of course we do repetitive things! So it&amp;#x27;s easy to draw the conclusion that this is the cause, especially for your brain. This prevents people from exploring a root cause.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s interesting material, but I think you have to be pretty open minded to consider it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Online activists are silencing us, scientists say</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/science-socialmedia/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcv</author><text>You mean that stress can play a factor in RSI? I don&amp;#x27;t think that&amp;#x27;s in any way controversial, but that doesn&amp;#x27;t make it in any way less real, or less physical. Although in the case of RSI, there are a lot more factors than that: bad posture, lack of exercise, and most importantly of course repetitive motions that very slowly build up strain on surrounding tissue, wrists, shoulders, back, etc.</text></item><item><author>hirundo</author><text>John Sarno&amp;#x27;s theory is that such pain is indeed caused by physical mechanisms ... which are triggered by psychological mechanisms. Such things are common, like a blush to the cheeks, hair on your arm raised by fright, erections and other sexual responses, etc.&lt;p&gt;He was also clear that this is not always the case, and that direct physical causes should be looked for by a specialist before pursuing psychological remedies.</text></item><item><author>mcv</author><text>&amp;gt; those without a clear physical mechanism, such as RSI or chronic back pain&lt;p&gt;But RSI has a clear physical mechanism. I don&amp;#x27;t know as much about chronic back pain, but considering how much physical stuff there is in our back, I&amp;#x27;d assume it&amp;#x27;s similar.&lt;p&gt;Or does &amp;quot;physical mechanism&amp;quot; mean something other than it seems to mean?</text></item><item><author>nateberkopec</author><text>Over the next 20 or so years, expect a lot of syndromes&amp;#x2F;conditions to be reclassified, as Michael Sharpe puts in the article, as &amp;quot;biological condition[s] that can be perpetuated by social and psychological factors.&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I struggled with RSI for a couple of years until I read John Sarno&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;The Mind-Body Connection&amp;quot; on the recommendation of someone from HN. Sarno&amp;#x27;s thesis is that many chronic pain conditions (those without a clear physical mechanism, such as RSI or chronic back pain) are psychosomatic.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people struggle with this idea, and take it, as they did in the article, as &amp;quot;my pain isn&amp;#x27;t real&amp;quot;. Sarno&amp;#x27;s book very clearly lays out that the pain &lt;i&gt;is real&lt;/i&gt;, it&amp;#x27;s just caused by processes in your brain, not the rest of your body.&lt;p&gt;Societally it&amp;#x27;s all very strange. We accept a &amp;quot;mind-body&amp;quot; connection for certain types of disorders, but, not for others. Anxiety sufferers can fool themselves into thinking they&amp;#x27;re having a heart attack and hyperventilate. Why is it crazy or anti-scientific to think that the same can cause other symptoms? We&amp;#x27;ve searched for decades for body-based mechanisms for these chronic pain conditions, why not consider causes in the brain?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Pimpus</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not stress and it&amp;#x27;s not playing a factor. Unconscious, repressed emotions are the direct cause of RSI and many other ailments, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I highly recommend reading the book.</text></comment>