RSI and it's effect on gaming

[naronic]

I have RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury or in this case, gamer's thumb,) and I can barely play any game anymore. Constantly moving my mouse in a counter clockwise fashion on CSS and TF2 has left me with a huge bump on my tendon sheaths that has weakened my thumb to the point where my gaming sessions are now less than an hour. Gaming with the thumb-stick is even worse as I can barely aim anymore.

I have to see a doctor to get it checked out and buy a more ergonomic mouse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury

Has anyone else had this issue, and if so how did you deal with it?
What do you think about this injury when you're gaming?

[Jercurpac]

Why would you keep playing games then? You know you're crippling yourself so stop until a doctor takes a look at it. I used to play games more often when I was younger and at one point I started getting a pain in my wrist. I was stupid to not see a doctor, but I was at least smart enough to stop playing for a month, and when I started up again it was in shorter doses. You're too young to have a gimped hand. Especially if the cause is playing too many fucking video games and is completely avoidable.

[BouseSlayer]

At 4/29/12 08:45 PM, Jercurpac wrote: Why would you keep playing games then? You know you're crippling yourself so stop until a doctor takes a look at it.

Shhhhh. The negative effects of video games are supposed to be a secret.

[f12guy]

At 4/30/12 06:30 PM, BouseSlayer wrote:

At 4/29/12 08:45 PM, Jercurpac wrote: Why would you keep playing games then? You know you're crippling yourself so stop until a doctor takes a look at it.

Shhhhh. The negative effects of video games are supposed to be a secret.

Wait a second games have negative effects? yeah right.

[naronic]

At 4/29/12 08:45 PM, Jercurpac wrote: Why would you keep playing games then? You know you're crippling yourself so stop until a doctor takes a look at it. I used to play games more often when I was younger and at one point I started getting a pain in my wrist. I was stupid to not see a doctor, but I was at least smart enough to stop playing for a month, and when I started up again it was in shorter doses. You're too young to have a gimped hand. Especially if the cause is playing too many fucking video games and is completely avoidable.

while i have considered that, gaming is a huge hobby of mine.
It would be silly to give it up or tone it down due to a few tendons that don't want to work with me.

It's the same thing with playing music on a guitar, there are repetition injuries with that as well but you don't want to stop or slow down would you?

[kiljoy96]

At 5/1/12 07:21 AM, naronic wrote: It's the same thing with playing music on a guitar, there are repetition injuries with that as well but you don't want to stop or slow down would you?

I actually partially dislocated my upper spine from playing so much guitar. One of the back muscles got much stronger, but only on one side, and it was pulling my spine out of place.
I hurt like a bitch for a few weeks and had to see a chiropractor three times.
I never stopped playing though.

Anyway, the closest I've come to not being able to game was when I got an infection on my thumb once from pulling out a hangnail. It was so painful to move the analog stick.

[Tydusis]

I have a callus on my right wrist that comes from hours of PC gaming.

gamer wrist

I have calluses on the balls of my ankles from sitting cross-legged on the floor for hours playing PS2 as a kid

gamer ankle

When my wrist(s) starts to hurt, I stop hardcore gaming for a couple weeks.

if it hurts to do it, don't.

[II2none]

Sucks to be you.

[Migel]

Once discomfort kicks in:
* Do exercises indirectly affecting the pained muscles. Dancing, walking and most cardio exercizes evelate strain in back and neck muscles. Avoid exercises doing actual movement with the muscles and try not to massage or stretch the pain the away. Because the pain is a signal of the problem but fighting the pain not alway removes the problem and good indication of how the problem is progressing.
* Switch hands, its hard to become double dexterous pc user but it costed me just 2 days. So I wouldn't call it a big challenge either. Surely there is function loss using the less experienced hand but switching it off removes the strain time.
* Stress, 15 minutes of stress working in ms word puts more strain on your muscles than enjoying a casual game all day. Even if the gamer guy was slouching up straight the test person using ms word always showed more strained muscles and discomfort after those 15 minutes. One could think that if you were playing a game that added similar stress an hour could still cause rsi.

Once it's gone:
powertraining or swimming, basicly shit to increase general muscle strength and adjusts posture. Discomfort? Switch back to cardio. ( swimming is cardio but lot of repetetive wrist action, i wouldnt recommend it )

Once rsi or persistent discomfort:
stop, try to bypass a regular doctor and go straight to a specialist. I have been tagged 2 times with rsi. One time it was displaced muscle in my hand because of boxing impact ( but it's something you could get holding a bike pedal driving over a rock ) and second time was a knot stuck in my neck. Simply ignoring the doctor advice and going straight to a specialist such as a expert fysio therapist is a good idea. Because RSI itself means your pretty much fucked, surgery is generally not good idea since there is no garantee that the pain caused comes from the place it hurts. And the damage done and strenght loss will only add to a worse form of rsi.

[Halberd]

How many hours do you have on C:SS and TF2?

[II2none]

At 5/3/12 03:56 PM, LaForge wrote: i can't bear to go easy on you here. you're a fucking dipshit. games are part of the entertainment industry, injury is not entertaining. if you so desperately want to shoot someone and obviously don't mind getting injured, join the military.

jesus how fucking dumb.

you're getting all worked up because he chose to play video games over being concerned with his soar wrist.