I do appreciate the offer but I have some psychological resistance to hypnosis - my mother has tried to get me to do it also but to no avail :)
The hand/arm stretches help but only up to a point. A lot of the tension I get seems to arise in the neck and upper back areas. I feel great when I get out of the gym or after a hot bath but I work in a pretty high pressure environment where I sometimes can't take breaks for hours at a time. Maybe that's the real problem. But I was hoping for a workaround.
A lot of the tension I get seems to arise in the neck and upper back areas.
This reminds me of a third option that I'm surprised I didn't think of earlier: the Alexander Technique. Tension arising in the neck and upper back areas is practically their specialty. I got some amazing results working with a good Alexander teacher.
Incidentally, if your situation is anything like mine (and of course I don't know), you may need to make some changes in your life in order for the pain to go away. I'm not talking about techniques, I mean fundamental personal change. I had a headache for 9 years. No one ever explained it. But it eventually went away as I addressed some important issues in my life.
Yes. I'm constantly making adjustments but still have not hit on a comfortable setup. I think I need someone to monitor me while I'm working some day - or maybe videotape myself typing for a few hours.
No, I meant, "If you cannot take breaks periodically (at least once every few hours), you will have to change your work environment (to be able to take breaks) or change your work environment (by changing jobs)."
Not being able to take a break for hours at a time means that if your RSI continues getting worse, you will not be able to work there anymore. The RSI stuff I have read has suggested breaks every 20-45 minutes in order to not make things rapidly worse and end one's career.
I'm most definitely not a doctor, of course, but your body is already overly stressed and breaking down. It needs more time to recover, at the very least.
The hand/arm stretches help but only up to a point. A lot of the tension I get seems to arise in the neck and upper back areas. I feel great when I get out of the gym or after a hot bath but I work in a pretty high pressure environment where I sometimes can't take breaks for hours at a time. Maybe that's the real problem. But I was hoping for a workaround.