Sep 22 2008
Pain and the Writer
A week ago I was backpacking with a friend in a high mountain wilderness area. We had just set up camp and I was rock-hopping across a talus field to get water from a lake when my foot slipped on the jagged edge of a boulder. If you’ve ever crossed a talus field, you know it’s one of the last places you want to lose your footing.
I didn’t go all the way down, though. My instincts kicked in and I whirled and twisted violently to break my fall with my hands. When my performance was over, I sat down and thought, “I’ve really hurt myself this time.”
Then I did a quick assessment. My shin had slammed against the sharp edge of a boulder. I lifted my pant leg up, afraid to look at it. It wasn’t so bad. A cut – the beginnings of what would be a goose-egg the size of a Buick – but no break. I felt twisted and a bit nauseated, like I’d been put through a giant dough-kneader, but there was no sharp, breath-stopping stab of a broken rib.
Good – especially since we were in rugged terrain many miles from help and night was coming on. Still, something told me I had really hurt myself, even though I couldn’t feel or see anything serious. Fortunately, the friend I was with is a doctor. Unfortunately, he’s a gynecologist, and since I refused to submit to a pelvic exam and didn’t need a Pap smear, he could only provide emotional support.
The pain came later – a terrible back pain right up in the shoulder blade area. I have been dealing with it for a week now. It has kept me up nights and made my days a living hell. It’s the kind of injury you just have to let heal, like a broken rib, so it really comes down to pain management.
Which brings me to today’s discussion: What can a writer do about physical pain?
First, understand that people who write either as a living or as a part of their jobs are particularly vulnerable to physical pain. That’s because when we write we tend to be alone with ourselves, our thoughts, and yes, our pain. In the very process of writing, we tend to eliminate the external distractions that could otherwise draw our attention away from our pain.
Another thing to understand is that writers are prime targets for a wide range of chronic physical problems that cause pain: carpal tunnel syndrome, neck and back issues and so on. These are typically caused by spending too much time sitting still in front of a computer, and from making the same movements again and again and again.
In other words, as writers we tend to have a lot of pain and that pain is difficult to ignore or escape. So what can we do?
Drugs? Please don’t go there! Addiction to prescription pain-killers – let along illicit drugs – have ruined many good people. Safer long-term alternatives are available and hopefully will work for you, depending on the cause of your pain.
For example, I have found in the past days that regular breaks from my work help immensely. During these breaks I do what I have always known I should do to counter the dangers of repetitive motion injuries: I stretch. Fortunately, this also works for my back injury. Yoga movements and postures really help – not only fighting current pain, but helping to prevent future pain. Even stretching myself out over an exercise ball provides blessed relief.
These remedies won’t vanquish all types of pain, of course, but they are excellent when it comes to the kinds of problems people who write typical develop from sitting at their desks for hours each day writing.
They say pain makes us stronger. But ongoing, inescapable physical pain can be emotionally and professionally debilitating. Do what you can to prevent it. And whatever you do, don’t stop writing.
PS. If you have any suggestions on this topic, please share them with the rest of us!
Steve, Hope you are recovering and suffering less. As a desk worker myself I second your standing up and stretching routine. I try to do this once an hour, but it’s all too easy to forget. I think some bigger exercise - I cycle, run and walk in the mountains (not all at the same time) - is also important when you’re in an office all day.
I like to use paper and pen because I can change from the ol’ keyboard, mouse and screen. It’s not as efficient for lots of words, but is a good tool for ideas and planning. I’d like to try a voice recorder and dictation software. I don’t know how effective it is but it saves the typing hands and you can do it in any position.
Thanks for the reminder that our health is so important, whatever work we do. Until it goes wrong somehow we mostly take it for granted.
I get it now. I know exactly what is wrong with me and has been wrong with me my entire life.
I’m a writer.
Wish I had some answers for you. But, alas, I don’t.
I do suffer from a lot of pain as well. Carpel Tunnel, shoulder & neck and just the daily anguish of feeling I’m never quite good enough. I hate that.
Love your blog though.
Hi Steve.
Hope you’re feeling better.
I’ve done myself a damage through my writing. Back when I was taking my exams as a student, I spent several weeks writing pages and pages of essays every day - either as notes or in the exams themselves - and because I was young and foolish, I didn’t take too much notice of my posture. About a week after the exams finished, I was crippled by a terrible pain in my right elbow and upper arm. Turns out I’d done some serious nerve damage to my writing arm. For about a year I had no feeling in my elbow and the muscles above it were numb. Even today, five years later, I have a winged scapula (my right shoulder blade sticks out a little). so my advice to all writers is to take extreme care - what we do is essentially manual labour, and we should all approach the act of writing with the same dilligence. Be aware of the way you sit and the way you write. If you start to feel stiff in a certain position, make sure you change it before it’s too late!
Yoga is my trick, along with regular trips to the gym for cardio. I keep a 5, 10 and 15 minute yoga/mediation CD in my laptop. On writing days, I stop at noon or midnight and do some deep breathing and stretches focused on my shoulders and neck. It’s either 5, 10 or 15 minutes depending on how crunched I am for time. It is a wonderful, effective habit. I highly recommend it.