u/craftercls

I’ve been carrying this for over five years now and I think I just need to put it somewhere and, honestly, hope someone out there recognizes it. I’m a M 27.

It started right when I finished school and began my first job. I’m a programmer, so I spend long days at a desk. Around that time the symptoms showed up and they’ve never really left:

• The top of my hands have a constant, warm, pressing feeling. It’s not a sharp pain, it’s this dull, hot pressure that pulls my attention away from work/living all day long.
• My neck feels heavy, like it’s hard to hold up.
• My arms feel heavy too. The best way I can describe the whole thing: it feels like gravity is trying to push me into the ground.

Every morning I wake up, and the pain is just there again, waiting. And every evening feels like I’ve pulled several all-nighters in a row.

What I’ve already tried/ruled out:

• 2 MRI scans of my neck and skull, nothing abnormal
• An EMG (nerve study); results were fine
• Multiple physiotherapists, with exercises I stuck with for a long time, no improvement
• A chiropractor for my neck didn’t help either
• A good desk and a proper ergonomic chair, adjusted carefully using several ergonomics tutorials, still here

So there’s nothing “visible” wrong with me. On one hand, that’s a relief. On the other hand, I have no idea what’s actually causing this, and I feel stuck.

I know sitting at a desk all day isn’t great for the body. But I genuinely love programming, and I don’t want to, and can’t really, give it up.

The hardest part is that people around me don’t really get what this does to me, and I don’t want to burden them with it. I’m supposed to be in the prime of my life, and I just don’t feel that way at all.

If you’ve experienced anything like this, the heaviness, the pressure, symptoms that don’t show up on any scan, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped you, or even just what you’d try next. Anything I might not have thought of.

Thanks for reading.

I’ve been carrying this for over five years now and I think I just need to put it somewhere and, honestly, hope someone out there recognizes it. I’m a M 27.

It started right when I finished school and began my first job. I’m a programmer, so I spend long days at a desk. Around that time the symptoms showed up and they’ve never really left:

• The top of my hands have a constant, warm, pressing feeling. It’s not a sharp pain, it’s this dull, hot pressure that pulls my attention away from work/living all day long.
• My neck feels heavy, like it’s hard to hold up.
• My arms feel heavy too. The best way I can describe the whole thing: it feels like gravity is trying to push me into the ground.

Every morning I wake up, and the pain is just there again, waiting. And every evening feels like I’ve pulled several all-nighters in a row.

What I’ve already tried/ruled out:

• 2 MRI scans of my neck and skull, nothing abnormal
• An EMG (nerve study); results were fine
• Multiple physiotherapists, with exercises I stuck with for a long time, no improvement
• A chiropractor for my neck didn’t help either
• A good desk and a proper ergonomic chair, adjusted carefully using several ergonomics tutorials, still here

So there’s nothing “visible” wrong with me. On one hand, that’s a relief. On the other hand, I have no idea what’s actually causing this, and I feel stuck.

I know sitting at a desk all day isn’t great for the body. But I genuinely love programming, and I don’t want to, and can’t really, give it up.

The hardest part is that people around me don’t really get what this does to me, and I don’t want to burden them with it. I’m supposed to be in the prime of my life, and I just don’t feel that way at all.

If you’ve experienced anything like this, the heaviness, the pressure, symptoms that don’t show up on any scan, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped you, or even just what you’d try next. Anything I might not have thought of.

Thanks for reading.