I have to comment on the "stress" thing...

Stress is not an explanation for any physical disease. It's used as such an explanation (incorrectly) by the general population, and therefore I think we should all be very careful about how we use the term.

Does stress put us at a greater risk for RSD? I highly doubt it. I think that it's an unfair generalization, just as some doctors have tried to psychologically profile RSD patients as being "perfectionists" or "type A personalities." None of this is true. We are all just as different in personality as the general population. I guess if they didn't say we were all perfectionists, they'd be saying that we're all lazy. It's just another way of delegitimizing this disease.

The truth of the matter, of course, is that *everybody* has stress. Certainly, some people have more stress than others, and it can contribute, to some degree, to health problems. However, there's no real information that says that stress leads to RSD. There's some research about stress and heart disease, but the idea about stress leading to RSD is purely speculation on the part of a few doctors and patients who attempt to tie together their own experience to explain RSD.

The biggest stress I've had in my life has stemmed directly from RSD. Before I got RSD, I don't believe that I had any more stress than the average 12-year-old.

Joan has a point about stress making people possibly more susceptible to health problems, but please remember that nobody has ever found a direct cause-and-effect relationship, and that generalizations such as that are dangerous, especially when nobody wants a doctor to tell you, "oh, it's just because there's too much stress in your life."

-Betsy