What everyone is really saying is HOW they TRIGGERED their RSD, not WHY they were prone to DEVELOP it in the first place. In my opinion, with all that I have read and researched over the past 15 years, it seems that the vast majority of RSD sufferers have some sort of other issue going on which makes their bodies susceptible to the horrors of this disease - some sort of underlying (if even undiagnosed) auto-immune disease, prior genetic abnormality in the neuropathic area such as with my son (God help him he doesn't end up like his Mom) like Charcot-Marie Tooth (part of the family of muscular dystrophy), or possibly even early childhood enviromental factors which can alter brain chemistry such that the CNS is re-wired and at risk for this type of disease (as some of the recent studies imply that neuro-plasticity can be altered and then later, re-altered through things like mirror therapy). Now that everyone here actually has the disease, I'm scared that the question doesn't help us, just the future generations, like my son, who may benefit from knowing how to look out for and avoid some of the causes, or even prevent development of the pre-disposition further. I'd like to be optimistic but I am often found lacking in that department as the medical community as a whole glosses through life and letting the individuals slip away while they help what they view as the majority (with their sniffles and colds which are much easier to treat and for which the MD's feel much better about themselves for treating.)