Carpal Tunnel Update

A few months ago I made a post asking for advice because I had started developing tingling in my left hand while playing ARC Raiders on PC. I wanted to keep enjoying the game without making my wrist worse.

Since it's been a while, I thought I'd come back with an update. I got some really good advice (along with the obligatory "Have you tried getting a job? 🤔" jokes haha), and I'm happy to say I'm doing much better!

What helped the most:

1. Stretching before and between raids.

This probably made the biggest difference.

I've been using these stretches:

https://youtu.be/sfVIl4uHrnQ?is=G\_4XC-TfJYpk6zbd

2. Wearing a wrist brace.

This helped keep my wrist from sagging into awkward positions while playing. I don't wear it all day, mostly just when gaming.

3. "Getting a job" lol. AKA: Playing less (at least while recovering)

While I was already doing this naturally, it's still really good advice! I stopped playing until the tingling in my wrist completely vanished. Took about a week and a half.

There were other good suggestions too, but those three helped me the most.

Some stuff I did on my own:

1. I changed the controlled (I use keyboard and mouse)

This ended up helping more than I expected.

Forward (W) → Front side mouse button

Backward (S) → Rear side mouse button

Sprint → W key

Holding W for long periods was absolutely brutal on my hand. Using my thumb on the mouse instead has been much more comfortable.

Now... I mostly play in very friendly lobbies and spend a lot of time exploring, so I'm not sure I'd recommend this setup for highly competitive PvP players. But for my playstyle it's been fantastic.

2. Using a neck massager every couple of nights.

3. Stopping myself from constantly holding my phone.

I hadn't realized how much gripping my phone was contributing to the problem. Now I either use a stand or one of those goof looking neck phone holders. It's helped me a lot!

I'll still get the occasional flare-up if I spend too much time holding my phone or if I play on my husband's account (I leave his keybinds alone so I'm back to holding W all the time), but overall I'm pretty much pain free.

I just wanted to come back and share what worked for me in case someone else ends up searching the subreddit with the same problem.

Happy and healthy gaming everyone ❤️