SUNDRY CONDITIONS FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY: WRITER’S CRAMP
Writer’s cramp is a condition which is widely known to be particularly resistant to treatment.
A thirty-two-year-old single woman had a very good and highly paid job managing a large office. Over a period of two years she had developed writer’s cramp. The condition had progressed to such an extent that writing was virtually impossible. She had been trying without much success to learn to write with her left hand. It was obvious that she was going to lose her job. She consulted her local doctor, who referred her to a leading neurologist. He wrote back to the local doctor, “As you know, this condition is somewhat a mystery and seldom responds to either medical or psychiatric treatment.” However, he suggested that it might be worth her while seeing
I showed her how to relax, and while she was still relaxed, I gave her a large crayon, and asked her to make wavy lines. She did this, and was soon able to write with the crayon in a bold flowing hand. She practised the relaxation, and in a few weeks was writing normally. I sent some specimens of her writing to the neurologist. He wrote back, “I do congratulate you, because writer’s cramp in the past has been thought to be unmanageable.”
But let us be clear about this. I did nothing to her beyond showing her how to relax in the way that is set out here.
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