My right wrist started hurting around 2 PM every day. A dull ache that crept up my forearm. By evening it was throbbing. I ignored it for three months because I had deadlines and “it was probably nothing.”

Then I could not hold a coffee mug without wincing. That got my attention.

I saw a physical therapist, and she fixed most of the problem without any medication or fancy equipment. Here is what I learned — and what I wish I had started doing before the pain got serious.

The Real Cause (It Is Probably Not Carpal Tunnel)

Most wrist pain from typing is tendonitis, not carpal tunnel syndrome. Your forearm muscles control your fingers, and those tendons run through a narrow channel in your wrist. Hours of repetitive motion — typing, mousing, phone scrolling — inflame those tendons. Swelling presses on nerves, and you feel it as pain, numbness, or weakness.

The bad news: tendonitis takes weeks or months to fully heal. The good news: you can fix the root cause with a few changes that take almost no time.

What Actually Helped

1. Wrist position. Your wrists should be straight, not bent up or down. If your keyboard is too high or too low, your wrists flex to compensate. Raise or lower your chair so your forearms are parallel to the floor when typing. A wrist rest is fine as long as you rest on it between typing — not while actively typing.
2. Switch hands on the mouse. I moved my mouse to my left hand for two weeks to give my right wrist a break. It was awkward for about three days. Then my brain adjusted. Now I switch back and forth every few months to distribute the load.
3. Stretch your forearms. Extend your arm straight out, palm up. Use your other hand to gently pull your fingers down toward the floor. Hold for thirty seconds. Then flip your hand palm-down and pull your fingers toward you. Do this twice a day. It takes one minute.
4. Take actual breaks. Not “scroll Twitter” breaks — breaks where your hands are doing something else. Stand up, shake your arms out, make tea. Every hour, five minutes. Set a timer because you will forget.
5. Night brace. If you wake up with wrist pain, you might be sleeping with your wrists bent. A simple drugstore wrist brace worn at night keeps them straight. Fifteen dollars. It made more difference than anything else I tried.

Three months of ignoring it turned into six weeks of recovery. Now I switch mouse hands, stretch twice a day, and wear the brace when I feel even a hint of soreness. The pain has not come back.