Cannibal Corpsen basisti Alex Webster kertoo tuoreessa haastattelussa avoimesti muusikonkramppi-nimisestä neurologisesta häiriöstä
Yhdysvaltalaisen death metal -legenda Cannibal Corpsen basisti Alex Webster on antanut hiljattain Bass Player magazinelle haastattelun, jossa on kertonut avoimesti sairastamastaan harvinaisesta neurologisesta häiriöstä nimeltä käden dystonia, johon liittyy tahattomia kouristuksia kehon pienissä lihaksissa. Käden dystoniat ovat dystonian ilmentymiä, jotka tunnetaan tavallisimmin kirjoittajan- tai muusikonkramppina. Muusikonkrampissa esimerkiksi sormet joko käpristyvät kämmeneen tai ulottuvat ulospäin ilman hallintaa. Webster kertoi sairastamastaan taudista seuraavaa:
”Focal dystonia is essentially an injury, but not the kind of injury that people would normally think of — it’s not carpal tunnel, or a tendon problem, or something like that,” he explained. ”It’s essentially a neurological problem, and it happens in a lot of disciplines that require precise, repetitive movements, and not just in music.”
Kysyttäessä millaisia oireita hän sai taudistaan, vastasi basisti seuraavaa:
”The normal fingerpicking that I would do would become very strained. It seemed as if my pointer finger would be going left instead of down. When I first noticed something was going wrong, it was very confusing and frightening. I was, like, ’What’s going on with my right hand? Why isn’t it behaving the way it’s behaved for the past 30 years?’
”Basically, the signals from your brain are going wrong on the way down to your fingers. Imagine your legs walking. What if the signal from your brain was telling both legs to go forward at the same time? That’s not exactly what was happening with my picking fingers, but certain signals were definitely getting through and certain signals weren’t.”
Webster jatkoi, että hän ratkaisi ongelman omaksumalla luonnollisen terapian, joka perustuu huippututkimukseen neurotieteessä.
”I saw a specialist named Joaquin Farias, who helped me out very much, and I also spoke with a classical guitarist, Apostolos Paraskevas, and the bassist Scott Devine, who gave me tips on their bouts with this,” he said. ”It’s something that can often be resolved, which is good news for anyone who gets it. You just have to work through it, learn what you need to correct, and then take the time to correct it.”
Voit lukea haastattelun aiheeseen liittyen täältä.