Malisa Meresman can't seem to get away from her Blackberry.
"I'm on my Blackberry almost all day, because for work I use my Blackberry. At night I'm texting my friends. My boss will even text me in the evenings," she said.
Then one day, her thumb started to hurt.
"It's very achy. It gets stiff. And it actually does hurt to text," she said.
It turns out Malisa had a repetitive stress injury caused by frequent texting.
"And our hands sit there with the cell phone kind of cradled and that we have to flex or bend the thumb or index finger to such a extreme that that repetitive motion over time gives problems to some of those joints," said Dr. Kevin Plancher.
Dr. Plancher says these symptoms can lead to bigger problems in the future.
"Repetitive injuries, one, are painful for many patients, and the other is they can develop over time arthritic conditions," he said.
So what's a frequent texter to do? Experts suggest slowing down, taking frequent breaks, and switching up the way you hold your phone or the fingers you use to type with.
"You can also exercise. You can stretch out your thumbs, you can stretch out your index fingers. You can take that break because they're usually in cramped position. And being in a cramped position can give you spasms to those areas," said Dr. Plancher.
And consider talking instead of typing.
"If my daughter approached me and said her hands were sore, her fingers were hurting because she was texting so much I would say text less frequently. Talk to your friends," said Leon S. Benson, MD., American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
Experts also suggest limiting your child's handheld video game use, which requires the same kind of repetitive movements.
A recent study by Virgin Mobile found 3.8 million Brits complained of injuries connected to text messages.
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