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Sciatica Scapegoat
What is a Sciatica Scapegoat?A scapegoat is a condition which is blamed for pain when it is not the actual cause. In back pain patients, scapegoats account for more diagnoses than can be counted. I typically use the terms “abnormalities or irregularities” to describe spinal scapegoats, but even these terms are not accurate. In fact, most spinal scapegoats are extremely common and this is one of the very reasons they are so often used to explain back pain…Doctors do not want to tell any patient that they do not know what is actually wrong. If there seems to be a plausible answer for a painful complaint, then count on the doctor to use that condition as a scapegoat, even if the symptoms do not exactly match the diagnosis… and they often do not correspond at all… Degenerative Sciatica ScapegoatDegenerative processes are the most common of all spinal scapegoats. Doctors simultaneously report that these conditions are universal and a normal part of the aging process, then turn around and blame pain on these same “normal and universal” conditions. If spinal degeneration was indeed an inherently painful process, then we would see a universal downward spiral effect as we get older, since the process is indeed progressive until we die. However, this is simply not the case… In fact, most severe chronic sciatica occurs in patients between the ages of 30 and 55. These are not the ages of enduring the worst spinal degeneration, but they are the years of being burdened by the most psycho-emotional responsibility…Injury as a Sciatica ScapegoatA back injury is a scary event, but is also shrouded in myth more than fact. Injuries heal, that’s what they do… The body’s primary imperative is to heal wounds and repair itself. That is what the body does… This is basic medical fact. It is normal for an injury to cause pain. It is normal that a severe injury might cause extreme pain. However, it is also normal that an injury will heal. Experiencing years' worth of chronic sciatica due to some minor back injury is illogical and nonsensical! Far more likely, the injury left some evidence in the spine (an abnormality if you will) and this abnormality is being used as a scapegoat. The actual injury has long since healed, but the mind has sought to perpetuate the pain based on various factors detailed in the psychosomatic sciatica section.Sciatica Scapegoat AdviceEveryday I speak to dozens of patients. Literally, thousands or even tens of thousands a year… They mostly like my sites and appreciate the information as honest and a very mirror, if you will, of their own experiences with sciatic nerve pain. However, when reading a page like this one, they mostly say…“OH, that’s not me, I actually have a herniated disc. (You can substitute your diagnosis here…) I am really hurt… The MRI says so…” These poor patients are doomed to continue suffering, since they simply can not put down that misdiagnosed cause of their chronic sciatica pain and accept the logical reason why their pain has not responded to treatment. It is not that all their doctors are incompetent or did something wrong. It is simply that the spinal condition blamed for the pain is a SCAPEGOAT. * Herniated Disc For every condition you can show me that actually causes painful symptoms, I can show you 1000 in which no pain exists with the same diagnosis. I still have degenerative disc disease, 1 herniated disc at L4/L5 and 1 ruptured disc at L5/S1, as well as mild scoliosis and the start of some osteoarthritis (getting old sucks…), but I have NO PAIN. Not any more… In fact, even when my back had me living in eternal torture, these conditions were not the source of my agony… They were, and still are, merely scapegoats… If these diagnoses are the actual cause of your pain, you would be better by now. If your diagnosed condition has caused you ongoing pain and resisted all attempts at treatment, how can you still have confidence that the scapegoat is indeed the actual cause? 7/11/08 Revised 12/12/09
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