Can you have a herniated disc and no pain?
Yes, and it's far more common than most people think. A finding on a scan describes the structure of your body. Pain is an experience your nervous system creates. Two people with the same scan can feel completely different, and the same person can feel very different from one week to the next with no change in the scan at all.
A 2015 review looked at the spines of more than 3,000 people with no back pain. Signs of disc degeneration showed up in 37% of 20-year-olds and 96% of 80-year-olds. Changes like these are simply part of having a spine and living in a body over time.
My scoliosis
At 12, I was diagnosed with advanced scoliosis. Doctors told me I would either live in pain for the rest of my life or have surgery to rearrange my spine. For years after that, I believed my body was fragile, something to endure rather than trust.
I think that belief hurt me as much as anything in my spine did. I grew up afraid of my own body, and fear keeps the nervous system on alert.
When I started doing mind-body work for my lower back pain, the scoliosis pain I've had my whole life also lifted magically. I started looking at nature and noticed that so much of nature is imperfect. Most tree spines are curved. I started seeing my scoliosis as a natural way I have evolved, instead of a pathology that needs fixing.
How do we work with a diagnosis?
We don't argue with your scan. We get curious about the pain.
When is it louder, and when is it quieter? What does it do when you feel safe, and what does it do when you're under pressure? Does it change when you're absorbed in something you love?
If the pain shifts with these things, your nervous system is involved, and that's the part we can work with. Your spine may look the way it looks. Your relationship with it can still change.
With love,
Leyla
