sciatica and arthritis - myths to bust please!

Gang,

I ran into my old trainer and I gave him the update--how my previous dull achey throb in the back has moved into my butt and become a pin-pricky, tingly, burning sensation (the original back issue primarily gone). Sitting is still the issue, but now the pain is totally different.

I like this guy a lot. But he started in with "actually sounds like sciatica, I've had that too. Perhaps its related to your periformis weakness" I explained that if it was sciatica, I would've felt it before and that structural pain doesn't really move like this. He went on to talk about physical things I could be doing, and I just had to tell him, "I hear you, but I'm still on the neuroplastic train here, that this will all heal once my brain finally gets the memo that I'm safe and it can stop sending me pain signals."

I'm not gonna lie, it did raise more doubts--this guy knows a ton about physiology, and like my orthopedic doctor, he said that sciatica "might not have been felt in your earlier back pain but still can have been there and doesn't necessarily need to shoot down your leg either." He said it could go away with time and also added, "only thing that doesn't go away is arthritis."

I don't google this stuff bc I don't want to even open that door to doubt!

But since the door is cracked open slightly, I need some hard science facts on physiology............Can sciatica be felt in the butt as pin pricky, tingly burny pain and not down the leg? Is arthritis a thing that never goes away? According to these forums, arthritis is curable with this work, bc the brain is just 'mimicking' arthritic symptoms, and it doesn't have to last--it's temporary! (I'm trying to repeat this last sentence in my head over and over and over.)

Thanks for your ideas!

 

The brain can literally create whatever sensation it wants anywhere in the body. I think you’re way overthinking this and getting thrown for a loop over the opinions of one person. You’re on a TMS forum so likely have qualities of a typical tmser, don’t let yourself go down the rabbit hole. The sciatic nerve does run through the butt, but why would that mean pain in the butt region isn’t TMS. The brain is fully capable of creating muscle tension in the area the root cause is still TMS. Honestly trying to make sense of the pain to the degree that you’re trying is a fools errand, you’ll just be spinning your wheels.

 

Arthritis does not have to be symptomatic; structural changes like cartilage loss, bone spurs, or facet joint degeneration are often found on imaging in people with no pain or symptoms at all.

Yes, apparently it can (but remember your doctor said it could go away with time anyway even if it were structural). However, why your story fits TMS perfectly...

• Pain shifted (back ache → butt tingles): Structural issues rarely hop around; TMS does this to evade resolution.
• Sitting-specific: Classic conditioned response, not fixed anatomy.
• No leg radiation/weakness: Rules out severe root compression; aligns with mind-body mimicry.

But, of course, now that I have pointed the above out to you, your TMSing brain might go: "Oh, no, I don't want the gig to be up, I'll give you some more pain in other areas so that the symptoms aren't 'sitting-specific' or I'll make the pain radiate down the leg!"... Steve O didn't call his book about TMS 'The Great Pain Deception' for nothing.

P.S. I had so called 'sciatica' in my 30s/40s. The pain was sometimes in the buttock alone, sometimes all the way down one leg and sometimes just down to the knee. I was shown on X-rays how my discs were narrowed and had 'dried out' and other 'abnormalities' of my spine, etc., etc., etc. I went on to suffer pain in other parts of my body (e.g. severe muscle pain and excruciatingly painful muscle spasms that twisted my pelvis out of line) and, as a consequence, I was bedridden on and off for a total of over 18 months and generally house bound for many years (I came to mind/body/TMS work late). What I noticed was when my other more debilitating symptoms appeared I gradually lost the 'sciatica'. Why? Because the 'sciatica' was TMS and my TMSing brain had decided to target other parts of my body in order to make me bedridden, to make sure that I couldn't go out into the big, bad, 'dangerous' world. The subsequent symptoms were more effective at doing that than 'just' some unpleasant pain/tingling in my buttock and down my leg. (With doing mind/body work I am no longer bedridden, still have no 'sciatica', and am functioning pretty well by comparison.)