The Healing Journey: Lower back edition

A few months into my clinical internship, while a graduate student in mental health counseling, my back started to hurt. Just a little bit. It wasn't the first time my lower back had given me trouble and I brushed it off as a minor nuisance caused by my new therapist lifestyle in which work = sitting all day. I felt confident that a little bit of yoga, stretching and exercise would resolve the issue as it had in the past.

Two and a half years later, after seeing a sports medicine doctor, a DO, an acupuncturist and a chiropractor, engaging in physical therapy and daily stretching, the pain is still here. For the most part it is just a nuisance and it hasn't gotten worse, but it also hasn't gotten better in spite of everything I have tried. I'm still looking for solutions. Certainly stretching and exercise help and for now, I keep those self-directed (and free) exercises on board while I try different things. It occurs to me that I may find the most lasting relief from my own brand of movement therapy that incorporates the most useful of the things I've tried: basic pilates, yoga, stretching, core exercises, and better posture. Maybe a better chair? I'm aware that there may be a psychological component: trauma from breaking my leg twice as a child, attention to the pain leading to cognitive distortions ("my body is weak", "it's my fault I feel bad", "I'll never get better"), and even the possibility that I need to cultivate a sense that the universe "has my back" or I need to "grow a backbone" by cultivating greater confidence. There are a myriad of ways to approach physical health problems and the options can feel both hopeful and daunting.

The last few years have been a great teacher in understanding that, for most of us healing is a journey that we must rise to meet. We are supported along the way by friends, family, and providers, and sometimes the silver bullet arrives in the form of a doctor, a therapist, or another form of healer that cures us completely. More often, however, we spend months and years living in our own bodies and minds seeking our own acceptable degree of wellness. 

​My husband forwarded me this article by Julia Belluz of Vox the other day. I found it really helpful. She writes that lower back pain is really common and that often solutions are elusive. She has reviewed over 80 research studies and her conclusion, based on their conclusions, is that panacea remedies are hard to come by. Rather, it is a slow process of urging an ever aging body back into alignment, as best we can...

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The article's tone is encouraging without offering any certainty (indeed this is what the research shows is most realistic). It encourages us to stay away from fixes that hurt more than they help (primarily opioids and surgery- except in special cases) even though, ironically, our insurance more often covers the invasive procedures over the less so. What if insurance paid for regular yoga classes? I suspect they'd save a lot of money and we would all be healthier. She suggests that an integrated approach involving movement, therapy, and some intervention by a specialist is likely to bring the most benefit, if not a complete cure.

Check the article out HERE and remember, whatever healing journey you are on, it is up to each of us to accept the call to action. Seek, search, sense and try what feels right. Be patient. Let go of perfection. Trust your gut, listen to advice, experiment and embrace the unknown. Life is a mystery. Our bodies remind us of that every day.

Photo credits:
Women looking out over vista by Vlad Bagacian on Unsplash
Wooden figure by Olia Gozha on Unsplash