Car accident sciatica is the unfortunate consequence of many automobile collisions. Pain and injury are common and expected after a serious car crash. However, healing is also expected and normal. In fact, the ability to heal is the body’s prime directive and it is a process which is incredibly efficient. This makes the possibility of long-term pain and disability rare, except in the worst of cases. Statistics clearly show that the majority of car crash victims do suffer lingering effects on their health, with the most common being, you guessed it, back pain.
This article will detail the mental and physical reasons why some car accident victims suffer ongoing pain even after their diagnosed injuries have healed.
Car Accident Sciatica Issues
So, if the body is designed to heal, and heal it does, then why do so many victims suffer chronic sciatica after a crash? This is a complicated question and is tied to the mindbody process more than most other pain syndromes.
The first and simplest explanation deals with people who have literally been irreparably broken by their accident. In these cases, there is no doubt as to the extent of the injuries and the doctors can completely explain the reasons why the pain remains and the functionality is decreased. Luckily, this is rare and certainly does not characterize the typical post-accident patient once they have healed.
Sometimes, the accident injured the person, necessitating treatment, but it was this treatment which caused the damage. So many surgical procedures cause nerve damage and scar tissue to form. Not coincidentally, these are 2 of the major contributors to chronic pain.
Far more common explanations for chronic sciatica due to a car wreck are linked to emotional and psychological processes. Many times, the patients will suffer an extreme nocebo effect from the crash and can fall victim to a psychosomatic sciatica syndrome immediately or as a perpetuation of an actual physical injury after the body has healed.
Worse yet, doctors, and especially lawyers, who work on crash litigation can make this effect extremely difficult to get over, even after the legal process is done.
Sciatica After a Car Crash
I know the powerful effects of the nocebo. I have been hurt many times in my life and suffered horribly due to the emotional overlay of my perceived injuries. My body was strong, but felt weak. My injuries had healed, but felt as fresh 10 years later as the day they first occurred. Sound familiar? Yeah, I know.
The doctors can not explain why the pain still exists in many cases or they may even come up with some ridiculous theories based on medical myths. Meanwhile the patient is suffering and simply wants to know why nothing cures their pain. This is far more common than you think.
Sciatica treatments fail to relieve pain permanently for a good reason. There is an explanation for most instances of treatment-resistant back, neck or sciatica pain. It is called misdiagnosis and it is epidemic in our healthcare system.
Car Accident Sciatica Help
If you have endured a car accident and should have healed, but are still in pain despite a variety of treatments attempted, there is a good chance that you are on the wrong path altogether. Your body certainly hurts, but it is unlikely to be from structural damage. This is, of course, unless you are the exception to the rule, who was broken so badly that medical science can only do so much to help you. In this cases, you truly do deserve and earn my deepest sympathies for your condition.
Remember that herniated discs, degenerative disc disease and spinal osteoarthritis are normal and may have been diagnosed after your wreck, but are likely to have existed completely asymptomatically there long before the accident even occurred. This is information that most doctors never tell you, but I am here to teach you the facts.
I am not saying that all cases of chronic pain are ischemic, since it is definitely possible to endure lingering injuries from a serious crash.
However, if the pain is blamed on the common sciatica scapegoats, such as disc conditions and the like, I can tell you from my own experience that you will keep on suffering until you learn the real sciatica facts and understand how the mind can cause, worsen and perpetuate pain, especially after something as traumatic and convincing as a car accident.
This advice is provided to help patients consider less obvious causes of car accident sciatica pain. Remember, I have extensive experience in back injury litigation and found the legal process to be incredibly damaging to the recovery efforts of virtually all plaintiffs.
