Ask Lemmy

Sounds like your sacroiliac joint is gone. I did mine in by moving house and having bad posture, specifically the deep curve in my lower spine. I went to a physio they taught me some exercises that strengthen specific muscles that support the joint, to take the weight of the joint, off the joint. Sacroiliac is the joint of the spine and hip bones. Does it kinda shoot through the centre of one butt cheek, and lower back and seems to hurt no matter what position you lay or sit or stand?

I'm going to wager you don't work out your core. Strengthen your core and you will likely experience a lot less back pain.

Nope!

Such pain is not normal. I used to get backpack every month or so. To a level that I could not move anymore. Posture is very important. I now walk like some bodybuilder who is compensating for his small penis and it has done wonders for my back. Also it has lowered expectations about my penis, so women are always pleasantly surprised now.

Call your insurance company and ask for a list of physical therapist providers in your area. Make an appointment at the same time you’re asking your general practitioner for a referral to speed up the process if they’ll let you book the appointment without the referral. Follow all the instructions of the physical therapist to a T no matter how stupid it may seem.

Welcome to being old, it fucking sucks.

/S

I am 29, and I only once (and many years ago) had severe back pain for like half day.

I talked to a trainer at my YMCA about my pains. she suggested a specific machine and it's been working wonders.

No. Chronic back pain is not normal. Acute back pain so bad you pass out also not normal.

Occasional back pain, I think is normal - over my more than half a century I've thrown my back out about 4 times and it hurt for a few days each time. Then went away. That seems more normal.

Once doctor rules out kidney, cancer, and spinal issues, see a physiotherapist. Before anyone says chiropractic, it’s a scam.

Blacking out from back pain is not normal, though a little back pain is, since most jobs of the century are done on a computer, you should be worried.

I've had slight scoliosis all my life due to being very tall and having multiple growth spurts in my teens. That has bothered me in the mornings pretty much since I was 16. Last year, I started getting increased pain around my pelvis which eventually got diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis, associated with another diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis. I'm 32 now and doing physiotherapy in order to keep flexible, the exercises seem to be a subset of pilates, also been prescribed dicofenac which is like a stronger version of ibuprofen which works well.

Blacking out from pain doesn't sound normal. I've got a degenerative disease diagnosis and have never blacked out - although I have had days where I've struggled to move.

You're confusing "normal" with "common". Pain is never normal.

Well, I mean I guess after a long day or working really hard it can get a little achey and-

But my lower back will randomly act up, sometimes it gets so bad that I about black out from the pain.

No. Holy shit, no. Not normal at all. Go see a doctor ASAP. If you're ever in debilitating pain for no obvious reason, that is a colossal flashing "go see a doctor now" sign.

Sounds like you have abnormal issues. Guessing you have some issues with your discs.

Tall desk jockey, heavy walker. Not trying to diagnose, but I learned from experience that weak abdominal activation caused over compensation in the lower back to an extreme degree. Went from zero back pain, to plenty during covid, back to relatively little. Yoga, walking and lifting to improve core strength helped. Could it be something like that?

That ain't normal nor common, if you can go see a doctor. Passing out from pain is definitely not a regular situation.

Let me just say right up front that any pain you have that's anywhere near the black-out level is extremely not normal. And I say that as someone who has lived with chronic lower back pain for 20 years (of varying severity, from 'Huh that's kinda uncomfortable' to 'holy shit it's time to take all of the meds and lay down.' I've never been anywhere near black-out levels of pain, the most I've gotten is back pain so bad it makes me sick to my stomach. Go see an orthopedist, they will find the source of the problem, and then probably refer you to a physical therapist and/or pain management specialist.

This video helped me a lot.

https://youtu.be/mzIgrFwhjPc

Basically your lower back near the spine doesn’t get a ton of blood to heal itself. I’ve been doing back bends once or twice a week and my low back pain went away after about 6 months.

After checking for physical health issues, ergonomics, stress, posture, etc, take a look at better shoes. If you ever feel like your heels often hit the ground hard when you walk, and especially if you more often feel pain after having carried something heavy, the impact on your spine might be bigger than you think even if you don't feel it at that moment. Better shoes (and posture, etc) reduces the impact significantly.

I had chronic, persistent back pain in my twenties. Less severe back pain in my thirties. The first, I linked to job stress. I took a three week vacation and came back and noticed my back tensing up from stress in the first fifteen minutes that I was at work. The second, I link to ergonomics. Once I got an adjustable desk (for occasional standing) and combined that with my wonderful Aeron chair, my back pain ended. The adjustable desk that I loved at my old job wasn't as useful as I'd suspected: I just had a shitty chair at work.

I don't think persistent pain is normal (I’m in my forties with no pain). You should try seeing a doctor for a pass over to physical therapy. Caution: I thought working through pain in a workout was a positive and fucked myself up worse in PT. Tell your trainer if you're hurting when working with them. Also, they may not be able to help you identify environmental factors that they can't observe. No one knew that my job was causing tension but me. No one knew that my chair was hurting me but me (and only after the fact!). It might take a lot of introspection to locate external factors causing your pain.

Stretching can help a good amount. I can touch my toes because I used to stretch so much to lessen back pain. Do research to make sure you aren't using improper technique that will cause problems (like asking a PT person). I hope you have good insurance and can go that route. Good luck!

You may have herniated discs. It's not super common at 30 but it's definitely not uncommon. It's more common the older you get but many young people get these. Depends on genetics and activity. You should go to a neurologist or orthopedist and tell them what's happening.

Probably need to go to the doctor anyway bruv. I'm 30 and I am not hit with severe back pain. I am hit with mild to moderate pain that eases off throughout the day in response to overexerting myself or sleeping wrong.

Not normal at all. See a doctor. You could have pulled muscles or something like that or you may be like me and have degenerative disc disease.

A doctor will order scans of the area to see if there's anything obvious requiring surgery, otherwise a physio or similar should be able to provide you some exercises to strengthen the body. You could probably just take yoga, pilates or calisthenics classes as long as you don't exacerbate things.

You don't mention doing any exercise.

See a doctor, it could be any number of conditions.

I’ll mention multiple myeloma only because I have myeloma, and although I had long-bone pain and lytic lesions, I was lucky that I didn’t have back pain.

Could be posture, especially if you work an office job or something. I used to have pretty bad back and neck pain, then when they sent us home during the pandemic, all my pain just went away.

30 isn’t old, but I had pretty bad back pain in my 30’s that mostly went away as I got older.

If it’s acting up I’ll take ibuprofen right away. 400mg for a few days before I call a dr.

I keep prescribed muscle relaxers to take if it’s bad but those really knock me out so only as a last resort.

Usually after a week it’s all cleared up. It happens maybe 1-2x per year.

It’s never been “I might pass out from the pain” bad though.

Pain is never normal but back pain is pretty common. Sometimes it's a past injury that's the cause. For most people though, it's often caused by weak back muscles or over exertion. Or both.

Might try some light yoga focusing on the back, but you should definitely go see a doc. A chiropractor might be helpful as well.