What Does Sciatica Feel Like?

For years, I’ve struggled to find the right words to properly convey what my sciatica feels like. But even at my most eloquent, I can only describe my own experience. To paraphrase writer Leslie Jamison, I’ve had sciatica, but I haven’t had anyone else’s. In order to describe this condition through a broader lens, I decided to ask my fellow sufferers what sciatica feels like for them.

To this end, I created a sciatica pain survey, and posted a link on several popular social media support groups. A total of 131 responses were collected from December 8–11, 2020.

I asked several questions that could be easily quantified, and others that were open-ended. Participants were asked to select adjectives that best described their pain, and to rate both their present pain, and worst pain on a 0–10 scale. Some questions asked for demographic and background information, such as the underlying cause of sciatica, and the date of onset.

Before I dive into the results, I need to add a disclaimer. The people who chose to fill out this survey were active participants in a handful of online, English-language support groups. Plus, they had the time and inclination to fill out a survey. This sample isn’t necessarily reflective of the general population, and shouldn’t be interpreted as such.

Why and When Did Sciatica Start?

Respondents have been suffering from sciatica since as early as 1985(!), but most had a more recent onset. 31% first experienced sciatica in 2020, and 83% saw an onset in the last ten years.

Before sending out this survey, I knew that herniated discs were the most common cause of sciatica. Still, I was surprised to see how stark the numbers were. 72 out of 131 respondents reported that their pain was due to a herniated disc, while 38 reported that they didn’t know the cause of their pain.

Other/Multiple Causes is a catch-all category, which is useful for fitting everything in a pie chart. It includes cases of multiple spinal issues, as well as pregnancy-related sciatica.

How, and How Much, Does Sciatica Hurt?

Participants were asked to select the adjectives they’d use to describe their sciatica pain. They were able to choose multiple answers, and write in suggestions.

“Shooting” was the most common choice, and was selected by 101 out of 130 respondents. “Dull/aching/sore” and “tingling/pins and needles” were also popular choices.

If I were to go back and change one thing about this survey, I would have added “electric” to the list of adjectives. Four individuals added it as a write-in term. In the long-answer section, many described their pain as “electric,” “like lightning,” or “shocking.”

Respondents were also asked to rate their current pain, and their worst ever pain, on a 0–10 scale. The scale included short explanations.

• 0 – No pain
• 1
• 2 – Uncomfortable (I feel pain, but can ignore it.)
• 3
• 4 – Bothersome (I am constantly aware of my pain, but I can still function normally.)
• 5
• 6 – Intense (It’s hard for me to concentrate on conversations or work.)
• 7
• 8 – Severe (My pain is completely disabling. I can’t work, and I’m not the same person I used to be.)
• 9
• 10 – Worst possible (I’m going to pass out.)
• This pain scale isn’t helpful for describing my sciatica.

Not surprisingly, people’s worst-ever sciatica pain was a whole lot worse than their current pain. While respondents’ average pain on the day they completed the survey was 4.5, the average worst pain was 8.3. Three-quarters of respondents rated their worst-ever pain as 8, 9, or 10.

I had a hidden agenda embedded in these pain scale questions. I wanted to see whether other people hated the 0–10 pain scale as much as I do. That’s one reason why, “This pain scale isn’t helpful for describing my sciatica” appeared as an option.

But it seems these scales are not universally despised. Or at least, most people aren’t stubborn about it. When asked about their pain today, 4 participants chose, “This pain scale isn’t helpful for describing my sciatica.” When asked about their worst pain, 6 chose it.

How Would You Describe Your Sciatica?

Note: The responses in this section have been lightly edited for clarity.

I was most curious to see the answers to the open-ended, “How would you describe your pain to someone who has never experienced sciatica?” How would people organize their sensory perception into words? What patterns and common themes would emerge?

Not surprisingly, respondents went in many different directions, from succinct to analytical, descriptive to comparative.

Some respondents used a single word or phrase to put an exclamation point on their suffering. Popular one-word answers included, “Excruciating,” “Debilitating,” and, “Horrendous.” Other short answers included, “Life-changing,” “Unrelenting hell,” and “Burning torture.”

Some answers illuminated the different patterns of radiation along the sciatic nerve, and sensations of pain.

• When I have flare-ups, it affects my foot the most. It swells, and the pain is unreal in my foot.
• Very focused lower back pain that leads down the leg.
• Mild pain mostly in my left glute, and rarely, behind the knee and calf.
• It was searing pain on the outside of my calf, and or tightness and pain in the groin.
• Sometimes I feel the burning on the top of my foot right to the tip of my big toe. When I’m walking, it feels like someone has kicked me behind the knee

Some respondents compared sciatica to other painful experiences. Each time, they stressed that sciatica was worse.

• Sciatica sucks, and that’s coming from somebody who has epilepsy! It sucks more than epilepsy!
• I have had a lot of pain in my life, from sports injuries to a gas explosion accident, and subsequently experienced pain for a period of time. However, I have never had the unbearable pain that sciatica has given me.
• Worse than childbirth.

Some respondents revealed that they were wary of certain postures, or that moving between one position and another can cause a flare-up.

• it can be triggered by the slightest adjustment in my seated position. it feels like the nerve gets trapped, and when it gets untrapped, it’s like nothing happened.
• Feels like my hip is going to slip out of joint and I’m going to fall. Deep stabbing pain that makes everyday life difficult. Going from sitting to standing is awful and nighttime seems worse.
• Pain radiating from the lower back down through the knee. Pain starts when sitting down and severe stabbing pain occurs when doing things with a bad posture.
• It’s usually a never-ending 3–4 out of 10 that dramatically increases when I do anything “bouncy.” (I have to be very careful when going down stairs, and I haven’t run in over a year.)
• Sometimes if I step wrong, the pain will almost knock me off my feet, and it causes my leg to partially collapse.

Some focused on their ability to function.

• It varies from “I can get on with my day” to “I can’t function it’s so painful.”
• Severe glute and leg cramps causing inability to stand for long times and discomfort in any position.
• Causes nausea due to the pain threshold.
• 13 years of pain. It’s holding me back from enjoying life.
• I’ve pushed myself to have children earlier than planned because I worry that in several years’ time, I won’t be able to, due to pain and mobility issues.

Some respondents used similes and metaphors to pin down their precise meaning.

• It feels like a screw is being inserted in my hip.
• It’s like my entire left leg is on fire.
• Like wearing a belt of razorblades. / Getting stabbed in the ass with a bowie knife. / Acidic burns inside my leg. / Like someone tried to rip my foot off. / Think twisted, bent, but not broken, slinky that is all locked up – trying to use it normally.
• Some days it feels like there’s a rusty rod going down my leg that doesn’t want to move. Other days, it feels like a vise grip on my lower back, and I have sitting pain down my leg.
• Hot nails being driven into key points.
• Imagine you have a line of electrified, barbed wire running from the middle of your ass, down, your leg, and into your foot. This wire is activated in when the body is in certain positions. It also shorts sometimes, creating little internal burns. The surrounding muscles are freaked out by this electric wire, and have clenched themselves in fear, so much so that they become locked up. As a result of this lockup, the wire has also being prevented by the body to carry necessary signals, so sometimes those parts not receiving enough info go numb.
• It felt like some sliced the back of my leg open and an arctic wind was blowing on the bones in my leg every time I moved.
• I relate it to how I imagine a cow feels when they get tattooed with a hot metal pole, but down my entire leg.

One participant noted that her pain changed after surgery:

• Pre-surgery and post-surgery sciatica pain felt different for me. Pre-surgery, the pain felt like a lightning bolt from my butt to my foot early on, then migrated to a smaller but more intense lightning bolt down the side of my lower leg. In pain visualization exercises, I visualized little two-foot-long forked metal lightning bolts that I’d remove from my leg and send away in a small boat.
• Post-surgery it felt like someone was pushing broken glass into the side of my leg with all their strength. I’d also have deep, intense, cramp-like nerve pain in my calf area that I could somehow feel the shock of from my mid-back to my feet. Almost like being jolted by a taser.  My sciatic nerve pain can send shockwaves around my whole body, including my head. It is INTENSE and INTOLERABLE and impossible to ignore.

Demographics

Survey respondents were spread across age groups. An equal number (9 each) were younger than 25 and older than 64.

There were twice as many women as men in the survey sample, which may be partly because women are more likely to participate in online support groups.

Respondents hailed from 17 countries, though the majority lived in the US.