My Story of Recovery

I'm 21, 22 in June. I've dealt with back pain since I was 10, and I was in gymnastics. I was young and all I can remember is one day I had severe back pain and I told my mom and I've been in and out of doctors since.

When I was about 15 I was diagnosed with DDD, degenerative disk disease. For you that don't what what it is exactly it's a condition of the discs between vertebrae with loss of cushioning, fragmentation and herniation related to aging.
There may be no symptoms. In some cases, the spine loses flexibility and bone spurs may pinch a nerve root, causing pain or weakness. It can be painful, and severe cases can include surgery of different types.

It wasn't a big shock at that point because my mom, dad, and gramps on my moms side all had DDD too. At a young age they prescribed serious pain medications. And soon after at 15 I was addicted to opioids. I struggled and struggled, in pain, depended on the pills to take my pain away, and never really knew how much pain I was really in, if it was the withdrawals or the actual pain. I spent four years depending on OxyContin to take my back pain away.

Good thing is at 18, I had enough and had seen what pharmaceuticals can do to you, control you. And in May of 2014 I got clean and have been ever since.

I still live with my back pain everyday and it's soooo hard, but I'm strong and push through it!

I want to bring awareness to all people in the same predicament or similar, you're
Strong enough to overcome anything!

Some info I found on the web:

Over 80% of the population will suffer from lower back pain during their lives. Most cases of lower back pain can be linked to a general cause—such as muscle strain, injury, or overuse—or can be attributed to a specific condition of the spine, most commonly:

Herniated Disc
Degenerative Disc Disease
Spondylolisthesis
Spinal Stenosis
Osteoarthritis

Thanks for reading!