Beware of drugs that mask the pain. The pain is there as a warning. If you ignore it you may do further damage. Don't ask me how I know.

Better to try physiotherapy, osteopathy, or chiropractic whichever suits you.

Russell

I’m not a doctor, so would not be making any diagnosis or medication suggestion over the internet (I doubt any self respecting doctor would, either).

However, from the net:

“ Cannabidiol (more commonly known as CBD) has experienced a surge in popularity in recent months, in part due to its availability in high-street health shops.”

That seems to indicate that it should not cost more than an arm and a leg for a small sample to try out.

Diazepam usually works by muscle relaxation..as in the spasm from whatever is going on making things worse. If it makes you so drowsy you don't feel fit to drive then reducing the dose may be enough but essentailly that back probably needs rest until the muscles settle down again. Lots of things might help but it depends on the nuances of your specific case and whether a specific and correct diagnosis has been made as to whether there's a permenant fix.

Simple options that might work include an orthopaedic corset, a properly designed and comfortable chair and car seat, physio to relax the muscles and teach you to train up the opposite acting muscles to balance the forces out, acupunctire on the trigger points helps some folk too.

I also have a dud back.. in my case from some old abscess in the vertebral body and horrendous new bone formation impinging on the nerve roots and narrowing the vertebral canal so what works for me likely won't work for you but in my case paradoxically wood-splitting with a splitting maul helps as did getting my favourite car's drivers' seat re-stuffed and using a rowing machine (sensibly) – in other words keeping the area mobile instead of rest. If I do flare it up then I just have to rest it and pop a single dose of prednisolone.

pgk

Find yourself a good osteopath, they are worth their weight in gold, in most cases with backs at anything beyond middle age the cause is not curable but a good osteopath can give significant relief from the pain. Once you have a chronic back problem you will suffer significant pain and pain relief is usually the most you can expect. I visit an osteopath every four weeks for treatment, damage to my spine is causing gradual paralysis and pain on one side of my body, she is able to determine where the pain is worst as soon as she lays hands on me and a half hour of gentle treatment gives considerable relief. Unfortunately there are very few osteopaths who are NHS therefore it will cost.

Dave W

There used to be a device on the market, where you strapped yourself to a sort of bed, which could then pivot so that you were upside down. The idea was that the weight of your legs put your back in traction and relieved pressure on the discs, allowing them to move, and stop or reduce pressure on the nerves.

I have found relief in similar ways, by hanging from a door lintel, the loft ladder or by being between two chairs back to back, and supporting myself on my arms, so that my feet are off the ground. The problem is that I can only do it for less than a minute, but if repeated, without dropping suddenly onto the feet, it seems to work.

But that may not be case for everyone, depends on the source of the trouble.

Howard

To add to the diversity of back problems and relief of same.

Back in the 1980s, I swivelled around in a doorway and ‘ouch’. Well a bit more than that.

Their were times when it ‘locked’ and I could neither stand up nor get down,on the floor, due to the pain. Lots of dosh spent on osteopaths in the late 80s. Some relief but nothing more than temporary (I wondered if they were simply ‘milking’ my wallet).

My son would force my leg as far as he could get it, within reason, and that relieved it on occasions. Eventually tried a chiropractor on the advice of a friend. Instant success – he said it was not spinal but nerves in a bundle in the sacral pelvic region. He sorted me in a couple of visits.

I still cannot carry heavy weights, for far, before the problem returns. Standing around (shopping with my wife!) also brings on the pain after about half an hour. I can walk miles, with no aggravation, as long as I keep moving steadiy.

My wife knows just where to massage the knot of nerves and the relief can be almost immediate – until the next time.

C.b.d works. It helps my anxiety. And my sister uses it to help manage a shoulder injury, she has physio too but says the c.b.d does help. She’s a fitness instructor, and was impressed how much it helped.
Holland and Barrett sell a 5% oil thats ok for around ?22 for 10ml. Online you can find higher percentage oil (I use 10% @ ?30 10ml).

My back was done (badly) in 1986 – 3 level spinal fusion laminectomy with bone grafts taken from my hip to lock everything up after the discs were removed.>>

Thirty two years on and the disk at the top of the wound has popped causing even more pain. I spent years trying to find a way of getting a good nights sleep until some friends invited me to go camping with them. I took with me a cheap blow up Argos mattress and had the most comfortable night I'd had since the op – oh so very comfortable!>>

I now permanently kip on an Argos special on top of our conventional mattress. Breathing at this elevated altitude is no problem, I wear a CPAP mask. >>

I try to avoid pharmaceutical drugs and rely instead on traditional Scottish Speyside distillations because I love tradition and natural remedies – even if they will eventually deliver me >>

I tried CBD to try to calm down my Phantom Limb pain, only kicked in (hah!) years after I lost the leg. I found it did nothing that couldn't be considered a placebo affect, and just made me worry when work had random drug tests! As you might expect, having no THC content, works drug testing wasn't concerned by anything they found. I suspect its because there was nothing having any affect in there.