Hi, and Welcome to NT

It's good you found our site. Lots of info for you. There's lots of different remedies to discover. With the help of good medical providers, you will be okay. You're young. That's definitely a plus.

First to understand "a tear." (I assume you've had an MRI)

Your tear is in your disc.

Discs are considered "soft tissue." Not boney.

A disc is a cushion for your vertebrae.

Your vertebrae are "hard tissue." Bone.

The discs act as shock absorbers so your vertebrae(bones) won't rub and grind against the other vertebrae, nerves, and ligaments of the spinal column.

When an insult/injury/disease comes in the form of a tear, there's an opening in the outer ring of the disc.

A tear/herniation is a little worse than a bulge.

A "bulge" in a disc is like a knot on a tire scanerio and a "tear/herniation" is like a jelly dougnut with a opening in the outer ring of the doughnut and some of the gelatenous material inside can come out, on a microscopic basis.

This is some visual of the anatomy of the spine and discs.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...isc&aqi=g4g-m3

Here is a link to our back forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum22.html

Over the past 10 years I've had physical therapy, e-stimulation at PT, hot packs, cold packs, deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy, aqua therapy, home exercises, injections, medications, Lidoderm 5% patches-nonnarcotic numbed my back so I could move, traction, inversion table, oversized tennis balls work great but are hard to find-try a pet store-mine are big and squishy balls, pillows, heating pads(caution-although you feel comfort from them, overuse can cause swelling to the area, on a microscopic basis.

TheraCane for muscle spasms http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...=&aqi=&start=0

Miracle Ball set http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Ball-M...6962023&sr=8-1

Kinesio tapings http://images.google.com/images?q=ki...1&sa=2&start=0 There's many taping techniques to use. Just remember if it's too tight, it can cause muscle spasms.

Yoga helped me tremendously. You may not be able to do everything, but do your best and you'll gain a lot from the experience. It helps the rest of your body too. relaxation techniques/belly breathing helps.

LED and infrared light pads. http://www.healthlightz.com/ this is my upline. I have 3 of those that I use at different places in my home and office. I love them. They're pricy but worth it. I can sell, I'm just not good at sales. I'm so enthused by these that I'm trying to start a business of my own to get this technology out to people. It helped me tremendously. I'm just very busy with my current career.

Epidurals X3 in my neck, which also helped my lower back pain tremendously. I put those off and wish now I hadn't. My neck discs have herniations. Different meds for different needs.

Currently I'm in wellness(not PT). I'm working on my posture and core muscles. I've moved a full-length dressing mirror at the side of my workstation. Posture police didn't know I was so out of alignment.

My therapist/friend gave me a twist board for X-mas. It's something I could've done a little bit of at my worst. It's helping with my core muscles. So I do like it. I'm able to do that now, so I understand if you're not right now.

And a number of gadgets that promised to ease back pain/or other pain I was dealing with in some way. Some did and some did not.

It can get worse. so doing nothing is not an option.

Let us know what you're concerns are and we'll try to answer if we can. Experience is a great teacher. We have a heap big experience to share.

Take care and get some rest where you can.