Is scoliosis my fault? Did I worsen or cause it?

[hazard6]

Hello, I want to know if scoliosis is my fault. I've had underweight for a year or so at 17 or 18 years due to anxiety and psychosis. I was only weighing 55 kg as a male of 1.82 meters of height. Maybe I was also sitting incorrectly at the school desk and at home for many hours. (At 20 years my weight was normal again.)

But at 19 years they discovered a 20° S curve scoliosis. Does this have anything to do with the underweight or with bad posture? Does this mean it is my fault? Did I worsen or cause my scoliosis? If I had had normal weight instead of underweight and if my posture had been good, would I now have only 5° or no scoliosis at all? Was my scoliosis entirely preventable? Or maybe I only had 5° and through my actions it worsened up to 20°? Is it all my fault?

I cannot stop thinking about this, please help.

[Heather-S · Accepted solution]

You need to ask these questions of a medical professional, not an internet forum.  

[hazard6]

But I asked my doctor and my orthopaedic and they both said that they do not know the cause and if I worsened my scoliosis, if it's my fault because it is an idiopathic scoliosis.

But I want to hear your assumptions. Do you think my underweight worsened scoliosis? Did I cause it? Is it my fault?

[Esya]

@hazard6We don't know, as we don't have the medical background. I am going to apologise upfront in case I am going to sound blunt (I am Dutch and we can be direct at times).  However, it does not really matter what caused it. At the end of the day you have the 20° S curve scoliosis (sorry to hear!). It is something that is going to be there whether you caused, worsened it or neither of these. The only thing knowing it would do, is that you would feel worse about yourself in case your concerns are true and there is really no need for that.

I would like to suggest to bring this up with your counseler if you still see one for your anxiety and psychosis or make an appointment if this keeps bugging you so much. I am pretty sure they can talk this over with you and help you towards accepting the situation. I hope you feel better soon.

[hazard6]

But is it true though? Did I worsen or cause my scoliosis? If anyone else knows, please tell me...

[checking]

Seriously, if your doctor and orthopedic surgeon, with all of their professional expertise and access to your medical history, can't answer this for you, how do you expect anyone here to be able to assign fault for you. What you are worrying about is in the past (leading to your present condition), and there is nothing you can do to change that past. What you can control is how you deal with it in the future, and I'm sure your doctors can be quite helpful in that regard.

[russsss]

@hazard6  sad to say but there is no "but", there is no answer and assumptions and guesses would serve no purposose at all .  wondering why one registers with fitbit and poses this question on the same day   

[kaynelvb]

I think it may have been something that just happened.  Sometimes it goes that way.  My son has Marfan Syndrome, and in most cases they are born with it, but my son didn't develop it until he was in his mid teens.  With Marfan's the kids are very tall, with extremely long, thin limbs, but until his teens, my son was always the smallest in the class!  He has always been slim, but not exceptionally so. I firmly believe it is something that just happened to him, and I think you may in the same boat.  I doubt if it is something you caused.  I have never heard of it being "caused" except by birth or spontaneously.  Don't blame yourself, you have it, so you are somewhat unique!  I am not a medic in any sense, but due to my son (he is also epileptic), I have done a lot of research in this type of thing, problems that occur later in life, but could have happened at conception.

[SunsetRunner]

@hazard6 you are asking in the wrong place. We have no medical background and we know nothing about your case. However, more important is that it doesn't matter what was or wasn't. It matters what is now and what will be in the future. Don't ask the doctor why it happened and if you could prevent it. If yes ( or no ) would it change anything? No. Past is past. Take care of what is now and the future. About past you can only think, the future is what you make. See what you can do now about it and do it. As long as we have no ability to travel back in time such thinking "what if" about past won't do any good.

[DanielleinDC]

As others have pointed out, if your doctors don't know, we sure aren't going to know either. Nor can we give medical advice. Instead of worrying whether or not you caused or aggravated it, perhaps you should worry if there's any way to mitigate it.

[JAMIE9999]

Theres no point in placing blame.  All you can do is improve on those things you mentioned