In my case, it has been progressive, over the span of the last three years. My L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs are gone, causing stenosis and sciatica...especially down my left leg. There are some things I do to lessen the severity of it, and if I skip a couple of days, it gets worse. My legs get weak and ache, and if it's really bad, I get pins and needles on the bottom of my feet, and numbness on the top of them. Among what I do are a simple traction exercise I've come up with, laying in a carpeted doorway, and another sciatica exercise, known as "flossing the nerve." These things may or may not be helpful to you.

The two most common causes of neuropathy are stenosis, either cervical or lumbar, and diabetes. There are other causes, of course, but these are the main ones.

I manage my pains mostly with 800mg of ibuprofen, divided twice a day, and if it gets beyond what the ibuprofen can manage, then amitriptyline 25mg at bedtime is really helpful for me. Some people it helps, others report no benefit. (At this dosage, it is very benign, with few mild side-effects.) I only do the amitriptyline for 2-3 days, then stop. The reason others may not experience any benefit from amitriptyline is because one can develop a tolerance for it if taken regularly. This is why on-again, off-again, is beneficial. Only use it when you need it. The reason it's helpful is it calms the nerves, allowing the overdriven pain impulses to subside. The way I discovered it is because it is prescribed for me for another reason: I have chronic migraine cause by a hyper-immune problem. Amitriptyline, and another, similar med, doxepin, help me moderate the immune problem when it starts snowballing.

Hope this helps.