I watch tv, if anything interesting is on, go on my laptop to read about stuff or listen to music. Talking to people helps if it is something stimulating to me which is hard to find others who are interested in the same things as I am. But when I have sciatic shooting pains nothing works. I just roll around on my bed and rub the area if I can reach it or do somethings that physical therapists have shown me although this does not work for long. After years of having these pains a retiring neurologists said to try muscle relaxants and they do help. Also sleeping if I can get to sleep, but that is really hard when I have shooting pain. I may try some of the things that people have listed here to see if it works. 19lin