23 year old with stabbing foot pain in mid arch for almost 5 years

That sucks.
If you're confident in your podiatrists/orthos....and they're not finding something specific....
Have you tried one of those good feet/comfort shoe stores? You probably hear them advertised on the radio.

They're not doctors. But, they can help. I have a neuroma-type issue in the same general area. It's a little further towards the toes than your problem and is more like a bunching in a sock than a pain.

When I first got into fitness as a 305 lbs. guy a few years ago, it cropped up. No pain. Only slightly annoying. When I started running, I figured I needed running shoes. The running store is fabulous. They're like "You nimrod, you're wearing a shoe 1-2 sizes too small and you're a wide. I'm not selling you a $150 shoe until you learn about your feet." They figured it a was nerve/neuroma thing and sent me to one of those comfort shoe stores. Who put me in an overpriced Birkenstock footbed. With properly sized $40 fitness shoes from Kohl's, it made a difference very quickly. Almost immediately. Scale of 1-10, it went from an 8 to a 5 in about a week. Went back and got running shoes from the same store who will get all my shoe business from here forward...because they wouldn't sell me a shoe. When I started 'retiring' my running shoes a little early and started using them as everyday shoes, that 5 went to a 1 and eventually to a 0-.5. I don't even bother with the footbed anymore. It can still crop up and be a .5 when I have to wear dress shoes or something. But that's about it.

A later visit to a podiatrist for another issue didn't confirm that. He never pinned it down to a neuroma. He said it was PF...being that PF as a "diagnosis" is pretty broad and can manifest itself in a lot of different ways and not just the "getting out of bed in the morning pain". I'm still convinced it's a nerve thing.

Really long story short...if the medical doctors aren't finding something specific...that's a good thing maybe? A visit to one of those comfort foot stores might be worth a swing.

Hi there.

I had/have a very similar issue to what you described. I also was running in Newtons at the time, but don't attribute the pain to the Newton shoe brand. I actually think I injured myself dancing at a wedding where I was repeatedly slamming my feet to the floor in a heeled shoe when I was used to wearing zero-drop, but that might have just been the straw that broke me.

I can't see the foot picture right now, but I think my pain was just slightly back from where yours was located. The pain would last for days after running so that even walking was painful and then slowly go away until next time i did something stressful to my feet. I was told by my podiatrist that I had a spasm in my foot and was put a 5-day oral steroid protocol to target the spasm (I think it was a swelling of some sort as I don't fully understand spasm). Anyway, the steroids helped a lot, but I could still feel (and sometimes still can feel) a discomfort in that area when running, until last year...

So, last year I ran completely pain free on accident. I wanted to try very minimalist running after using Newtons and other minimalist type shoes. I started running in Vibrams (I very slowly adapted to this) expecting that this would aggravate my arch again do to the strain it would put on my foot and lower leg, but I was willing to deal with that because it was something I wanted to try. To my surprise, my foot felt fine the whole year even through 2 half marathons and a 70.3. If fact, my arch starts to hurt again when I try running in traditional type trainers with arch support. I am currently trying to transition back to more traditional type running shoes and searching for shoes with low/no arch support.

I don't want to be the guy who says, "barefoot running is the best! everyone should do it! shoes are for loser!" However, I am a believer in minimalist and just wanted to share my story with you because it seemed relevant. Best of luck!

You are describing Plantar Fasciitis. The pain is usually a bit forward of the ball of the heel but can migrate around a bit. I suffer from this especially when I up my running. I have found 4 things to help: 1) sleep with a Strassburg Sock, 2) Ibuprofen, 3) Ice, 4) PF socks from Feetures. It hurts but it is manageable.