Some drugs can help you to cope with the pain definately. And if the pain is extreme you would be best with some drugs that work well with neuropathic pain like amitriptylline (It's a antidepressant in larger doses, but a good pain releiever for neuropathic pain in a smaller dosage).
In terms of physio not being able to help, True we cannot resolve a herniated disc - Though there is an interesting study where they took cadaver spines with herniations and kept them in sustained extension for long periods of time and they saw the disc start to move back... But I suspect you wouldn't manage to keep your spine at full extension for 2 weeks! Generally physio in this area is about teaching back care and core control and monitoring symptoms while it resolves, and if it doesn't or it gets worse then a surgery may be indicated. Generally the first 3 months are the worst of the conservative treatment and then fingers crossed it slowly starts to resolve. Can take a good 2 years if I remember correctly.