i know pain is real, i've felt it and it will fucking humble anyone if it's bad enough. I just don't think drugs are the answer for everything. My bro hurt his back fairly recently, he was bitching and moaning that the docs wouldn't give him anything other than advice to lose weight (he's about 400) I told him they don't want to get him hooked, plain and simple. then, the idiots on his facebook were giving him advice on how to con the docs into giving him some powerful shit. And you know what? a few weeks later I asked him about his back and he said it was fine. Too often people are just babies, especially in this country, if you knew my brother, you'd know he's a baby.
It really all depends on the situation and some of the ones I've seen are lose/lose no matter what. I always go back to a navy seal who I knew who was hooked on opiates for the war wounds, I couldn't see how he could do anything else, don't take the drugs and be in inhuman pain, or take the drugs and be fucked up all the time. Most cases aren't like that. We need to really look at ourselves but as I said, we don't like doing that.
I used to take potent pills for migraines, I stopped taking them even when I get a horrible migraine and sometimes they get so bad the thought goes through my head, 'death couldn't be worse" but I made a decision to stop and I did it. It was right after my longtime hero, Prince od'd, I just said I'm done. I also currently take a cholesterol medication because my doc told me to, but I'd like to stop taking it if I get my numbers down. I also was taking pills prescribed by the same doc to alleviate hunger, well, the pills gave me a buzz, a really good buzz. I stopped taking them even though they worked. I don't want anything that makes me feel that good. all depends, I'd love not to take any drugs ever though.