I wouldn't be so afraid of pain medication for chronic pain. I think it's a myth that the more pain you go through, the more pain you can go through... and also those about getting high and such.

Your tolerance for pain goes down the longer you suffer with pain. The body seems to run out of natural pain killer, and it can't replenish enough to cover the pain. It is a good "chance" that the pain med will only fill in the missing naturally occurring chemicals. IDK I'm not a medical doctor.

For me, if I ever focus fully on my pain, I would crumble. In fact, it is those times of pain flare that become more difficult because I do have to address more of the pain than normal in determining what else I need to do to get through it Routine and denial can be friends to me.

bryan, you mentioned your jaw, and yes, you probably are clenching. Why not try a TMD specialist (DMD,DDS)... if your teeth are worn unevenly or even a lot, this throws the TMJs off and can cause not only jaw pain, but head, neck and even more troubles... as everything is connected (funny how well we learn this the older we get As we suffer with pain in certain parts of our body, we have the tendency (as humans) to give in and change our posture to "aid" that area..and thus throw even MORE off kilter.

I hope you figure it out soon.