I really liked what you mentioned about our unhealthy coping mechanisms. People with chronic pain will try anything to get that pain to disappear and I think the fact that people abuse alcohol, drugs and food makes it even more obvious how big the problem really is. Using drugs and alcohol can hurt the body's ability to use certain receptors or need a higher flood of certain chemicals to produce a neural response. That's kind of what is happening when we use opioids for extended periods of time. They don't work as efficiently as they did when we first started them, so people look for stronger and stronger drugs to try and treat their pain. That is the slippery slope that some people with chronic pain fall down which leads to heroin or other drug addictions.