Pain Killers

So with absolutely zero inspiration running through my mind, I'm choosing a topic this week that is completely unrelated to my previous entries.  This is simply a topic that has always bothered me and tends to draw some attention when I mention to others that I down right refuse to take them: pain killers.
The situation is usually sparked by something simple: I have a headache, my back hurts, so on and so forth and someone will offer me some Advil.  I am one of the few people I know who, no matter how much pain I'm in, will refuse to take a pain killer.  This bewilders most.
For starters, pain killers do not CURE anything.  All they do is simply block the pain receptors that tell you you're feeling something.  Your body is producing this pain for a reason; it's trying to signal something to you.  Try listening to this pain, tracking it, and decoding the source of the problem.  I'm a person with chronic headaches and if I chose to just numb the pain on every onset, I would never be able to effectively trace the source of the pain.  However, if I choose to just take notes of the intensity and onset, I can begin to figure out what is exactly causing the pain and actually target some treatment to the root of the problem, ceasing the headaches.  I can actually cure the problem, instead of just ignoring it. Imagine that.
Secondly, our society has become far too reliant on pain killers.  A couple months ago, I severely injured my knee and went to the emergency room to get some help.  Upon the doctor's haste, I was quickly written a prescription for Vicodin.  That was it.  No examination, nothing.  A week later, when the pain persisted, I went to another doctor to see if I could actually get some real attention.  This one actually took a closer look at my knee and turns out, I needed surgery.  He was astonished that the other doctor just sent me away with pain killers.  This was not something that should have ever been dealt with by numbing, which is what the pain killers were doing.  Even doctors have become too familiar with pain killers; far too many send their patients away with a prescription for a heavy pain killer thinking that it effective addresses the problem.
Thirdly, pain killers cause addiction.  When our bodies become accustomed to a little pill that makes all the pain go away, it gets upset when you stop taking it.  Our bodies have the ability to create its own pain upon withdrawal in order to receive more of the medication that it craves.  When we take too many pain killers, our bodies will become addicted, and I don't think I need to expand on the dangers of drug addiction.  Common knowledge. Now granted, it takes a lot of pill popping for this to occur, but it still happens.
This is why I refuse to take pain killers.  It's awful in the short run, but in the long run, I'm healthier.
End rant.