There is a joke about Americans (which I extend to "most people", and definitely to most technical people I know): if one is to stop being stimulated from outside, then one runs the very real risk of having to consider what is inside. I tend to consider the cavalier American use of painkillers to be in that "stimulated from outside" bucket--and I try very hard to be unafraid of considering what might be inside.

I already don't watch TV when I feel poorly (or in general). I might work--usually on something that I care about, so as to make me feel good that I have done it. Or I might read. If circumstances are uncomfortable enough that concentrating is difficult, then I know I need to sleep. If sleep is very difficult--not merely difficult--due to pain, then sure, then painkillers are on the table for me. Otherwise, why would I try to change how I feel externally?

Painkillers do not change the underlying state. If it is something you literally cannot bear, then sure, get some help. But I have learned over time that the world includes discomfort and pain and that they're really not that bad, most of the time. The world around me includes me. And it includes the need to be mindful about me, too. This is part of that.