Only twice have I ever used Acetaminophen close to the max daily limit, and those were both when I was experiencing a raging tooth infection. I'd pop 2x500 mg paracetamol 4 times a day, which helped just enough to get through the day. The tooth infections were so severe that the dentist had to put anesthesia directly into the root / nerve, multiple times - felt like a lightning strike each time. One of these times I'd put the pain level at a 9 out of 10. I'm just going to assume that 10 out of 10 pain is when you basically consider ending it all, purely in the heat of the moment.

Having gout, I've also had some pretty severe bouts where the pain level has been in the 8/10 range. Unfortunately nether paracet or ibuprofen worked.

In any case, when I see regular people eating these painkillers as candy, I'm starting to wonder what pain levels they are experiencing. I'm generally very cautious of using this stuff.