The "Opioid Epidemic" -- A Personal Take

[Aristus]

18. In your 'addicted people are different' paragraph, what you describe is not addiction, but tolerance

It's a process that occurs naturally and inevitably over the course of long-term opioid use. It happens to the 'dependent' user and the addict alike. As the body becomes more accustomed to the medication, one must take ever increasing doses of the opioid in order to achieve the prior level of pain relief.

Eventually, and it can take a while, the medication is no longer effective for controlling pain. And it can even worsen existing pain. It's called narcotic hyperalgesia.