When I had my wisdom teeth out, they gave me percocet (oxycodone + tylenol). "Take one every 4-6 hours." I split the pills in half and took one just as the pain was starting to come back, generally right after 2 hours. It worked great. Then after several days the pain started coming back in my knees and other joints. Wait... I don't generally have joint pain. I guess that's withdrawal from developing a tolerance, aka addiction. I quickly ramped down and stopped using them shortly thereafter.

Of course it would be tempting to wax poetic about how I just needed to use my willpower to stop, and so can anyone else - just-world-fallacy while singing my own praises. But it's more honest to admit that while things worked out fine that time, control can be quite illusory. I wouldn't hesitate to use opiates again for extreme pain, but I sure would set up some social accountability systems beforehand.