Pain medication isn’t always necessary to treat chronic pain, but it isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. Medication can help reduce chronic pain and therefore help people remain active and reduce the psychological effects of chronic pain.
However, pain medication does need to be managed properly. If a person is completely opposed to medication, then chronic pain can be dealt with by what we've already mentioned (e.g. psychological counselling, physiotherapy, active lifestyle, etc).
We recommend finding an appropriate activity that brings you joy like painting, sports, fishing, working with kids, volunteering, walking, or getting out and into nature to keep you active.