If this is the case and someone is trying to medicate their chronic pain away but is now developing tolerance, then the best thing to do is to find alternative methods of treating the pain. Trying to manage it with opiate painkillers is a losing battle and eventually they will have to take more and more of the medication just to feel normal and not be sick. When this happens their best option is to get to a drug rehab center where they can be detoxed from the drug and start trying to find a better way to manage their pain.
At a detox center the people there can give them medications to help with their withdrawal symptoms and get them detoxed from the opiates so that they can start living a new life. It is only through detox and a new method of pain management that most opiate addicts can really have a chance at living a normal life. Once they get their pain under control then they can go back to a productive and healthy life that they can maintain without heavy doses of narcotics just to feel normal.
Learn more about opiate addiction and a hydrocodone addiction.