As a 15 year sufferer of chronic pain resulting from bad back surgery, I can agree with almost everything in this article. Exercise is a great pain reliever, but as I get older, and walking has become more difficult, its very hard to maintain a regular exercise regimen. I hate that opioids have become so demonized, because they are my only source of pain relief now.
You may want to check out the
Gokhale Method.
A lot of it seems to make sense. Essentially, the basic point of it is this: chronic back pain is relatively rare, even in cultures which are sedentary, or do grueling physical labor, or live in areas where medical care is primitive at best -- but it is chronic and common in "Western" countries. And the commonality shared by these people in more primitive cultures is that they are taught, from a young age, to stand very differently than Westerners (or, more accurately, they are not taught to stand, but do so naturally, whereas we are encouraged to have postures that, ultimately, are chronically stressful).
They stand differently, they walk differently, they sit differently, and they lay down differently. By transitioning people from the 'S-curve', to more of a 'J-curve', many people have found that back pain starts to disappear, since your weight is borne more effectively.
I am not a huge fan of her book, in that it is not well written, but there is no denying the impact. I went from frequently being unable to get out of bed in less than 1/2 an hour, to almost never having pain.
Either way, it may be worth checking out.