Types of pain

Just got back from a run, very tough really was able to push it today, had a funny thought about nature of pain. I learned in lecture that pain is divided into the actual physical stimulus and the emotional interpretation of that sensation. Also, that my body's opioid receptors primarily act to moderate the emotional aspect of pain, not so much the blunting of the negative physical sensation. How paradoxical that one could theoretically be in pain but not "feel it" because of the cortical emotional interpretation that says "this doesn't matter". This afternoon I experienced a beta-endorphin release after my run, and my body's natural receptors for these ligands were stimulated in response to the physiological stress of the cardiovascular demand from my run. My emotional experience was euphoric despite the fact that my body actually hurt which is interesting because its seemed the primary function was not to remove the physical pain of my lactic acidosis and and shortness of breath, but to alter my perception, and you know what? I felt flippin great despite being sore and tired. It could be that in the context of a painful stimulus, the cortex may interpret this as "necessary to survival" and so a more direct way of persevering despite pain generating actions (which is a bellwether for tissue damage) is not deadening nociception at the extremity but instead altering the conscious perception by creating a positive emotional reaction to it. Could be the basis for the old saying "hurt so good", but soon after experiencing joy while in pain because of the molecular shell game played by my opioid receptors it dawned on me the power an opioid addiction must have over its host. You take this exogenous substance (heroin, morphine, codeine, hydrocodone) and you start tapping those receptors and experiencing intense emotional highs (technically undeservedly because you haven't outrun any lions so to speak) meanwhile your life slowly goes to pot. But everytime you take the drug your body's receptors don't know that its being stimulated by something external, and those wise old opioid receptors that the brain trusts start whispering to your cortex, "its ok, its ok this pain is necessary for survival, your doing great. How can I be so sure? I know this because I'm being activated, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to tell you this... keep going the pain doesn't matter" And ultimately therein lies the rub with addiction and most other things in life - there is no free lunch! Not in physics, not in chemistry, not in economics, and not in biology. Ultimately, its not a real high (real meaning helpful to you and your cause) unless you bought it with blood sweat and tears (i.e. - just escaped with your life, real hard run, worked real hard, got the payoff). So I'm left wondering if you can override those false stimulations with a Zen like top down cortical mandate which would essentially be like saying, "no no - i know the pill is a lying - i didn't earn this high, it was brought to me falsely therefore I wont perceive it, its not helping me survive." But I don't think this is possible because that seems like a quite a cognitive circus trick - blocking the opioid action using some type of preemptive frontal cortex inhibition - I doubt if the wiring is even there for that.