Managing chronic pain is a complex medical, social, and economic issue without a clear, effective, and safe solution. In a market flooded with lethal, addictive, and often ineffective opioid painkillers, a cultural shift is necessary. This book explores the social and cultural fabric of living with chronic pain, to explain a discordance in how chronic pain is understood in American and Indian cultures. In the U.S., chronic pain is often perceived as a functionally-debilitating condition requiring aggressive medical intervention. Conversely, in India, pain is perceived as a natural and maladaptive process of aging. It is viewed not as a barrier to living a functional and happy life, but as a locus for lifestyle changes.

In this cultural context, living in pain and living in suffering, an implicit marriage in American culture, are regarded as separate concepts.