This is an interesting thread. I've found myself in the situation Russell explained, that if I stay right on track with my treatment plan I feel good enough I think I can deviate from it.
My mother in law who very strictly only uses homeopathic remedies and herbs has also had a huge influence on me. I grew up with a mother who developed a neurological disease. Her neck stayed completely distorted. Her chin laid on her left shoulder and her neck on her right. I was very judgemental of the handful of pills she would take daily to survive the pain. Although looking back I admire her because she remained a high school English teacher for over twenty years like that while students made terrible fun of her appearance. So when I began having symptoms of RSD years ago I refused all sorts of treatments. I decided to go the holistic and homeopathic route under my MIL's and Chiropractor's guidance. I did this for a very long time. Unfortunately I received little to no relief. I was so frustrated that I began going to Doctors. They would take one look at my red, discolored, swollen, wrist, then arm, then other arm, then left foot, then right foot (over time of course) they never had a diagnosis, but would just throw prescriptions at me. It was terribly frustrating because I thought it was borderline unethical (perhaps too strong of a word), but for instance because I would sit in my doctor's office at the Mayo clinic with outrageously high blood pressure from pain and pain so bad that would actually make me bleed rectally (yes I know, Too much information but later I found out that absolutely can occur with RSD) he would only treat me with Dilaudid 3x daily. I was so naive to that particular drug I tried it for two weeks and I felt like a zombie, yes I stopped the bleeding and my pain and blood pressure dropped significantly, but I could not function I was so constantly drugged. I should mention that I was prescribed other drugs while there for over 9 months, Tons, literally as in I know over 30 different medications (no I did not take even a third of the prescribed medicines), but I'd like to note that none of them were "pain" relievers except Dilaudid, but after researching Dilaudid, I thought it was insane that they STARTED out with such a strong "pain reliever." Then I just refused all of their treatments and they washed their hands of me. Because this was just the beginning of my RSD journey and I felt 8 Doctors at Mayo should have been able to give me a diagnosis, I just quit going to Doctors for a year and a half. That didn't work out so well for me either. I spent months in bed in horrible pain. Finally I decided to start back trying to get a diagnosis. I don't believe I could even count the Doctors I saw. Finally I was given a diagnosis of RSD and I began doing so much research on it that I became extremely methodical (as Little Paw said) about the way I would take my medicines to note their effectiveness and their side effects. It has been an extremely daunting process. Just when I was thinking something was working it would stop. For the time being I have hit on a combination of medicines that are working, but I realize that could change at any given moment, and like you mentioned Spike, my current Dr. has done an excellent job at teaching the difference between addiction and dependence. As a side note I was having cognitive issues for a year and a half without taking any medications, but as mentioned above severe pain and not sleeping properly can take a huge toll on our cognitive state. I certainly have big time, HUGE, troubles in that area, and my Dr. blames it all on RSD, but it is a valid question raised, could it be from the medicines and the many other factors also? Personally I've stopped all medicines more than once because I didn't think the trade off of such cognitive problems was worth it, then after a short period of time I'm convinced again that I will take these prescriptions because ANY amount of pain relief is worth the side effects. I've found it a very hard place to be.