Reasons for detoxing are mostly to stop the side effects of high dose narcotics, such as dyspnea (difficult breathing), and terrible constipation (for those not paying attention to the proper diet, and use of adjunct methods to help alleviate this problem). If your pain has diminished and you find yourself wanting to get off narcotics, here are a few pointers.
A SLOW withdrawal of the narcotics is vastly better than cold turkey, but you have to have free time to do it. The drug CLONIDINE (an "alpha adrenergic drug) can be prescribed to help with the nasty freaky movements that drive you to distraction. BENZODIAZEPINES such as CLONOPIN are anti-seizure, which is basically what RLS and the other movement manifestations are all about. The mixed-agonist-antagonst opiate drug Buprenorphine, often is used to slowly wean one from opiate agonists. Cold turkey opiate withdrawal is hell, but does not result in the propensity to cause death, such as cold turkey alcohol withdrawal does.
For chronic pain patients, one should NEVER get poor treatment from the medical community. Anything less than "all the help that they can give you" is malpractice. YOU didn't choose to become addicted to narcotics; they were prescribed to you by the medical community to control life ruining PAIN. If you have to be on them for the rest of your life, this is NECCESSARY. Few chronic pain patients feel the euphoric effects of narcotics and don't seek to rapidly increase the therapeutic doses that are prescribed, do not crush controlled release tablets (they are usually also given quick release tablets for breakthrough pain), and don't double doctor or seek illicit "extra supplies". The bottom line is, narcotics can be used long term, but pain relief for the "extreme chronic pain patient" gets tricky because side effects do warrant periodic dosage reductions.
A good pain doctor can recognize the difference between users and abusers of narcotic pain medication. Unfortunately, we are stuck with the status quo until opioids are developed which do not cross the into the brain, but can effectively block peripheral opiate receptors, so that brain penetrating opioid agonists can then be administered long term without the terrible side effects that limit their great effectiveness at stopping life disrupting chronic pain.