surely not painkillers during the year with Lisa

Why do you say surely not? Painkillers work for pain, obviously, but without pain you're looking at a nice high and a good night's sleep. And they are easy to get hold of, if not legally, in the suburbs.

I could also see Dean choosing an opiate over something he might consider wimpy or *shrink meds*, like Ativan or Xanax.

I'm all about the self-medicating Dean, obviously, but it seems really weird that a hunter that gets shot and banged up doesn't use pain meds until it becomes a psychological relief. Especially since he's canonically been medicating his brain for a long time.

Or maybe that's why he started drinking less?

It just seems weird, to introduce something that big offscreen.

Oh, I meant that he's probably taken them for injuries in the past, but it makes more sense to me that he started using them habitually during the year with Lisa.

That's why I see Sam's surprise as a reaction to the way Dean's suggesting he use them, I think. I don't think Sam would be surprised if Dean handed him a bottle if his leg was broken or his guts had been stitched up. Headaches seem more of a "shake it off or drink it off" thing for them, at least to me.

Sam's surprise seems odd to me, too. Maybe it was not so much the existence of Dean's effective meds as that they were offered to him for what didn't feel that bad - Sam hadn't seen himself conk out and knew what pain he was feeling, while Dean had a shit ton of worry that a crack in the wall would destroy Sam and had all his resources ready for patching up.

Because it does seem to me that they would both be okay with purely practical applications of painkillers.

Alternatively, or perhaps in parallel, perhaps any pill-popping for psychological relief is so strongly associated with memories of Hell in Dean's mind that he kept it hidden before but now that Sam's also back from Hell, naturally he might need whatever it is, too.

Headaches seem more of a "shake it off or drink it off" thing for them, at least to me.

As a chronic sufferer, I'm imagining that Sam's pain is worse than mine, and drinking helps, but not enough. Then again, he was functioning better than when he had his vision headaches.

what didn't feel that bad

He said he felt like he'd been hit by a piano, right?

My initial position was that it was mental relief, but I'm trying to argue the other side, and I don't think the text is conclusive.

Dean self-medicates his pysche, and Sam expressed he was in a great deal of physical pain. It could go either way. Sam's surprise and my preferences for Dean's behaviour lean me on the psychological side, but I can see both.

He said he felt like he'd been hit by a piano, right?

See, this is why I have to rewatch.

I can see both sides, too. But I still like my side best.

My memory of previous painkillers were from Jo handing some to Dean in Born Under a Bad Sign.

Oooh, good call, Suzi.

Sam said he felt like he'd been hit by a planet. not that i want to deprive you of your re-watch, Amy.

As IF.