Dr. Gregory House and his tragic "flaws"

House M.D. - at first, I thought I wouldn't ever like this show.  It features a practically all-knowing protagonist who comes up with the right solution just in the nick of time, while juggling adversarial relationships to all those around him.  But, dammit, the show is HILARIOUS.  The one liners, the comebacks, the sparring of wits - delicious.  

"Everybody lies, the symptoms don't lie."

"It's not Lupus.  It's NEVER Lupus."

A recurring plot element is House's drug addicition.  The idea of someone taking drugs and becoming addicted to them is abhorrent to me - on the same level to me as doing illegal drugs or smoking.  But lately, with the amount of training I've been putting into my run for Men's Deaflympics volleyball - I'm starting to soften my stance, or at least have empathy with those kind of people.  I'm now up to 3, maybe 4 advils every couple of hours to deal with my shin pains, pains that my doctors say they can't link to anything wrong.  It's getting bad enough that I'm going to have to stop playing for a few months to recuperate.  It's affecting my play - I'm a hair slower, less flighty, less manuverable when in pain.  Make the pain go away... and I'm able to continue winning.  

That's a strong motivator to continue to take drugs - either play in pain and probably lose at that high of a competitive level, or enjoy a pain-free existence and play to win.

Looks like I'll be sitting out the next season or two of vball.  *grumble*  Wonder if they make bionic shins......