Just how good is strength training for chronic pain?

I have been on a quest to relieve my chronic pain since 2004, and have run almost the entire gauntlet of options with varying results. What has been extremely frustrating is the inability to pinpoint the exact cause of the widespread totally weird pain that I am in mostly every day and very much at night. I will say that I have had some great respites and that I have not discovered why. If I knew I surely would make it last forever! One of the things that I love is exercise and strength training. Sadly, it was pushing me into more agony and I am thinking it was because I worked myself too heavily. Before I started having the pain issues, I had no trouble exercising, worked like mad on many things, and loved bucking out my horse bareback. Then I suffered a back injury that was supposedly mild and should have been healed in a week. Well, the pain didn't go away and I found myself limited and very depressed. I was diagnosed with minor bulging discs which I was told should not have been painful. The frustrating cycle of pain and denial began. Initially the pain I suffered was focused in my lower back. I sought treatment only when I felt suicidal about it, because according to all tests there was nothing really wrong with me, so I had to be just raving crazy, lazy, and looking for some easy ride or way out of life. That's the feedback I got when this pain problem first bit me and wouldn't let go. I let these opinions become my opinions for several years, let go of many good things in life and wallowed in misery and depression. Over time this pain has spread to other areas in strange ways, often my joints pop, my tendons pop, and yet I test negative for rheumatoid arthritis and I am ever so glad because I refuse to take all of the popular poisons for such things! You can hear me coming most days and I laugh about it. The noise is painless. The pain seems to be muscular. So, I am still on the quest and I do like my herbs although the results vary, but they have never made me outright sick like NSAIDs, steroids, and narcotics did. I have given up on ever getting a firm diagnosis and stay away from the doctor's office because I have no faith and I am tired of physical therapy, won't submit to another X-ray, already know what an MRI will show, have perfect blood test results, and have been nearly poisoned to death several times by nasty pharmaceuticals. So what could I possibly gain from another doctor's visit? I see nothing except expense. I found some interesting information that has given me ideas about the exercise thing and I am ever so excited about designing a new program for myself: http://saveyourself.ca/articles/endurance-training.php True, I am in motion which is nearly constant every day because I get stiff and miserable when I am stationary and this makes sleep a real challenge lately, even with my valerian, etc. I want to do more than just stay in motion. I miss my weights like mad and I may just have to give up feeling the burn and simply decrease lifting amounts. According to what I have read, this may be the best thing to do, so I'll give it a try. If it works for me, I'll share what I learn. I really like a lot of the information that Paul Ingraham presents, and have definitely had positive results through the concept of 'growing myself'. I call it self ownership, warts, selfishness and truth-and loving every bit. When your spirit is calm and happy and you are doing things that you love to do, it really helps lesson pain! Yes, it is all about saving yourself and self preservation is the most natural thing in the world.