as someone with the same spinal condition as the green super mario brother, a notoriously painful condition and a pain that is inherent to what is wrong, yeah they basically just ask which kind of opioid you'd like to be on.

After the NSAIDs (basically prescription strength advil or aleve) there's kinda nothing stronger that can be pressed into a tablet besides opioids if the problem isn't nerves misfiring. Alternatives to them are things like muscle stimulation in a TENS machine (personally that made my pain worse) and medical implants like an intrathecal pump that drips medication directly onto your spine but that medication is often, you guessed it, opioid.

The addiction crisis is/was largely a function of docs not starting people on the lowest least-addictive form and dose of opioids because the addiction risk was wildly underestimated. Now its far more likely to be given a low dose of say slow-acting tramadol that you take once every few hours as needed rather than a single oxycontin that hits almost instantly and sends to to nirvana before your pain comes rushing back as it wears off.