The problem IS there is different pain. I've had bodily and joints pain for DECADES. In my working years I've had to walk the grey line between too much hard work and too much sitting that makes me stiff.
Doc prescribed gabapentin during shingles. I was talking to a member here on the phone, who is back east, and it sounded like we are similar. He takes gabapentin. I told the doc and we experimented. By the time I got enough in me to help the pain, I was a dizzy, sleep wreck.
My pain is not arthritis, or not all of it. Mine is more like fibromyalgia type of thing, nerve system.
And there is LOTS of other meds I cannot take AKA hard on my stomach.
THE OTHER reason is that the feds are skeered everybody is gonna become an addict, and hs REALLY clamped down on meds with narcotics like opoids