Long Sobriety - and now Addiction to Tramadol

[freedombfree]

Hi Everybody

I am a recovering alcoholic. It has been a long time since I was here at soberrecovery.com. I haven,t had a drink now since the 7th December 2000. My recovery has been amazing to say the least. I have achieved many things in my life sober, and also gone through a lot of pain. Both my children are alcoholics, my daughter is in AA recovering and my son is going it alone though he has been sober now for 80 days.

Approx 5 years ago the lovely courageous people here at soberrecovery.com encouraged me to go back to school to prepare myself to do my BA Hons degree in Social Science which was my dream. They told me I could do it, when I didn't fully believe that I could. I have just completed my 2nd year with quite high grades.

I would say I was really proud of myself only about 3 months ago, I took 2 of my partners Tramadol (painkillers) for a migraine, I only knew that they were strong painkillers at the time, however since then I have become addicted to them and I am taking one or two 50mg tablets every day and feeling terribly guilty about it. I have asked my partner to throw all the pills away, but he won't he said it is my problem if I have become addicted and its my choice if I take them or not.

I have got the battle back in my head on a daily basis. Bill and Ben. should I take a tablet, or shouldn't I, its a nightmare, this addiction is living in my head. Since getting sober I have gained many material things back; I am going on a cruise in September for a week around the Mediterranean I have just bought a new car, finished my 2nd year with good grades seeing both my grown up children sober for the first time ever, and more important I had got myself back in sobriety and was pretty dam proud of myself and kind of liked who I were, but all this is going out of the window because all I can think about in the morning is Tramadol. I take one tablet most days but some days I take 2. My partner takes 8 a day and that frightens me so much because I am addicted to one or two.

Does anybody know about Tramadol addiction and if so has anyone successfully got off of them. I seem to have gone back to the place where my addiction lives and I am really scared.

Any advice will be much appreciated

Thanks

freedom

[Rusty Zipper]

freedom, nice to meet you... come a long way we see... thats great... the tram ?

your in the spirituality section... for me, i would pray on it...

"thanks for geting me this far, look at all i have acheived so far, and where i could go...

ask my self, do i have a migrain today... if not, toss the pills!"

see a doc, fess up, and start a new...

i have never met anyone yet that when said, i only had a coulple really have... one or two = three to infinity..."

as far as the partner... maybe should be singing the old Beatles song... "Eight Days a Week..."

alll good wishes Freedom...

xxoo & blessings... rz

see a doc, fess up... and start over...

[Ann]

Originally Posted by freedombfree

Does anybody know about Tramadol addiction and if so has anyone successfully got off of them. I seem to have gone back to the place where my addiction lives and I am really scared.

Any advice will be much appreciated

Thanks

freedom

Sure people get off them, it may not be easy but neither is staying on them and following the path they will take you to.

I'd see your doctor and ditch them as quickly as possible. The alternative just isn't pretty.

Hugs

[Fluttering]

You can do this!!!
10 You can ask yoour doctor for help
2) Start weaning yourself off if you take one...break it in half..few days later you break that in half..until you no longer need them
3) Make a commitment to yourself much like you did when you got sober.
4) Talk with your sponsor to walk you through the steps again on this.
Remember the steps says "Practice these principles in ALL our affairs."
You aren't alone here. We are here with you and for you.

You have choices...you can choose to go off them...
We are an undisciplined lot...Here we learn discipline and reponsibility...
IF you talk to your doctor ask him/her for something safe for the migrains. Let your sponsior know what you are on. Ask someone that is sober to monitor you until you are strong enough.

[tanglang]

I am presently detoxing off of tramadol. For 6 + long years I have been in the hell of addiction. My recenting dosing was above 40 pills a day! This is the third night I have gone without the drug and I have swore I never will again! I feebly tried a taper down but to an addict, that's really untangable. I didn't have the money, ($9000. +) for the effective anethesia detox. Locally there are but 1 detox center that I tried for a day. It was nothing but a drunk tank with a strong ambience of depression.
I'm typing best I can right now because its my third day of being clean. Fortunately I found adoctor who would help me with some of the side effects. I take Klonopin for an anti-anxiety, compazine for the nausea and diarrah and Requip for restless leg symptoms. For cold turkey, these drugs have helped me greatly. Tramadol always made me exceedingly productive, but like any other evil, and it is evil, the drug seized my life, I was a pill poppin junkie. Stop it now!!! Save yourself. I am an expert on this and questions forwarded to me will be answered to the best of my ability. One note on the the side-effects medicines, try coffee or caffiened water. Soda will just make things worse but the caffiene will offer a bit of normalcy to the anquish of detoxing. All take care, and I for one am here to tell you of my rebirth to who I should be.

[indigo]

Welcome back to SR and to the spirituality forum. I can't add to the other replies replies cept you overcome your last addiction and you can overcome this one, keep posting.

[chessgames7373]

A detox approach for Tramadol (Ultram and Ultracet). Ok, so you've discovered that tramadol is HIGHLY addictive (at least for you, personally). I am recently coming cold turkey off a 150-200 mg per day habit, and have made some interesting discoveries that I hope will also help others. Combined with research concerning the psycho-pharmacology, they make sense.

Things to do:

1) Don't panic and/or beat yourself up.

2) Make a DETERMINED EFFORT to break your addiction.

3) If you are taking more than 50 mg (1 tab for me) begin to taper off. For that, find your comfort level. Be persistent here because, as for myself, I missed the feeling of well-being that I got with a higher dose as I began to taper off. This is where you must let your determination kick in. A 50 mg per week reduction seems reasonable. Push the envelope here if you can tolerate a bit more discomfort.

3) If you are physically able, exercise, exercise, exercise!! This will help boost your mood and help counter the opiate effect of the meds. Sexual activity in the evening was helpful for me as well. At night take some Tylenol or ibuprofen to help you sleep. Expect your sleep to be disrupted for a little while. I accidentally found that Robitussin (dextromethorphan) helped me sleep during the most difficult period, since I happened to have a cold while I was trying to quit. Careful here, though, start out taking half the recommended dose and see how it affects you. The clinical reason is that dextromethorphan will help moderate your serotonin levels, which Tramadol increases.

Warning: if you are taking MAO inhibitors DO NOT take dextromethorphan, as this can be very dangerous.

4) Drink a strong caffinated drink during the day, preferably early in the morning. Why? Tramadol acts to prevent norepinephrine reuptake, and as you taper off, caffeine will help counteract the effects of the reduction of the norepinephrine.

5) Along with your exercise, take care to maintain a good diet to help fortify yourself against reduced or poor sleep.

6) While I did not try it myself, one would expect St John's Wart to offer some relief because of the SSUI effects of Tramadol.

I had to detox because I was running out of pills. The reason Tramadol is so addictive for some is probably due to the fact that you are dealing with 3 separate addictions: opiate, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Another thing: it's probably not a good idea to substitute another addictive drug (though arguably caffeine is) for Tramadol.

If you try this 'method' please give me some feedback about how it works for you. Good luck to all!

[chessgames7373]

Wow! 40 per day, I couldn't even imagine it! My body was so sensitive to Tramadol, I could only take 4 per day max, or I'd start feeling anxious. This drug is touted as not being addictive or dangerous, but that is A LIE. I believe it may be MUCH MORE addictive for some than a pure opiate (at least it was for me). In the past, if I took a mood altering drug, it would be for no longer than a week. I started taking Tramadol for a sore back (my mother gave me the pills that were prescribed for my father's hip replacement operation), and said the nurse told her they were very good. Before I took them, I did some preliminary research online, and the sites I visited said Tramadol was not too addictive. As soon as I started taking them, I fell in love with the effects. The thing I loved most was the boost in energy I got, and they got me over the after lunch slump. I told my mom they were great and she kept refilling the prescription. After 3 months, I was up to three to four 50 mg tabs (200 mg) per day. I have NEVER been addicted to anything before ('cept maybe caffeine ), but suspected I was getting addicted to tramadol when I ran out of pills one day and went to the dentist. I came home and felt like I was coming down with the flu. A day later, I went to my mom's house and got a refill. As soon as I started taking tramadol again, my symptoms disappeared. I could have quit then, but they made me feel too good. Well, the one side effect I did not like was weight loss, tending to be thin as it was. My wife, said she noticed I was losing weight. When I stepped on the scale, I saw that I had dropped 10 pounds. Tramadol was acting like an appetite suppressant for me. Anyway, my last bottle was about 70 pills, and there were no more refills available from my Dad's prescription, so when I got down to my last 10, I began to taper off. The last 4 days before I quit I took 50 mg (1 tab), 75 mg (1.5 tabs), 75 mg, and 25 mg (.5 tabs). I did have one visiting (also from my father), and took half of it along with the 25 mg of tramadol, then the other half of vicodin by itself the next day. It was cold turkey (kind of) after that. Anyway, congratulations on breaking your addiction; it's good you had a doctor to help.