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

[jane_668]

Hi,If you were looking for someone who successfully got of them themthan I wont be of agreat help.But I can tell you about Tramadol addiction.I've been addicted to tramadol for almost 3years now.They say it's non addictive but that's wrong.I went from 5 pills 50mgs a day to 8 pills100mgs per day.I went through terible withdrawals similar to opiates.they were so severe and intense that I ended up in the hospital with an overdose just to end the pain.So if you r still asking wether you should quit .the answer is yes and before its too late.Quit it as as soon as possible because the 2 will become 4 then 10 ans who knows what else.You have alreadysuffered from alcholoic addiction so donnot add another adiction to your life .If you want to stay sober than honestly speakinng tramadol is bad news.you van quit them easily now at this point but not later.

love
Jane

[Lizrox]

Hi,

There are quite a few of us on here who got hooked on Tramadol. The dr's are delusional when they say it's non-addictive. I swallowed them like candy. Maybe (30)50mg tabs when I had that many to abuse.

I never gotwithdrawal. I don't know why?

You are a recovering alcoholic;and you know that you must refrain from using this junk. I don't think your withdrawal will be that bad because you say you only take 1-2 a day.

Keep us posted,

Liz

[freedombfree]

Thanks for your replies please keep them coming, I am fighting with myself not to take one while I am writing this. At the moment yes I am only taking 2 a day, but the addiction is there, It is the effect of the pills that I am addicted to, and I can understand how it can creep up to taking more

Did you manage to get off them completely?

[ccgirl]

Try going to the thread called "Help with Home Detox" Misti is going through tramadol addiction/withdrawal right now.

[Alycia]

hey freedom. First, I looked thru many threads and saw atleast 5 threads about tramadol so look thru, and they aren't all on this one page, so don't be afraid to go back and hit page 2 or 3 k. Also keep posting and asking for help. There is a lot of ppl that can help you. Also, keep posting cuz we get worried around here! You should also go to a meeting. I just started last wk and I love them. They help out a lot! So please go! Thanks for listening!

[emmer]

Tramadol has been known to produce severe withdrawal symptoms with abrupt cessation of prolonged use.[13]

[mikiglen]

thanks, cc
i am almost two weeks off of 20-30 ultram a day, and still sick. a lot of other stuff going on with me as well, however, that is probably contributing. in addition, i took some vicodin last week to "function", so that didn't help.
pm me anytime, i hope to keep staying clean off of them, but it's hard

[Buzz Kilowatt]

I don't think you should have much trouble quitting from a 100 mg./day habit. You might have some minor discomfort for 2-3 days, such as restless legs. a bit of depression, etc. but this too shall pass.

If you don't quit cold turkey, then taper off to one pill / day. You can dump about 1/2 the meds out of a 50 mg. capsule if you want to go as low as 25 mg.

In my limited experience withdrawal from a relatively low dose of Ultram was quite a bit easier than from hydrocodone. Your experience may differ.

What helps me most is exercise during the withdrawal phase. Nothing else comes close.

Good luck.

As Buddha us credited with saying, "The great journey begins with the first step."

Good luck - you can do this.

Buzz

[freedombfree]

Thanks everyone. Today is a new day, and just for today I am not going to take any Tramadol. I am going to a meeting at 1.30 today so please be there for me to support me off this crap. It is controlling my every thought at the moment. I want my life back. I am dreading the mental withdrawals, it is torture.

[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!

[bvaljalo]

That sounds like some reasonable advice chess. I would suggest though that since robitussin tends to have other active ingredients besides DXM, most likely the sleep producing effects were actually due to the other drugs in it, such as whichever antihistamine was contained therein. Personally, unless one has a cold, I'd recommend unisom (doxylamine succinate) to help with sleep during withdrawals.

Also, tramadol can be addictive because it mimics the effect of opiates in the brain. It is not considered particularly addictive at normal therapeutic levels when it's taken by NON-ADDICTS (or alcoholics) but it's right there in it's literature that it basically IS potentially addictive to people with previous dependency (esp. opiates) issues. This is because our brains have been basically rewired by our previous abuse, and this is a LIFELONG condition.

In response to some others ... one cannot blame doctors for giving it to people who they don't KNOW were/are addicts. And as opposed to starting someone on a course of vicodin or percs or whatever, tramadol *IS* much less addictive, period. Especially at it's normal doses.

Also, you really aren't dealing with 3 separate addictions here with tramadol. It is just your basic opioid/opiate addiction syndrome. This class of drugs affects your dopamine, norepinephrine, seratonin, GABA levels ... practically ALL your brain chemistry is changed by the presence of opioids.

Anyways, as others have said, STOP NOW BEFORE IT GETS WORSE. Cause there's a very good chance that if you keep doing the stuff, it will get worse. Cut your losses now, because getting off 100mg a day isn't going to be that tough, especially given that your problem has (apparently) never been opioids in the past. The w/d's, if there are any, are going to be more psychological than anything at this point I suspect. But if you keep it up ... you'll eventually get to experience a living hell when you quit. You *DON'T* wanna let it get that far, TRUST ME.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[chessgames7373]

Thanks BJ, I agree, and am done for good. I ran out last Friday, and am through the worst. Do not want to be addicted to anything--well, unless that means I have to give up my cup of joe in the morning.

[acon4726]

This is really good information. I, too, had believed the 'general medical opinion' that tramadol is non-addictive. This is really surprising to me. I guess this is just more proof that everyone reacts differently to different drugs.

Now that I think about it though, this is how it has always worked. Doctors said that benzos were a non-addictive alternative to barbituates when they first came out- and now think of all the Xanax, Valium, Ativan addicts you know!

You have my best wishes for your recovery. It gets better!

[TiredMama]

I had a horrible experience with ultram/tramadol. I was taking almost 20 a day at one time and never had seizures *thank God*

It was hell coming off. Pure hell.

Good luck and stop while you still can ok?

[bvaljalo]

Awesome news

Keep up the good work. And no, you don't have to give up the coffee