Originally Posted by
Rakkadoc 
Markus- I am thinking about seeing a civilian doctor and just paying for it out of my pocket since the military's insurance won't cover it because the military has services available on the island. I understand that ultram works differently than opiate based narcotics which leads me to this question... Do you know of or heard of any success with the treatment of ultram dependency by using Effexor (since it is a SNRI)? I think the reason I felt so exhausted after 30 days to 2 months of being off ultram is because of the seritonin and norepinephrine properties and my brain just hadn't had enough time for things to get back to normal... but how long does it take? In my job it's hard to get by day to day without having any energy and feeling literally exhausted all the time and after about 45 days with very little improvement it's very hard to not just give up and start taking it again for the sake of feeling like being alive (not to mention the pain I was having).
I'm not a psychiatrist by any means but I know about medications, most of them. Since Effexor (Venlafaxine) is a norepinephrine-serotonin reuptake inhibitor I think it could help you, since Tramadol has depleted a lot of it.
Of course the Effexor wouldn't help with the physical withdrawals from Tramadol, but since you said you think depression is the main problem rather than physical withdrawals then I would recommend that you schedule an appointment with a doctor and ask him about Effexor.
You are taking major dosages of Tramadol so physical WD will most likely be an issue as well. Make sure you tell your doctor about every symptom you're having.
Let us know how things go!