Tramadol hell

Has or does anyone here take Tramadol? I was. Now I just went off it and I feel like hell. Withdrawals suck. Don't know what to do to make it easier.

I would, too. There ought to be something they can advise you to do.

I was taking it in the evening, and it helped me. Even seemed to give me a little energy. Then when I ruptured a disc last year, I had to switch to Hydrocodone because it's stronger. Hope to get back to Tramadol....actually, I'd really like to not take any pain meds, but....we'll see.

Good luck.

Debbie

I copied this from a post…and thought maybe this might help.


Here are a few generally accepted options available to you over the counter from pharmacies or health food stores, online supplement suppliers etc:

*Dextromethorphan (DXM, primary ingredient in cough suppressants) -- I suggest capsules or Delsym liquid (the latter being far more expensive but lasts twice as long and may produce better results because it's metabolized differently by the body into a different ratio of the two primary metabolites), in roughly the dose recommended for coughing....read up on this in google for more tips on its use for this purpose. DXM can partially suppress NMDA receptor activity, which is one of the pathways that is over-exciting your nervous system right now in the absence of external opioids.

*Magnesium: muscle cramps/back spasms, mild effects on the hyperalgesia you're experiencing, acts as a mild NMDA antagonist like DXM but via somewhat different receptor profiles so using multiple NMDA antagonists can be safe and achieve better results in my personal experience (and that of many other people -- these can also be used to help combat, prevent and mitigate opiate tolerance but that's a topic for another time!)

*L-Theanine (amino acid): also an NMDA antagonist, though weaker than DXM and perhaps a bit stronger than magnesium.....considerable calming effect via acting on GABA, but is quite safe in doses significantly higher than usually suggested on the label: do your own research to decide dosing for yourself, but I've taken upwards of 600mg at a time on occasion for anxiety and opiate withdrawal symptoms with no undesirable effects of any kind, as have many others.

*GABA: if you don't have access to benzodiazepines, Lyrica or Neurontin etc (all of which act on GABA receptors/pathways), taking this with or without L-Theanine can have a mild calming effect and help mitigate the over-activation of your nervous system in the sudden absence of opiate agonists which you are physically dependent on.

*Loperamide (diarrhea, stomach/digestive issues, in higher doses can help actually take the edge off withdrawals but greatly exceeding the recommended OTC dosage isn't something I go around suggesting.....read up on using loperamide for withdrawal and decide for yourself how to approach this one)

*Ashwagandha: This is a somewhat more unusual one, and a bit challenging for some people's digestion; I suggest doing your research first before deciding whether to add this to your list of withdrawal self-treatment options but it can definitely be an effective one. Has applications for both withdrawal symptom relief and mitigating tolerance.

*Lactoferrin: another supplement you can get at health food stores/online supplement suppliers etc, which acts against nitric oxide, another excitatory neurochemical that is working to over-amp your nervous system in withdrawals and is involved in both pain states as well as opiate tolerance. Has the fringe benefit of being a powerful natural antibiotic (it is one of the chief immune aiding agents in mammalian breast milks).

*Melatonin: aids with sleep obviously, also can fight tolerance, has minor withdrawal symptom relief traits.

*D-Phenylalanine: blocks an enzyme that breaks down your natural endorphins, can have mild benefits for alleviating withdrawal. Doses for this purpose range from 500mg to 3-4 grams per day. Should be very safe, though obviously not if you have PKU (phenylketonuria), a sensitivity to phenylalanine. Generally if you have PKU, you know it.

I hope this helps....If I think of anything else I'll be sure to post another reply to this thread. Good luck.....I've never been in quite exactly the same position you're in, but for various reasons I've certainly had more than my fair share of experience with withdrawal during tapers, unexpected pharmacy errors/delays in getting orders in, mistakes made by my doctor in writing prescriptions, etc etc so you definitely have my sympathy and I'm sure that of many of the others here!

The good news would seem to be that when the new week begins you should be able to get this taken care of and get your next pain med fill soon....I know it seems like an eternity right now, and this will definitely be a good reminder for both you and your doctor(s) to take extra precautions to ensure that there is some kind of buffer for situations like this, so that you're not going to immediately run out if there is a delay -- particularly right before a weekend like this -- in getting a new prescription....you'd think that I myself would have long since had a perfect system for preventing this sort of thing but I am actually having some problems with my pharmacy at the moment too; I'm not in acute withdrawal because of it, thankfully, but it certainly has thrown a wrench into the works of my current tapering plan and you have my utmost sympathy!

SE

You can cut the pills in half to wean yourself down instead of going cold turkey.

Does tramadol keep anyone else from sleeping? I was prescribed it a few months ago for my pain, but I can't take it after a certain hour of day because it kind of makes me "wired" and then I cannot sleep for hours and hours after taking it.

What do you take in the evening? I can't take anything like vicodin or percocet... or pretty much anything else because I get extreme vertigo from them =/

Tramadol makes my mom hyper.
I can take it with no side effects.

Tramadol was awful both when I was on it and when I went off it. It made me incredibly nauseous. When I did stop taking it, I became violently ill and dehydrated. I was told never to take it again. All I can tell you is to do it. Like Dagger said, give it a few days and things will start to balance out. I tried a lot of things to ease it, but it is one of those really hard things that just needs to be done.

Peggy, There are some medication that is tested for fibro which has about 20% success rate. They are namely Sevella, Lyrica and Cymbalta. As far as a doc's opinion go, if they think you're on decent dose of Tramadol and it's managing your pain, they won't be tinkering with your meds. There are a few reasons for their method.
1. Tramadol is cheap, it's not and opiod and will manage the pain reasonbly well.
2. The docs is probably still thinking, if they can improve your muscular skeletal structure eg by exercise, diet and alternative therapy, they can easily dial down your tramadol and take you off it.
3. Sevella is very very expensive, what are the chances of someone staying on it for their whole life, and with 20% success rate, who wants to take the risk. Ditto for Lyrica and Cymbalta. In addition to that, all the 3 drugs targetting fibro have lots of side effects, in fact if you search through the forum, you'll find out many people have found that they got severely ill using Lyrica and Cymbalta. In summary, the doctors are playing it safe. They don't want to change things and make matters worse.

The down side of Tramadol is, that's it's only a pain killer. It doesn't help with the fibro fog or depression part of things.

The catch 22 side of things, if they prescribe you with an anti-depressant, they will need to take you off tramadol because there is an interaction between many anti-depressants with tramadol causing serotonin syndrome which can be deadly. Having said that, there has been many studies that has suggest that anti-depressant may help cronic pain sufferers control their pain, hence Cymbalta is used as one of the medication for Fibro. Problem is, the success rate is low, the drug side effect rate is quite high. It'll all come down to how you and your doctor want to manage your condition.

Post Edited (Fibro$ufferer) : 4/17/2013 4:21:04 AM (GMT-6)

Hi,
Yes, I was on a high dose of Tramadol for a couple months until my constipation got so bad I had to get off of it. The withdraw is HELL. Sweat, Cold, Hot, Dizzy...much more. But I can say for me the withdraws were over in about 7 days.
Lots of showers is my suggestion plus TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR. :)
Feel better.
Izzy