Opioids Tapering tramadol

[Foerock]

Hello, friends. I am a long-time opiate user and therefore withdrawals from opioid use come to me quickly.

Now I have been taking tramadol for about two weeks for pain (hemorrhoid popped out; was bleeding; nasty stuff). Dosage was minimum 37.5mg and max 225mg per day. The damn thing has finally drained and the pain has subsided. I however have started experiencing withdrawals (slight). Last night I got all depressed and anxious then started having RLS when I tried to sleep. I took 37.5mg trama + 0.5mg alprazolam and slept like a baby.

Note: I have access to two doses of 0.5 alprazolam daily, as well as 30mg of mirtazapine.

So now, what's the game plan? The withdrawals are nowhere near serious yet and I wanna avoid the abyss while I still have the willpower. 37.5mg is already warding the withdrawals off completely for ~20 hours or so. Do I just take one 37.5mg tab for a couple of days, start halving it, and so on and so forth? Will this get me out smoothly? Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance, friends.

 

[supersonic89]

Two weeks is not long. You also took low-moderate doses. If I was you, I'd quit cold turkey and use pregabalin for RLS and xanax for anxiety / insomnia. Although tappering is a good option too.

 

[Foerock]

Update: Last night I tried 37.5mg without the Xanax. Slept fine. This morning 0.5mg Xanax. Felt fine all day. Felt kinda gross about an hour ago (~6 PM). Broke the 37.5mg tablet in two and took one half (so ~19mg) and another 0.5mg Xanax. Now feel fine. Will top it off with 30mg mirtazapine for sleep.

Tomorrow I'm gonna take the other half in the evening, and the day after gonna try a cold turkey cause I think if ~19mg of tramadol does the job then I'm already at a pretty much trivial dose. And if it doesn't I'll just cut that in half.

Thank God it's just tramadol. I remember trying to "taper" heroin 6 years ago. Hahahahahaha... silly me. I just still get paranoid cause I did manage to give myself pretty horrible tramadol withdrawals once in 2017; however, I was taking 500mg a day back then and for a month. Gotta live n' learn.

 

[supersonic89]

Do you have experience tapering drugs? How has it turned out? I'm very bad for tapering, especially opioids, although I have a 1500 mg dependence on tramadol (!!!), instead you take a very moderate dose so it can work out. It's up to you and your willpower.

 

[Foerock]

Do you have experience tapering drugs? How has it turned out? I'm very bad for tapering, especially opioids, although I have a 1500 mg dependence on tramadol (!!!), instead you take a very moderate dose so it can work out. It's up to you and your willpower.

Yes I have experience but most of them were failures so I guess I'm just as bad as you if not worse at tapering (which is why I got paranoid and made this post). It helps me psychologically when posting here and seeing replies cause this forum is down to Earth; no one is FORCED to share and not all about "abstinence or death" as all the money-hungry rehabs are. They say that NA meeting shares help them; that's great for them and I wish 'em all well but it doesn't help me cause I know 80% of the kids in the circle are just lying so they can get out of rehab and use again.

I slept fine last night with the ~19mg tramadol / 0.5 Xanax / 30mg mirtazapine. Will repeat tonight and try to drop the tramadol entirely the next day. I think I may be nearing one of those rare successes. Not gonna celebrate early though; that's gotten me in trouble before lol.

 

[supersonic89]

Yes I have experience but most of them were failures so I guess I'm just as bad as you if not worse at tapering (which is why I got paranoid and made this post). It helps me psychologically when posting here and seeing replies cause this forum is down to Earth; no one is FORCED to share and not all about "abstinence or death" as all the money-hungry rehabs are. They say that NA meeting shares help them; that's great for them and I wish 'em all well but it doesn't help me cause I know 80% of the kids in the circle are just lying so they can get out of rehab and use again.

I slept fine last night with the ~19mg tramadol / 0.5 Xanax / 30mg mirtazapine. Will repeat tonight and try to drop the tramadol entirely the next day. I think I may be nearing one of those rare successes. Not gonna celebrate early though; that's gotten me in trouble before lol.

Excellent my amigo. You're definitely on the right track. I have never been able to taper opioids, but strangly with benzos I have no problems (i've never liked them anyway).
May I ask you, why do you take mirtazapine?

 

[Foerock]

Sleep aid. I can fall asleep but I can't stay asleep; I keep waking from dreams. At my dose (which is small) it's considered a sleep aid. But it can also act as an antidepressant at higher doses.

 

[kaosisallwesee]

If a single 37.5mg dose holds you for an entire day you should just stick to that for a week, then try jump off. Its a really small dose and can't imagine it will cause much in the way of withdrawals. If you still get withdrawals that are too severe half it for another week.
But I'd just cold turkey from where you are, rather than extending your use for another week unnecessarily.
You mention a max daily dosage of 225mg. How much did you actually take per day, and how long did you take that dosage. If it's only 2 weeks you should be fine stopping cold turkey or at least rapidly reducing your dose until withdrawals are negligible.

 

[kaosisallwesee]

I think you need to be willing and prepared to suffer a bit. From the sound of it you're trying to stop with zero discomfort. Withdrawal sucks, there's no way around it. Tapering won't make it pain free, and in my opinion while it lessens the severity it just prolongs the whole process.

 

[Random-dude-from-internet]

Hello, friends. I am a long-time opiate user and therefore withdrawals from opioid use come to me quickly.

Now I have been taking tramadol for about two weeks for pain (hemorrhoid popped out; was bleeding; nasty stuff). Dosage was minimum 37.5mg and max 225mg per day. The damn thing has finally drained and the pain has subsided. I however have started experiencing withdrawals (slight). Last night I got all depressed and anxious then started having RLS when I tried to sleep. I took 37.5mg trama + 0.5mg alprazolam and slept like a baby.

Note: I have access to two doses of 0.5 alprazolam daily, as well as 30mg of mirtazapine.

So now, what's the game plan? The withdrawals are nowhere near serious yet and I wanna avoid the abyss while I still have the willpower. 37.5mg is already warding the withdrawals off completely for ~20 hours or so. Do I just take one 37.5mg tab for a couple of days, start halving it, and so on and so forth? Will this get me out smoothly? Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance, friends.

Taper, taper, taper, then micro taper and continue to micro taper. And you will be fine and dandy!

 

[Foerock]

I think you need to be willing and prepared to suffer a bit. From the sound of it you're trying to stop with zero discomfort. Withdrawal sucks, there's no way around it. Tapering won't make it pain free, and in my opinion while it lessens the severity it just prolongs the whole process.

I just don't want RLS. I don't care about any other symptoms; I can handle them. Just don't want the RLS.

Anyway I'm down now to quarters now and I'm still sleeping fine; so I think I will be okay. I don't feel 100% as I type this but that's fine. I can tolerate discomfort while awake; only sleep worries me.

 

[Foerock]

If a single 37.5mg dose holds you for an entire day you should just stick to that for a week, then try jump off. Its a really small dose and can't imagine it will cause much in the way of withdrawals. If you still get withdrawals that are too severe half it for another week.
But I'd just cold turkey from where you are, rather than extending your use for another week unnecessarily.
You mention a max daily dosage of 225mg. How much did you actually take per day, and how long did you take that dosage. If it's only 2 weeks you should be fine stopping cold turkey or at least rapidly reducing your dose until withdrawals are negligible.

The dosage was random because the hemorrhoid pain was random. But it was higher in the first week than the second. I'm just paranoid cause I've failed this process before and ended up getting myself hooked (on many substances, H, morphine, oxy, trama, etc).

But really I think this time I'm doing okay. 5 days now my doses have gone down to trivial amounts and so have the withdrawals. I'm pretty sure by Tuesday I'll be able to sleep easy with no tramadol at all.

I just have to be more careful in the future and maybe cap my doses if I ever get bad pain again at 100mg or something. 225mg was a tad too much, as I must confess, on those days I had a buzz goin'.

 

[supersonic89]

@Foerock Next week I will quit the tramadol cold turkey. I got tired of taking almost 2 grams every day and it's increasingly difficult to get it. Also I lost my job, so that's a factor to quit as well. I will use venlafaxine for the serotonergic symptoms and clonazepam for anxiety / insomnia / possible seizures. Maybe pregabalin too. But I'm going to face the withdrawal like a man. I hope for the best.

 

[Foerock]

@Foerock Next week I will quit the tramadol cold turkey. I got tired of taking almost 2 grams every day and it's increasingly difficult to get it. Also I lost my job, so that's a factor to quit as well. I will use venlafaxine for the serotonergic symptoms and clonazepam for anxiety / insomnia / possible seizures. Maybe pregabalin too. But I'm going to face the withdrawal like a man. I hope for the best.

Dude best of luck - I look like a whiney 'lil bitch compared to the task you're about to undertake. Man 2 grams is really a LOT... A LOOOOOT... I think you're gonna NEED the pregbalin. I'm very glad you have access to these drugs because they are really, really going to help you. Still a daunting task though. I wish you well; be strong my friend. You can do it; you have a good withdrawal alleviating combo.

 

[supersonic89]

Dude best of luck - I look like a whiney 'lil bitch compared to the task you're about to undertake. Man 2 grams is really a LOT... A LOOOOOT... I think you're gonna NEED the pregbalin. I'm very glad you have access to these drugs because they are really, really going to help you. Still a daunting task though. I wish you well; be strong my friend. You can do it; you have a good withdrawal alleviating combo.

Yeah man, thanks for your support and kind words. I am seriously committed to this. The first few days will be the hardest and I may not even have the strength to get out of bed. I know that depression from tramadol withdrawal lasts for many months. Good thing is that where I live I can buy antidepressants without a prescription.

 

[Foerock]

Yeah man, thanks for your support and kind words. I am seriously committed to this. The first few days will be the hardest and I may not even have the strength to get out of bed. I know that depression from tramadol withdrawal lasts for many months. Good thing is that where I live I can buy antidepressants without a prescription.

Fuck the depression you can deal with that with antidepressants as you said, and/or with low doses of benzos and/or pregbalin/gabapentin. Get through the first 3 days and your confidence should skyrocket.

 

[supersonic89]

Fuck the depression you can deal with that with antidepressants as you said, and/or with low doses of benzos and/or pregbalin/gabapentin. Get through the first 3 days and your confidence should skyrocket.

Yeah amigo the first 3 days are always the worst. But actually, no joking I miss sobriety.
Almost two years taking tramadol and I also started with 37.5mg but it quickly got out of hand.
I have taken venlafaxine in the past and it was the most effective antidepressant of all the ones I have taken (escitalopram, fluoxetine, bupropion and sertraline).
My father also takes venlafaxine for his depression / anxiety and the improvements are very noticeable. So I have faith that I will come out of this well. (y)

 

[supersonic89]

Where you live

I live in Chile.
I think that in Santiago (the capital) it's almost impossible to buy medicines without a prescription. But I live in the south of Chile and in small pharmacies I can buy tramadol and antidepressants just like that. Pretty cool.

 

[supersonic89]

Venlafaxine have opiates activity check Wikipedia

Maybe that's why it worked so well for me when I used it, unlike sertraline, which did nothing for me except the inability to ejaculate.