I used to love the stuff but one day it randomly gave me a seizure even though I kept under the 400mg "safe dose" so I stopped using it.
Before it became a controlled drug tramadol was so common where I was living that it was effectively a currency in and of itself, it was fucking mad. At certain places if you had no cash you could offer a blister pack of tramadol instead, that's how widely used it was - I shit you not! So with the tramadol flowing everywhere I was flooded with the stuff for a good while, until the seizure when I stopped for good. Thankfully I had no withdrawal because I found if I used it too frequently tolerance built up extremely quickly so I kept it casual.
Years after I stopped using it I was given some by the hospital for pain and found it useless both therapeutically and recreationally. For some reason it just didn't get me high anymore, and I had no tolerance to any opiates so that was pretty baffling. Didn't want to risk another seizure so asked for dihydrocodeine instead and found it much better for both the pain and getting high even though the nurses insisted it was weaker.
Ever since then DHC has been my DOC when it comes to opiates. But tramadol? Never again. Not worth the risk for such an inconsistent high.