Opioids Anyone have personal experience with suboxone AND tramadol dependency

[Myxomatosis]

To give a little insight into my predicament, I have been on about 350mg of tramadol daily for the past 7 1/2 months. I have also been on .5mg of suboxone for roughly 10 months (I had actually gotten off subs and trams and was "clean" for about 2-3 weeks before completely relapsing). I am down to my last .5mg of suboxone, I still have a month or so worth of tramadol left.

So I guess I am just curious to see if anyone has any personal experience with this, does anybody know what I can expect?

I'll be honest in saying I'm not THAT worried about it, as I think the tramadol (although I won't be taking any higher of a dose than what I have been for the past 7 1/2 months) will mask a lot of the w/d symptoms. I also think I could get my hands on some kratom, which I may do although I have no experience with kratom so I would have to familiarize myself with it before considering using it to ease sub withdrawals (I realize this could be seen as counter-productive, but that's another discussion entirely).

 

[Tnich55]

Unfortunately I don't have this type of experience exactly, I do have experience with both substances.

I would recommend breaking down that last .5mg of sub and using it tiny bit by bit each day along with the tramadol. It may be a good idea to taper down the tramadol, as by the time you run out you will have probably past the worst of the w/d from the subs. I know its not exactly gold but just a thought.

Also with the coming off tramadol, I have done it once and got the SNRI w/d with mild opiate w/d. The SNRI stuff is like coming off certain antidepressants like Cymbalta or Effexor. Hopefully you won't get it but for me I had the whole brain zap thing, which I absolutely could not stand. On an unrelated note thats what made me get myself off Cymbalta, I would wake up with the feeling and hated it... took maybe a week to get over that part of it.

EDIT : just wanted to add that when I came off Tramadol I was taking roughly 300-400mg per day throughout the day, but always started with at least 250mg and took more later on. The period of time was roughly 4 months.. just to give you a little comparative idea.

 

[Myxomatosis]

Cheers for the response, I did end up breaking the .5mg into 2 pieces, and have dosed 1 of them this morning, not sure what I will do with the remaining piece.

As far as the tramadol goes, I DEFINITELY will taper before getting off of this stuff, as I have been on it for the past 3-4 years on and off, and have plenty of experience with the withdrawals from it as well. I have found tramadol withdrawal to be absolutely dreadful, and my success rate is 0% for staying off trams for longer than a month, probably because of how poorly I have approached kicking the habit in the first place. But tapering definitely has weakened the effects of the w/d's for me in the past.

However, it's likely I will get more before actually trying to get off so the month supply of tramadol is not set in stone for me.

 

[Ondine]

Haven't used suboxone much, but I just recently came off 400mg of tramadol a day and it was absolutely brutal. I basically had to taper it down to 25mg a day, after attempting to stop cold turkey, and even then I had unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

I've been through moderate opiate withdrawal before and I have to say that getting off tramadol was much worse. I would get this weird sinus inflammation where it would basically feel like I had a huge chunk of mucus stuck right about where the sinuses become the windpipe/esophagus. It basically felt like I was on the verge of suffocating all the time. After attempting to flush it out with a neti pot several times a day, it became clear that there was nothing actually back there, and it was just a sensation caused by a sort of sinusitis. The nausea was also terrible, but the worst part was the agitation. When I've withdrawn from opiates in the past, it's at least fairly comfortable to just stay in bed in rest. With tramadol, I couldn't even stay comfortable in bed. I couldn't stay comfortable anywhere. It was like as soon as I laid down my body just felt the urge to toss and turn and move about. Sort of like RLS but not so much in the legs.

All in all a very unpleasant experience. As far as I'm aware, the withdrawal symptoms are unique from typical opiate withdrawal, so I don't think there's much you can do besides taper off as slowly and carefully as possible.

 

[Ondine]

Haven't used suboxone much, but I just recently came off 400mg of tramadol a day and it was absolutely brutal. I basically had to taper it down to 25mg a day, after attempting to stop cold turkey, and even then I had unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

I've been through moderate opiate withdrawal before and I have to say that getting off tramadol was much worse. I would get this weird sinus inflammation where it would basically feel like I had a huge chunk of mucus stuck right about where the sinuses become the windpipe/esophagus. It basically felt like I was on the verge of suffocating all the time. After attempting to flush it out with a neti pot several times a day, it became clear that there was nothing actually back there, and it was just a sensation caused by a sort of sinusitis. The nausea was also terrible, but the worst part was the agitation. When I've withdrawn from opiates in the past, it's at least fairly comfortable to just stay in bed in rest. With tramadol, I couldn't even stay comfortable in bed. I couldn't stay comfortable anywhere. It was like as soon as I laid down my body just felt the urge to toss and turn and move about. Sort of like RLS but not so much in the legs.

All in all a very unpleasant experience. As far as I'm aware, the withdrawal symptoms are unique from typical opiate withdrawal, so I don't think there's much you can do besides taper off as slowly and carefully as possible.

Seems pretty fucked up; my doctor prescribed it to me to deal with residual pain after foot surgery, mostly because it's uncontrolled and not treated as a true opioid. All in all, it caused me way more stress and suffering than opiates ever have, and to be honest, it wasn't that effective in treating my pain.