coming off a tramadol binge, need advice and help

[Mr.Anxious]

Hi, (first bluelight post)
Background:
I use kratom every day, around 8-9 grams total. Have been on it mainly for 3 years.

I stupidly got tramadol and binged on it for 2 weeks. Daily doses went up to 1000 mg. I used small doses of benzos as well with the tramadol to lessen seizure possibility.

I'm trying to taper off. First I went down to 500, then 350, then 250 for a couple of days.

I'm having a LOT of anxiety and depression. I think its from the tramadol withdrawal because my normal kratom doses don't relieve me much at all. And kratom withdrawals never made me feel this bad. I can't sleep much without sleep aids. Scared of getting addicted to those (gabapentin, benzos)

I'm going to see my doctor. But I have a few questions for anyone knowledgeable.

Is my taper too fast, too slow, or just right? Since I was only on it for 2 weeks do I need to taper?

Should I ask my doctor for valium or librium or something to ease my anxiety and depression? Then should I follow a taper or cold turkey the Tramadol?

The anxiety and depression are really getting to me. Please tell me your suggestions. I want to get off tramadol, then slowly get off kratom, but mainly I want to not feel like this, or get into something worse.

 

[Mr.Anxious]

I'll respond to myself for helping anyone else with a similar problem.

I went CT on the Tramadol, raising my kratom intake from 8 to 13 grams per day, divided into 3 or 4 roughly equal doses. This worked. I have now been off Tramadol for 6 days and no longer have any physical withdrawal symptoms.

My doctor prescribed Librium 10 mg 3x per day. It wasn't enough so I talked to him and then doubled Librium 20mg 3x per day. I have done that for 5 days. I now am thinking about getting off the Librium.

I don't know whether to taper or cold turkey the Librium. Either way, once that process is finished I will resume a very slow taper off of kratom.

 

[Mafioso]

I'm not familiar with Librium, but 60mg a day sounds pretty high to me. I'd be very careful about using any benzo at a high dose, or even low dose for an extended period of time. Most people would agree that benzo withdraw is worse and more dangerous as you can go into seizure.

The point of tapering is not to remove all withdraw symptoms but to lessen them to a bearable degree. If it was just a few week binge you really shouldn't need benzos to taper off IMO... I wouldn't suggest going cold turkey off of benzos if you couldn't handle going cold off of a opiate binge. Maybe ask your doctor who prescribed you the benzo about tapering, but I'd think that you would want a short taper over the next 5-7 days to reduce physical dependency and risk of seizure. The longer you take them the greater the risk.