First of all don't be afraid. It's a problem, a medical problem, that can be overcome and i would urge you to use the search function to research as much as you can about withdrawal and a lot of stuff im going to tell you. With preparation and knowledge and probably some comfort meds - you can have a much more easier time than otherwise but i have to warn you that some pain and other symptoms are to be excepted. There isn't a way currently to make it a painless process or i don't know one at least.
What are you describing about your mornings is to me typical syndrome of waking up in withdrawal and esp. typical of tramadol withdrawal, so your guess is right and your body is missing its dosing thru the night. 200 mg daily for 3 years isn't that bad, both in terms of dose and years imho. How are you taking that 100 mg x 2 daily or 50 x 4?. Do you get that tramadol from a doctor? or through the internet? I need to know more abt your situation.
Generally you have couple options how to do it/go through withdrawing from tramadol. If you are getting it from the doctor, i would open up to him and suggest to him that you want to taper tramadol down to 0 or 50 mg or 25 mg or 12.5mg it depends, he could discuss the best options with you ( at least if he's openminded), oh and dont hesitate and ask him for comfort meds for the tapering process and later for the wd. If you're not feeling like talking to him and if you have a steady supply of pills, you could try and taper on your own but i would need to know your dosage, what kind of pills you are taking and i would probably refer you to the Tapering thread, where good ppl would give you better info than i can, as i couldn't really taper, i've always failed at it. The General rule of tapering is this the slower you go the better and the lower amount of mgs you drop the better - it really depends and you and your body - imho you could try doing 10% down every week - so for example 1 week - 200mg 2week- 180mg ( you drop 20mgs) , 3 week is a drop of 10% but from 180mg so its - 180 - 18=162 mg and ideally you repeat that down to 0. If if it's too fast for you, then you can do a drop every 2 weeks but you should be okay with a 10% drop every week. It's quite a lengthy process but you should be done in a couple months. You will feel wd for a couple of days with some of this drops (prob closer to 50% of the original dose) but your body will readjust itself to the new dose. As your dose is not that bad, maybe you could do with a faster schedule or a faster drop in mgs but i would strongly suggest researching (esp the Tapering thread, maybe making a new thread), asking your doctor etc as i don't want you landing in a hot water.
Another option if you're in the States is going down the Kratom route. You could probably easily substitue your tramadol for Kratom for a week and then withdraw from Kratom. The process is this you are substituting Tramadol addiction for Kratom which is 'weaker' - kratom covers most of the symptoms of tramadol wd ( you would probably need some suplements, loperamide, some clonidine for your raised heartbeat, hot and cold flashes, probably something for possible insomnia - it really depends on the kratom (some worsened my insomnia in wd, some at higher doses like 6/7 g let me sleep pretty okay, but don't stress if you cannot get ahold any or some of this because you can go thru it just on kratom).
So for example you usually take kratom for a week / maybe max two, end up switching addictions and after a week/two weeks you go thru kratom withdrawal which is much milder in comparison to tramadol and any other opiate. The dosing well once again if you can dose kratom in low doses throught your wd then that's great - power to you, but imho generally doses are 3-4 g x 4-6 a day or 5-8 g x 4-5 times a day. From my experience the lower your daily dose of kratom during your wd - the less chance are that you will have a very hard time during your kratom wd. The lowest dose i did was 3 grams x 4 times daily and the resulting wd wasnt so bad, but there was also times where i did like 5g-7g through the day x 5 times and sometimes i added a sixth dose which was 9g - so thats like 30-40grams a day. The result was much tougher for me and my body but i also managed to go through it by way of cold turkey. If you go down this road i recommend that you start on 2-3g max, try one dose and see how long it holds you. Oh be mindful that if you will be taking kratom, then you cannot dose tramadol at the same time as it wont work and it's generally good practice to start taking kratom once you are in a withdrawal process. Take this as my opinion and research all this.
If you could persuade your doctor for some comfort meds, then also you can jump from your dose right away. Provided he provides you with all the tools you need to make it a much more bearable process.
Please tell me more about your situation. Do you want to talk with your doctor? do you get these meds from a pain clinic? Maybe you should consider going to (if thats an option) a professional rehab centre or find an addiction specialist? What's your situation in general.
Oh and i understand that you are afraid. It's perfectly normal, i felt the same as you at one point. But know this the wd process is one step, one medical problem that you can overcome. What's important is what comes next. Do you get this pills because of some medical issues? What are you going to do for pain? After quitting and going thru wd, you will probably feel lethargic and depressed and that will take some time to heal - nobody can give you an answer how much. What's important is what you can do about it. I'm talking gym(if its possible), if not then walks any form of physical activity really, doing new things, binge watching netflix etc whatever that is staying busy and taking care of yourself.
please write more, i will answer when i have time. In the meantime do research, the more you know the less you will feel scared.
