Tramadol is sometimes prescribed for anxiety and depression but at much lower doses. 50mg twice a day. The longer you use it, the worse withdrawal gets. I get really bad panic attacks the nextbdsybif I hit it heavy.
It may be pretty hard to get a doctor to give you an opioid for depression. Especially in this day and age. Which I think is unfair, as they were once used as psychiatric drugs and were incredibly effective. But they were stopped because of their addictive nature and new medicines took over. Which traditional modern antidepressants can also be argued to be addictive, with worse side effects and horrible withdrawals and absolutely no euphoria or 'happiness'.
Although I have heard and read about cases of people being prescribed tramadol & buprenorphine for depression and anxiety. I'm sure it's not always an easy feat to accomplish though.
I went through tramadol withdrawals every month for a good 10 years. They are absolutely horrifying. And this is coming from some one who has also been through heroin, morphine, and buprenorphine withdrawals. Not only will you have the shitty opioid withdrawal, you will get an added layer of mental torment from the antidepressant tramadol withdrawal as well. I was pretty much in tears and begging out to be killed for a good two weeks every time the script ran out. All I could think about was the day I could take another one before I ended up killing myself. Very brutal. Quite a few times my withdrawals were anywhere from 400-800mg of tramadol cold turkey. No idea how I never had a seizure all those years. But I did develop myoclonic jerks one day about 4 years ago out of nowhere. And I have had them ever since. My body will jerk by itself at random times. It's mostly an issue at night when I lay down. As soon as I relax my body, my body will begin to violently jerk like I am being electrocuted. And this is long before even reaching sleep, so I know they're not hypnagogic jerks. They happen when I'm awake and sitting upright during the day, but they're not as prominent & are a little easier to ignore. Was suppose to have an MRI done to figure out what the problem is, but never went. Can't say if Tramadol had anything to do with it or not though, as I have done many other drugs through out the years and could be something totally unrelated. Thought I'd mention though in case anyone might have any idea what's going on with me.
Tapering can really help I learned though, but even at low dosages, you will still feel pretty crappy once it's all done. Everyone's subjective experiences may differ of course however.
I would really think it through before deciding to use tramadol for depression. Especially if it's not something you want to take forever. Nothing wrong with taking a medication forever either, as I believe tramadol should be offered as another maintenance option or even alongside maintenance meds to help with depression and even help with extra craving control. But if you think you're depressed right now, try amplifying that by atleast 100 and imagine how much worse life would be if you were to gain a tramadol dependency and then suddenly have it taken away from you.
I know you mean well, but I used tramadol recreationally for over 10 years. lol So i'm well past that point. I tried venlafaxine twice to see if it would have any sort of motivation edge to it that tramadol had, but i find that tramadol and venlafaxine are nothing alike, even with how closely they are related on a molecular level. I hope it helps your depression though. The first time around with it, it sent me off into a manic phase for almost a year. I'm not sure why, but I had also just gone through a very very bad breakup with somebody I cared very passionately about and was pretty messed up in the head as it is. The second time around was just recently and all it gave me was extreme nausea, strange mental feelings & intense insomnia. I think being on buprenorphine saved me from my suicidal days thankfully. But after 5 years of using bupe, it has started to lose some of (if not most of) it's positive benefits it had in the beginning. I definitely recommend buprenorphine for suicidal ideation though. I just wish it didn't have that pesky partial agonism or ceiling effect because once you become tolerant to the highest dose you can go, going any higher won't bring back any positive effects. ![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
But 5 years without any suicidal thoughts is better than any other psyche drug I've ever tried and I'm thankful for those 5 years.