Opioids What do you guys think of this taper schedule? Will I still be very ill when I stop?

[crisler]

I have been on 250mg tramadol/day since christmas (about 3.5 months). On 3-29-16 I tried cold turkey stopping with lorazepam for tremors and it did not work I made it to day 3 and that morning I gave in and took my normal dose again. The violent tremors, cold sweats, nausea, vibrating brain felt like small seizures.I couldn't tough it through.

So starting tomorrow, my 21 day taper plan is this:

WK 1- 250mg, 250, 150, 150, 150, 150, 150
WK 2 - 100mg per day (50mg at wake, 50mg at bed)
WK 3 - 50mg per day (25mg at wake, and 25mg at bed with 1mg lorazepam)
WK 4 - no more tramadol, kratom and or lorazepam as needed

Is this good enough? Will I suffer bad withdrawals even after doing it like this? Thanks guys.

 

[BasX]

That's a rather small habit and a very short time span. I suspect a significant amount of your problem here is related to the serotonin action of Tramadol. Normal opiate w/d do not produce this 'vibrating brain' effect you describe. If I were you, I'd buy some OTC codeine and mix that with Tramadol the first couple weeks, then try to take only codeine for the last couple weeks. I found when I got to the point of taking 100mg codeine/day, I was able to stop with no w/d at all. Maybe you would need to go lower than that, I'm not sure. I suppose you could substitute Kratom for codeine but I've never tried it. But I think the important thing here is to mix in a traditional weak opiate with the Tramadol, ween off the Tram, then remove the weak opiate.

If your habit involved a potent opiate, I would say you should also consider a little loperamide for nausea, baclofen for muslce aches, lorazepam for sleep, and clonidine for sweats/uneasiness (although clonidine makes me extremely lethargic and tired... I have literally slept 40 hours in 2 days taking that, normal dose too). But seriously 250mg/day of Tramadol I think most would consider a joke.

 

[blueskies565]

Tramadol is not a very strong opiate and that is not a crazy dose. You really shouldn't be experiencing major withdrawal from that I think but then everyone is different. If you feel tapering is necessary for you then do that, getting clean whatever the way is a great decision. However I think you could probably do it over a shorter time period without your withdrawal being too bad. If you got too 3 days before that means you were really only a couple of days away from finishing your withdrawal. Kratom might be a good idea as it is not too strong but since your not sporting a major habit it should be enough to significantly help your withdrawal. Don't do too much, don't aim to get high from it just deal with the worst of your withdrawal.

As for the idea of mixing codeine with it, I don't really think that's a great idea as your just moving your addiction to another opiate of similar strength (in my experience a little stronger even).

Also you say you "gave in" on day 3. Does that mean you had some tramadol just lying around? You want to make sure there are no opiates around you when your getting clean cause it would take tremendous willpower to have the temptation sitting right there while your in the middle of withdrawal and not do it. Good luck man.