DOSE:

repeated

oral

Pharms - Tramadol

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

I tried codeine once (codeine plus acetaminophen, processed using cold water method), and really didn’t enjoy it at all. It just made me feel sick. Tramadol caused no such unpleasantness, but it wasn’t the euphoric bang I had expected. My first experience was three 50 mg pills taken on a full stomach. This is what I wrote at the time (provided as an unvarnished perspective on what I felt at the time):

***I took three 50mg pills of Tramadol this evening around 7:42. It’s now about 9:40, and the effects became pronounced only about 15 or 20 minutes ago. I feel lethargic. My body is somewhat numb. It feels like being very drunk, but without the dizziness or wildness. I wouldn’t describe it as euphoric. Not comfortable and not uncomfortable. I broke into a sweat as I finished typing the previous sentence. Definitely uncomfortable. I drank two glasses of water and then laid down on the floor to read my homework. I quickly began to feel much better. Still, this is a very mellow and muted high, with none of the exuberance and rush of being drunk.***

Now that I’ve had a little more experience with it, I offer the following summary:

Mellow, relaxing and comfortable, but no sweeping feeling of euphoria. I’ve never tried other types of strong pain medications (other than codeine, as mentioned above), but some people say that the Tramadol experience compares favorably with Oxycontin, etc. If that’s the case, then I can’t imagine what all the fuss is about.

Tramadol is not an addictive, euphoric rush. It’s much more subtle. I compare it to the feeling I get after having stood in the cold rain for twenty minutes, I go inside, take a nice hot shower, and then relax in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa.

All aches and pains and such disappear. I get a pleasant numbness of the body, especially fingers, toes, hands, feet and legs. I’m neither dizzy nor sleepy. The best thing about the high is the lack of stink and sloppiness that I get from drinking. Tramadol is a very clean and gentle. I don’t notice any loss of coordination or sloppy speech. Itchiness is not a problem, at least not anymore than I normally feel when the air is dry. For me, onset is affected by whether I’ve eaten or not. On a full stomach I don’t feel anything until an hour and a half after I take the pills. On an empty stomach, the numbness hits after about forty minutes.

Alcohol—I like to drink a little when I take the pills. Slowly drinking beer (about one can per hour) really augments the high, by which I mean that it increases the mellow, comfortable feeling. In instances when I have taken Tramadol by itself without drinking, I’m left feeling like I need a little boost to the experience, even when I know I should be feeling the peak effect. Maybe I’m just a booze hound. On the one occasion that I drank too much (several stiff drinks in short succession), my head started spinning and I felt even more terrible than I might have if I had just been drunk. I woke up the next morning with nausea and a lingering headache. I’ve never had a hangover with Tramadol alone.

Peeing— At high doses Tramadol seems to numb whatever muscle handles the urination function. Not impossible to deal with, but I end up standing in front of the toilet for several minutes while my pee dribbles out.

Tolerance—Definitely a problem. After a week or two of abstinence, 150 mg will do nicely, whereas after several daily doses the effect is hardly noticeable. Daily doses require more like 300-400 mg to get a good high, and even then it tapers off. I’ve never taken Tramadol more than three days in a row. The most I’ve ever taken is 400 mg to start and then a 150 mg boost about five hours later. Instead of producing greater intensity, the boost only prolonged the plateau.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 60685
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 26, 2007	Views: 8,789
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Pharms - Tramadol (149) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Various (28)