DOSE:

400 mg

oral

Pharms - Tramadol

(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

11 st

I’ve read many reports of using Tramadol as a recreational drug, for a ‘good time’. Although some people have touched on the scary side of Tramadol I feel the need to submit my story to help others before they land in my position.

I have bad leg pain, similar to fibromyalgia but with harsher effect. In early 2009 I was prescribed Tramadol to counter the pain.

First Month
After taking 100mg twice daily as a starting dose, it took a day or two to kick in. But when it did I was amazed, for the first time in 10 years I was virtually pain free, and felt the need to move! I cleaned the house like a madman and dived around catching drips from cups before they hit the floor. I cuddled my partner crazy and constantly told her of my undying love for her every minute of the day. I now know this was a result of the serotonin levels in my body.

This did not last long, my tolerance went slowly higher until I was at the ‘maximum’ dosage of 400mg a day, I would take the full 400mg in the morning but by the evening I felt drab and unhappy, aching all over. I later found out that Tramadol has a half-life of approximately 4 hours so I changed to spread my pills out through the day.

My worst side effects at this point, by the end of 1 month, were lack of sleep and itching all over at bedtime. I would eventually turn to staying up all night for 3 days in a row and sleeping on the 4th.

Second Month
No change for 3 months
…
Sixth (6th) Month
Now I started to get angry with these pills, over time my sex drive had gotten so low that I couldn’t even be bothered to masturbate. I just didn’t care about sex and it never crossed my mind. Needless to say this was causing my relationship to suffer and we argued constantly. I mean like every day.

This is where the really weird shit started to happen. I’ve had this pain practically my whole life and thought it was normal, so I’ve remained a positive and loving person throughout. After around 6 months on these pills I started to get really angry and stroppy at everyone, things that I’d normally just laugh at caused me to explode into fits of anger. On top of this I didn’t want anyone in my ‘personal space’ so if my partner homed in for a cuddle I’d push her away, anyone coming close to my face brought on a feeling of dire sickness and panic. So I thought to hell with these pills, and tried to quit them. I tried cutting down, I tried going cold turkey. The feeling of exhaustion is unimaginable, the ‘pain’ they bring is acute and soul destroying. I hugely underestimated these little devils.

Their worst attribute is the way they randomly work on the brain, so the side effects are just as random. I can quit for a month with no side effect and then Bang out of nowhere start feeling side effects. And this is no ordinary depressed feeling I have actually stood on the roof of tall buildings wanting to jump off rather than go through another minute of withdrawal. I did manage to kick the pills, only to realise that 6 months of taking them had made me cocky, I still had my leg pain issue and after not feeling it for so long it felt so bad I couldn’t take it. I could clearly distinguish this pain from the imagined pain of the opioid withdrawal so I picked up the pills again after being ‘clean’ for nearly 3 weeks.

14 Months
This is where I am today, I don’t have sex, I feel sick all day long, I feel itchy all night, but I am pain free until they find a proper cure for my leg pain and I have to face the withdrawal for good from these pills.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 84530
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 25
Published: Nov 25, 2020	Views: 2,201
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Pharms - Tramadol (149) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Addiction & Habituation (10), Post Trip Problems (8), Medical Use (47), Various (28)