Coming off Tramadol

Morning,I reduced my slow release tramadol from 400mg daily to 200mg,I had a tough time but came through,6 months later I am coming down again,my doctor says cut the pill in half and I've read that changes the way slow release works,the drs say there isnt any Lower than 100mg slow release,I've decided to change to normal tramadol and instead of 100mg 2x daily I will take 25mg 6 x daily,I live in Germany now and the Dr is english but as most gps have no idea of weaning off or withdrawal,they should all be made to sign in to this site daily perhaps they'd learn a little,it's not all about 'what's up, take this and lay down,NEXT .here in Germany in hospital they were amazed I've been on so my medication for the last 17 year's,here it's more about finding out about the problem thatn prescribing drugs.☺

Hi,I've been on Tramadol for a few years dues to back problems,I need ton eat off them,my doctor & myself decided to do it really slowly I usualy take 1 4x aday so the plan was every other day to take 3 now even that don't work so I'm trying every 3rd day to miss one tablet out,as my side effects are horrendous sweats,irritable,stomach cramps,sickness,I get the shakes really bad! So I really think the slower you do it the better & definatly don't stop I was ill over xmas & forgot a day,I thought I was going to be admitted to hospital it was terrible,But my doctor also said if I cant manage to get off them there is another way,she is going to call The Drug team in so that's another option,I hope you do ok

I will Dave thanks for your feedback,glad I'm not alone!

Hi,I have dropped after 17 years from 400mg Sr tramadol to 200mg it was hell but I was in the hospital for something else anyway never again unroll now I have since Monday reduced from 100mg x2 daily to 150mg daily,that is to say I take 50mg Sr tramadol in the evening at 6pm while it's better to withdrawl in your sleep then when I wake, yes after a sh*tty night,bad dreams,cold etc,to look forward to 6am when I get to take the full 100mg Sr tramadol, after 3 weeks I will change to normal tramadol and f ing 25mg I had these in hospital,I always rush theses thing but the voice of reason (the wife) always sets me straight and plans this for me,I hate it when she's right 😀,I hope you get there goid luck and keep talking.

I managed to get off tramadol with limited pain and suffering..But it takes a long slow detox..I did it over six or seven months...once a week taking a little bit less..till at the end I was cutting micro pieces off my pills with a razer blade...rediculusly small pieces like 1/8 or less of a pill...Till basically I couldn't cut them any smaller...Then and only then did I quit!

Tramadol is one of the worse drugs to come off..I should know I have been on morphine and methadone too in the past!  The Dr's don't realize that it is so addictave..But there is a way out!  Just take your time!  I am off everything now and keep my pills only for an emergency!  Never never take them every day again!

Hi fizzysoap. I wass just lookign for side effects of coming off tramadol and saw this. I think your doctor set you to come off way too fast. 

My weaning consisted of 

300mg - 2x150 

then

Week 1

300mg

2 x 50 am

2 x 50 pm

2 x 50 night

Week 2

250mg

2 x 50 am

1 x 50 pm

2 x 50 night

Week 3

200mg

2 x 50 am

1 x 50 pm

​1 x 50 night

Week 4

150mg

1 x 50 am

1 x 50 pm

​1 x 50 night

Week 5 (this week)

100mg

1 x 50 am

1 x 50 night

Week 6 (next week)

50mg

1 x 50 am

Week 7

Clear

It has not been easy, but a lot easier than dropping 100mg at a time. I have spoken to an ex-heroin addict and he said that coming off the Tramadol was like when he came off the heroin.

I hope you have managed to come off them now.

Hi Eveyone,I've ben dropping my Tramadol now for 2 months,I am taking half what I was on,so I'm happy about that,I'm not prepared to go though side effects I tried stopping completely it was horrendous,So my question is has anyone found they are eating a lot more???  I am & hate it! 👎

Hi Fizzysoap, well i am on a diet but yes it can make you eat more. I was on Tramadol for 10 yrs. I just want to let yu know how the tablets made me feel. Firstly i suffered with depression through stressfull events in my life. Tramadol mae me feel great, chilled out and were better than any Anti Depresent Tablet?. I know there classed as a pain Killer but i think they dont cure pain truthfully. I was on 16Tablets a day sometimes 50mg. Not every day.Sometimes 8- 10.To me the tablets were a comfort i felt great. I have been off them 2 weeks cold tukey.It isnt easy ok. No quick fix to make you feel better. I was always tired could sleep for hours and hours.i work night shifts but even on day shifts i would pop some in my mouth just for comfort to make me feel better even if i wasnt in an mental sort of pain or down. Tramadol are a great tablet if you suffer from depression and i dont mean Manic Depression. lifes events can stress some of us more than others and its the severity of how we cope with situations. I went to my doctor who told me TRMDOL werent addictive. My point is i did try to get help but deep down wanted the safety of the tablets. Like a lcoholic wants Booze

Coming off of Tramadol is extremely tough.  The withdrawals are horrible, and they last for weeks.  But it is possible to stop taking it for good.  I was dumb enough to do it twice.  The only way to come off of Tramadol is to slowly taper off a little at a time.  If you have withdrawals, coming off cold turkey feels nearly impossible.  One of the worst withdrawals is the extreme restlessness, making it nearly impossible to sleep for weeks.  Tramadol stays in your system for a long time.  You will need to taper off slowly until you are down to a half a pill a day.  Then you may need to take that 1/2 pill for over a week until you are albe to come off it 100% and not have bad withdrawal symtems.  Or you can see how long you can eventually go without taking a pill, and then only take a 1/2 pill when you feel the withdrawal systems coming back.  Again, tramadol stays in your system a long time.  This is not a quick process, but I promise, it's doable! 

I know this was a long time a go but I hope its of help to someone who reads it.

I got prescribed tramadol for chronic pain. My Dr just basically said I can take two 50mg up to 4 times a day as I need them. So I got home and took my first dose, I felt a little sick but otherwise I felt fantastic, so I carried on. Slowly the tramadol started to have less of a effect on pain but I felt awful if I didn't take any. So I kept upping my dose so I was taking 8 - 10 a day which is a lot for anyone but I'm only very small. I'd take a dose before I'd go to bed and and already start to withdraw by the following morning giving me the most horrendous migraines, so I'd take another dose.

After a long time I felt this was really bad for me and making me much worse than I initially was. So I made the decision to stop and didn't really procrastinate on the matter. So within the next few days I decided to cut down by 50 and reduced it by 50 each week. It was horrible, I was failing college but I knew I had to quit it.

When it got down to the last 50 I spoke to my mom and said keep these away from me, however much I cry and shout don't let me take them. Anyone trying to quit definitely needs someone to support them , be it a family member, friend, support group or even the fine people on here they will help you through it. If you have people you need to care for try and get someone to help you with that during this time. It's hard enough to care for others all the time but when you are withdrawing as well it's impossible.

So I had my last and within a few hours the headaches started then came the crawling skin, the pain, the restless legs, the insomnia, the anxiety, the sickness.... You get the idea. I didn't want to get hooked on anything else so I stuck to paracetamol, ibuprofen and low dose codeine. I also used ibuprofen gel, massaged myself, and had about 3 or 4 showers a day. The water helped with the restless legs a lot. I drank litres of tea to help with the anxiety and shaking. Also used ice packs and heat packs. I also tried relaxation techniques and just treated it like an illness that I should look after myself as much as possible as I was putting my body through something horrendous.

The worst of it was over in a week and then everything started to improve, although I had horrible gastric problems following that. I was weak and my muscles had wasted through not eating but the tramadol had covered it up I now weighed 6 stone. I couldn't walk very far without getting exhausted and depressed. I was determined to not give up.

I completed college with an ok grade but was not happy with myself or my life. I started with little walks to the shop's and such like, slowly building up my stamina, it took time don't get me wrong. After about 6 months I stepped it up and started a dance class and I just went on from strength to strength.

It's been about 4 years since I stopped and I dance and do yoga and enjoy the outdoors. I went back to work earned some money to go back to college and now I'm at university studying to be a nurse. It is really hard and I don't think people understand how difficult it is. I know this sounds cliche but I think to myself I've done this really hard thing and whenever things get me down I think I handled tramadol withdrawal. I've done something really really difficult and it makes me stronger.

I know I've really babbled but I felt I should share and prove that there is a better life the other side of it. I find myself back here because I've been I a lot more pain than usual and so I reached for the tramadol. Stupid I know. Needless to say a few days of doses later, I feel pretty crap now but still have the thought in the back of my mind to take more. So I wrote my story to remind myself that I don't need it and my life is so much better now.

You can do it I know its

extremely hard and you don't think things will get better but I promise you they do!

If anyone is thinking of trying to do this a lone I urge you to find someone you can talk to it will make everything easier.

Kind wishes to all

I am with you completely as I have been withdrawing for 8 months, this has been done very slowly starting off with 100mg x 4 a day and cutting down one tablet at a time with a three week period, some times alternating between a drop and going back up, this last two weeks I have been down to 1/2 a day which I have alternated between days, my last tablet was Sunday and Monday wasn't too bad, Tuesday I was very tired and a bit fuzzy headed, today I am very fuzzy headed, all my limbs ache and I even struggled getting down the stairs, just feels like really bad flu symptoms, so I have stayed at home and I am going to fight through this, I am taking paracetamol for the pain and just trying to rest up, good luck it's not easy and I am sure no one understands that hasn't tried to withdraw from it themselves

Hello, if you are taking tramadol and need a reason to quit, then read this.

I've been reading a lot of the posts here. It's amazing how similar most people's symptoms and struggles are. I don't know about the med regulation in the UK but here tramadol was changed to a controlled substance last year due to its increasing numbers of dependency, abuse, and deaths related to it.

I have been on the same dose, 1 50 mg tab every 4 hours for degenerative joint disease in my right hip (due to a hip dislocation at birth) for 15 years. Was on a lower dose before that.

Tramadol is not meant for long term use. In November of last year I was diagnosed by a neurologist as having temporal lobe epilepsy. I started having partial complex seizures 3-4 times a week. I also have chronic migraine (since I was 6 yrs. old) and was get 3-4 a week. I was put on seizure meds that did not work, I lost my license to drive due to seizure disorder, could not work in my profession (emergency medical technician), could not leave my house alone, and my condition kept deteriorating til I was in a brain fog 4-5 days a week. I saw my dr, a PA there, a cardiologist, 2 different neurologist, and all they did was put me on more meds. They all had my med lists.

I kept doing research and trying to find answers. Looked up tramadol, hadn't done it since I had been on it at some dosage for 18 years....and there it was. It can lower your threshold for seizure, and can cause seizure.

None of the dr or pharmacist caught the major drug reaction between tramadol and the migraine meds I was on or the muscle relaxer I was taking.

I stopped the seizure meds, muscle relaxer, used migraine meds less frequently and lowers my dose of tramadol to every 6 hrs....and the seizures stopped, and my brain cleared. My last seizure was March 1 at of this year. The pain in my hip is barely there, when even on tramadol some days it was it barely tolerable. My migraine frequency is down to one a week.

I tried lowering my dose further but everytime I went below 100 mg all the withdrawal would kick in and I went back to 4/day. So I let my prescription run out and went cold turkey last Sunday, May 17th. I want my life back. All the drug interactions took it away, mostly because of the tramadol. I am coming out of it now. I can already feel different after not taking it for 9 days. I have all the withdrawal symptoms but that's not making me go back. this feels more real than when I was on it, more me, and it can only get better.