Tramadol Taper & Withdrawal

Hi Thor, good to hear from you again. So sorry to read that you are still battling trying to get off of Tramadol. Yes, it is very much normal to have a lot of pain when tapering off of a medication they have been on for quite some time. A fast taper can throw a person into a tailspin. Drs tend to wean people too fast & it wreaks pure agony for some. If you have weaned yourself off completely for quite some time you should not be experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. The same would hold true if you went off of it completely for some time & are only taking it PRN I wouldn't think withdrawal symptoms should be happening.

I was dx'd in 2002 after an emergency resection with crohns. Then I got even sicker in 2005 & knew it was something different not the typical crohns symptoms. I was right, UC got added to the mix along with crohns. My gi said the additional joint pain was crohns arthritis. That reared its head in 2003.

What type of pain are you having, I cannot remember. Take care.

I should mention that I also get very sharp pain in some joints -- like elbows/knees if used heavily in strenuous activity. Otherwise the only joint issue is a "washing-over" pain that may show up and leave within a half minute.

Thanks for sharing your story/history, too.

300mg daily -- (2) 50mg tablets three times daily along with tylenol at same time.

Thanks, Stray.

Tramadol causes a lot of highs and lows for me in the 6 hours between doses, and if the pains I'm now experiencing are more related to withdrawing in-between doses then I'd like to see if I can get rid of that.

I just completed running a load of tests at a local hospital to check again if we could find a cause of the pains, and we can't. Mayo couldn't find a cause either, two years ago.

So, it may fall in the category of mystery pains that develop after certain patients go on drugs such as the Remicade that I was on. A pain doctor I've seen over the past few years said that if the pains are similar to those patients that they will eventually go away.

Mayo told me that the pain meds themselves can create a pain syndrome by changing the wiring in your body, and you have to go off them for a couple months at least before you know if that was the issue.

It's been two years since I tried this washout period, and I want to see where I'm at before July when I take on a new venture I'm tentatively buying. If I wait I won't want to try this for months until I get the hang of the new routine.

I dropped from 2 pills 3x daily to 1.5 pills 3x daily this time for my first move down. It's been pretty bad; everything from upset digestion to insomnia, nausea, flu-like symptoms, etc. Going to have to cut only .5 pill total next drop, and give it 4+ days there before I drop another .5.

Down to 3.5 Tramadol pills a day (from 6).

Don't notice significantly more pain -- which is great news.

Having more senses of feelings -- not sure that I'm depressed -- more that the things not right in my life are more clear to me. Also sense more ambition to make changes -- but know better than to make decisions in the midst of such medicine changes. Going to talk to counselor tomorrow to keep even-keel mindset here.

Will drop to 3 pills a day tomorrow -- body tolerating the 1/2 pill drops pretty well over 2-4 days at each drop.

Thioreau:
You are making fantastic headway on your tapering.

Faster than I could ever tolerate, that's for sure. I have not typically done well at tapering from medications - I typically get the whole gambit of uncomfortable side effects.

Be sure to pace the taper at a rate that you can tolerate and at a rate that your body can physiologically adapt to.

That's interesting that you are as attuned as you are to your emotional state and desire for life changes. Such self-introspection can be a life enhancing skill. And it sounds as though you have a counselor that has your confidence to be able to explore new life possibilities. That's great.

Honestly, it sounds as thought the worst of the tapering process is behind you. Continued best wishes.
- K -

Update here:

Stopped my tramadol taper once I got down to 3 pills per day (50mg 3x daily). Was able to hold steady, but noticed significant sluggishness that didn't seem to go away, related to being in pain.

Hard to tell if that pain was withdrawal related or not, but I had to stop this taper for now. I'm in the "due diligence" stage of buying a company and the pain issues were too much for this stressful time period.

I held steady at 3 pills per day for a couple weeks, but have added in some extra now in order to keep handling everything coming at me.

I'll try this taper again in the next 6-12 months when I'm can promise myself a more calming day-to-day environment.

If things had continued to progress at 3 pills as they were from 6 going down I would have kept at it, but as I suspected things got more difficult once I started to take only one pill at a time.

Thanks for the support on here as I tried this.

Thoreau:
You are to be commended for the tapering that you have accomplished.
Give your self credit where credit is due. And that is with you. You accomplished a tapering that is to be commended.

Once the body is on a narcotic, it becomes physiologically depended on a certain degree of medication. Tapering from a narcotic is difficult because the body has become accustomed to the presence of the drug in the body.

Tapering from many of the anti-depressants that physicians so routinely prescribe can be a grueling task. Tapering is not always so easily accomplished.

All to say . . . You have done really, really well in achieving the level of toper that you have. Job well done.
- K -

Hello & welcome to the chronic pain forum. I am confused by your questions. Tramadol is prescribed to treat chronic pain. It is not a sleep aid, nor is it for treatment of depression. Go to Drugs.com & read about it, or ask your pharmacist. I would question my dr as to why I was given this as a sleep aid.

Perhaps you are confusing this with Trazadone which is often used as a sleep aid. If the Trazadone does not work, often a low antidepressant is added.

Take care.