DOSE: T+ 0:00	100 mg	oral	Pharms - Tramadol	(pill / tablet)
T+ 0:30	50 mg	oral	Pharms - Tramadol	(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

145 lb

I am an opioid virgin. Although I drink hard alcohol regularly, I am inexperienced in all other areas. My father is a vet tech and a few days ago I realised that I had been squandering a perfect opportunity to search my house, which often becomes a makeshift pharmacy when one of our pets or humans falls ill, for prescriptions I could get high on. The only thing I found that I was willing to try was a bottle of Tramadol prescribed for my dog, who had died about a year earlier. I decided to give it a whirl under the impression that it was an anti-depressant. About an hour earlier, I had taken some meloxicam for intense muscle strain caused by a sports injury. I took two 50 mg tram tablets at around 7:30 pm orally and one more about thirty minutes later, all three on an empty stomach. I hadn't eaten anything since about 12:00 that afternoon, and all I had then was a bowl of sugary cereal and a few cheese sticks. I thought I felt high almost immediately, but I am now convinced that this was merely a placebo effect since tram was my first experience with any kind of drug.

I started to feel warm at about 9 pm, immediately following a moderate to severe bout of nausea that lasted about thirty seconds. At first, it was like being sleepy but pleasantly so; like curling up in bed warm under my covers after a perfect night's sleep. I felt lighter, warmer, and a little buzzed, a feeling which centered around my forehead and temples. I remembered bounding up the stairs, feeling lighter than air and wondering if now would be a good time to get some exercise since it felt like I was stronger. I had been having moderate to severe muscle pains in my legs to the point where I was limping, but as soon as the tramadol kicked in, the pain was greatly diminished. Normally at this time if I don't drink another cup of coffee I come down with a pretty bad migraine. The migraine was still there, but it was covered up by the medication, only leaking through intermittently. Motor-wise, I felt fluffy, but balanced. No desire to jump around or dance or move excessively like when I'm drunk, but I distinctly remember enjoying the vibrations of my voice when I was singing, so for the first hour, I talk- sung my way through my house rather than just speaking regularly. It's worth mentioning that I was home alone.

At the time, my friend was texting me while she was watching Blackfish, commenting on how depressing it was and how little faith she had in humanity, sentiments I normally agree with. I texted her back saying, 'I would be more sympathetic but I don't think it is neurochemically possible for me to experience any negative emotions right now.' After realising this, I actively tried to make myself unhappy and bitter but it was like there was a big fluffy roadblock between me and that heavy, collapsing feeling of depression. My thoughts themselves were fuzzy and difficult to hear inside my head, so I mostly spoke/sung out loud. I clearly wasn't having any linguistic deficiencies, though I later had difficulty remembering simple words such as 'escape' or the number that comes after sixty nine.

Visually, it was hard to focus on anything that wasn't right up in my face. I could only focus on the spot I was looking directly at: everything else strained my eyes. The world stayed put, however. There were no hallucinations or even visual distortions, though I did notice that it felt like my vision had gotten slightly worse. Concentration-wise, multi-tasking was impossible. If I wanted to concentrate on something I had to concentrate on it and it only. In addition, I had difficulty recalling what I had been doing during the day.

In the first hour, I was aware enough to make myself a pretty good pizza, despite never having made anything more complicated than burned eggs before. I usually live off of quick-fix TV dinners and ten minute mac and cheese, so I assume the only reason I was patient enough to make a pizza was because the tramadol completely erased the hypoglycaemic feelings of hunger I had been experiencing before the tram kicked in. I also observed that I was less sensitive to pain when I accidentally touched the 400 degree pizza stone. It hurt, but only on my skin. It was like the pain didn't reach my mind. During the whole experience, a theme was the separation of mind and body. Many of my bodily sensations were dampened or distant. My muscle function decreased at this time as well: I had trouble swallowing even small bites of solid food. I never choked (I was still mentally aware enough to know that I had to be cautious) but I came close a few times.

I ate six slices of the eight inch, eight slice cheese pizza, which normally leaves me feeling uncomfortably full but didn't bother me at all at the time. At one point, I was overcome by a sudden intense thirst and drank about two full glasses of milk in about five minutes. I still didn't feel like I had overeaten, but I no longer had the desire to eat. Trying to eat didn't make me feel sick to my stomach, it was just generally off-putting.

Between 10 and 10:30 pm, I started to feel sedentary instead of weightless, like I just wanted to sit and watch Star Trek all night, not thinking and not moving. I noticed that my breathing had become shallow and that taking deep breaths was difficult. For some reason, this did not concern me. My jaw began to feel like it was being pushed open, like a tension headache in my mouth. Speech required more effort. I began to have brief bouts of itching that reminded me a bit of a minor sunburn, only less demanding. I also experienced a slight noise sensitivity. I felt that loud noises were a threat to the mellowness of my mind.

Later (1130ish), the warm feeling of euphoria petered out into a full-stomached lethargy, the kind I get after I eat too much. I began to feel extremely nauseous, like I wanted to throw up but couldn't. This was not caused by, but may have been aggravated by, anxiety after I looked up whether or not itching was a normal reaction to tramadol and ending up on a page that listed the warning signs of tram overdose: shallow breathing, sleepiness, and itching, all symptoms I had. Inconveniently, my family chose this moment to return home. I had prepared excuses for any odd behavior ahead of time, planning on saying I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but I panicked irrationally at the prospect of an overdose and ran upstairs to lay down and hide. My thoughts at this time were disjointed and unclear. My dad called me downstairs and I forced myself to function well enough to take a few breaths and help him fix a ceiling fan. My mom made me take a Vitamin D-3, believing my story about a burgeoning cold. If they noticed anything strange about my behaviour, they said nothing.

I made myself some tea for the overwhelming nausea and skittered back upstairs before anyone could ask too many questions. My brother, who is the same age as I am and a little more experienced with recreational drug use, noticed that I wasn't blinking and my pupils were extremely dilated. He asked me what I was on. At this point, I never wanted to take another dose of tram again, so I gave him the last of my tram to shut him up.

Once I was back in bed, I read up on tramadol overdose to keep myself from falling asleep (I was worried about sleep apnea). At the time, I noticed that it was extremely easy to simply exhale and stop breathing for upwards of 20 seconds. This I had to do consciously, as I could still breathe, but barely. I just wanted to fall asleep/ pass out but I knew I couldn't or I might suffocate. My head began to clear when I forced myself to take deep breaths. I now wonder if the later half of my symptoms were merely caused by oxygen deprivation brought on by the depressed breathing the euphoria caused. Even at this point, I didn't have any thought disturbances other than my 'panic attack': I was very much myself and more in control of my actions than when I was feeling euphoric, although even then I was able to temper myself and perform basic tasks. I merely lacked the desire to do very much. Now, I lacked the physical energy to do very much.

Symptoms finally started to decrease around midnight. Breathing became deeper, though the loss of distance focus/ balance remained for a few hours. Instead of my jaw feeling like it was being forced open, it started to lock. I didn't drink my tea until after the nausea had dissipated, so it most likely had no effect on the progression of the drug. The last symptom to go was the warmth, then the itching, both of which until about 3 in the morning, by which time I deemed it safe to fall asleep. At this time, my muscle pains were back at the same intensity as they had been six hours earlier. My dreams were unusually vivid, bordering on lucid. When I awoke around 9 am, I still felt a little groggy, but my motor function had been mostly restored.

Misc. observations: I was very still. Normally I tap my fingers or play with my hair, but not this time. I was also prone to snapping when I heard something that irritated me, such as when my dog started barking at nothing and I yelled at her, though I apologised immediately afterwards. Things seemed to weigh less at first, like my cat and the plate I accidentally tossed across the room when I misjudged its 'weight'. Perhaps this was caused by me misjudging how much strength I needed to use to accomplish tasks. My pulse felt weaker, but not slower. The onset of the high was gradual, but it very quickly mellowed me out, so I didn't mind having to wait. The height of the high probably lasted an hour before turning sour, though it felt like 2 or 3. In addition, I had been planning on making a booty call and doing some high-jacking but I quickly realised that this was not the right kind of high for that level of physical activity. I have never been so chilled out in my life. Even my panic attack was the most chill panic attack I have ever experienced.

Exp Year: 2014	ExpID: 103543
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 17
Published: Feb 25, 2025	Views: 28
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Pharms - Tramadol (149) : General (1), First Times (2), Health Problems (27), Glowing Experiences (4), Health Benefits (32), Families (41), Alone (16)