Support Erowid Center with a $50 Donation
And get a blacklight-inked "Erologo" tee
My Mind Was Clearly Dulled
Tramadol
Citation:   TheMind. "My Mind Was Clearly Dulled: An Experience with Tramadol (exp108522)". Erowid.org. Dec 28, 2017. erowid.org/exp/108522

 
DOSE:
6 mg oral Pharms - Lorazepam (daily)
    oral Pharms - Tramadol (daily)
BODY WEIGHT: 240 lb
I feel a need to give a personal warning against Tramadol. They are not kidding when they say it’s a STRONG drug.

I had, to some degree still have, problems with bad general anxiety, and accompanying bad pains which were oddly un-located, sort of All Around. (I’ve only recently learned that this is not unusual and doctors can’t help apparently.) So I tried all kinds of different drugs from the Net. One which I felt made a difference was Tramadol. So I used it for several years, getting up to insane doses like six hundred mg daily, partly because it didn’t *really* help overall but only suppressed the pain for some hours and then it came back worse.

The first pill gave me a high, one of the few ones I’ve had. I’m supposedly intelligent and this should have given me a clue to not continue. But I did, and I used a lot of money on the thing over the following years.

I quit about eight weeks ago. My doctor warned me it would be very tough
I quit about eight weeks ago. My doctor warned me it would be very tough
, he was not wrong. But the INTENTION to quit is everything. A firm intention.

The first couple of weeks after quitting, several nights the unlocated Pain was so bad I could not even lie down! It was a horror show, and I only made it through because I’d become convinced that if I continued the Trams it would kill me within a couple of years, I had become only weaker and sicker while taking them.

I only got the incentive to quit because I got a bad anxiety attack at the dentist’s, and it could have been a heart attack so they called an ambulance. I’m a strong-willed person, but I don’t think I could have quit if something like that had not happened. That’s why I recommend not starting. It’s not easy to handle pain of any kind, outer or inner. But unless it’s quite temporary and prescribed, I would go with mental “letting go” therapies, whatever seems to work for. Drugs are only symptom suppressors, and have side effects which can get bad. (Even Paracetamol will frig up your liver if you take it for a couple of years.)

Within the first few days after quitting, my mind seemed to wake up and I started noticing a lot more around me and also my own thoughts. My mind was clearly dulled by the pills.

I should note I was also on Lorazepam (Ativan, a benzodiazepine), which I’m almost fully off now. It only helped moderately with the anxiety, but it seems to have worsened my situation, the detox symptoms got worse when I tried cold-turkeying it a few days after cold-turkeying Tramadol. I was on 6-8mg daily, also a high dose.

Exp Year: 2009-2016ExpID: 108522
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 50
Published: Dec 28, 2017Views: 1,512
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Pharms - Tramadol (149) : Health Problems (27), Medical Use (47), Post Trip Problems (8), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Retrospective / Summary (11), Alone (16)

COPYRIGHTS: All reports copyright Erowid.
No AI Training use allowed without written permission.
TERMS OF USE: By accessing this page, you agree not to download, analyze, distill, reuse, digest, or feed into any AI-type system the report data without first contacting Erowid Center and receiving written permission.

Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


Experience Vaults Index Full List of Substances Search Submit Report User Settings About Main Psychoactive Vaults