DOSE:

50 mg

oral

Pharms - Tramadol

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

115 lb

A few months ago I was prescribed Ultram (Tramadol) for abdominal pain. I wasn't in enough pain to need it, but I filled the prescription anyway to try it. I'm curious, but skittish about breaking drug laws - but here was a prescription handed right to me. I took one, to see how it felt, and found that at the dose I was given, it was wonderful - mildly sedating, improved my mood, but didn't get in the way of anything I was doing. And the pain was gone. I put it back in my medicine cabinet to save for when it was necessary, I didn't want to waste any of this!

Then I got hit with terrible depression. This typically happens to me for a day or two during the peak of premenstrual syndrome. I couldn't go to work, and couldn't leave my apartment. Traditional antidepressants are useless for me because I don't suffer from depression - I just get that way for two days, at most, and then it's gone. About six hours into another bad depression spiral, locked in my own home and feeling hopeless and whats-the-use, I remembered reading that Tramadol works like a fast-acting SSRI. I pulled out the bottle and took one.

Two hours later, I felt completely back to normal - even a little better than that! It's not intense euphoria, not at 50 milligrams. But it cleared the depression in total, even when nicotine, alcohol, birth control pills, traditional SSRIs, MAOIs, etc. all had little to no effect on my mood plunges.

I now have hope that my life isn't going to spin out of control two days a month and that my career isn't going to go down the tubes. I guess very short-term depression like mine isn't all that common, and Tramadol wouldn't be a good drug to use for problems that last longer, but for me, it's perfect. I don't care that this isn't what it was prescribed for. It worked when nothing else did and I will definitely keep on using it. Maybe I can talk the doctor into giving it to me off-label, since it's only about four doses a month anyway.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 64715
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 18, 2021	Views: 830
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Pharms - Tramadol (149) : General (1), Retrospective / Summary (11), Depression (15), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Small Group (2-9) (17)