tramadol withdrawl(withdrawal)

i've been taking tramadol for 3 months due to chronic back pain following surgery. I was taking 100mgs 4 times a day. I feel ready to stop taking them now as my pain is manageable without drugs so yesterday i didnt take one at all but when i tried to go to sleep i had the weirdest uncomfortable feeling all over my body like i needed to stretch and a huge sensation of anxiety and panic. I also started to feel like i couldn't breathe deeply enough. It was horrible and i hardly slept all night. Whats the best way to deal with this? I dont want anymore pills but i dont want to feel like that again. Should i taper my dose of tramadol rather than just stopping? I'm starting to feel the anxiety build again. Also, i have some herbal pills called relora made from bark extract which is good for anxiety-does anyone know if these are safe to take in this situation? I am also taking ciprofloxacin, fusidin and trimethaprim antibiotics for various post surgery infections. Any advice would be much appreciated x  

[gizzy32]

Tramadol should be tapered off of, it is possible to cause seizures going c/t. Congrats on wanting to stop them and luckily you were on them only 3 months. Try melatonin to help with sleep and there is a lot of great info here in the health pages. You will see that on the top right of this page. The thomas recipe in there can help too. Did you talk to your dr about stopping c/t? Good luck.

[mr.lucky66]

I agree and would add also that even though this drug isn't a true narcotic (opiate) and isn't even pleasurable, it's seems harder to get off than true opiates. This may be from the antidressant/anti anxiety effect that makes it so hard to get off with anxiety and other problems. I would suggest to taper off tramadol as fast as possible(not too fast), so you don't go into the next level of dependence to it. I seen some bad result, really bad. all the best

[coccygectomyblues]

thanks for advice. I went to a and e yesterday as my gp wanted to exclude co pulmonary embolism as a cause of my breathing trouble. They finally said they thought it was a combination of being immobile and in chronic pain but mostly due to withdrawing from tramadol so quickly. Their advice was to stick to 100mg at night and morning and just reduce daytime doses for 5days then reduce morning dose for 5days leaving the night dose reduction till last.  what a horrible drug. I'm glad i'm of strong mind and dont have an addictive personality because i can understand now how people may become dependant upon such a substance if only initially to stop these horrible side effects. Then over time you develope a fear of ever coping without it so you continue and often have to step up the dosage to continue getting the same effect. Evil stuff. Its been good to have a bit of morale support on here, thanks guys x