ULTRAM/ULTRACET/TRAMADOL: The Truth about this 'non narcotic' please

[percsnomas]

Hey Goldie, this new thread is for you!!!

There is a great deal of confusion with respect to this drug.

Why is it, that if this a non narcotic and non addicting med., i continue to read(or hear) about, horror story after horror story getting off of it???????

Seems many would say the withdrawal from tramadol is far worse than many opiates.

A wise friend of mine even mentioned a front page article in their local newspaper(recently), siting what a great "alternative" Ultam is, in that it is "non-addicting".

Any help would be appreciated.

percs

[dominosarah]

Good call on that one.  They are highly addictive and brutal to come off of......

Congrats on 14 yrs clean!!!!!!!!                          sara

[dopefiend147]

I'm a recovering addict and have been clean for 14 years, my drug of choice being opiates. Hydrocodone and Oxycodone were my favorite. I got addicted thanks to a very bad case of restless leg syndrome and every time I tried to detox, the rls became unbearable and I would give up. I took one 50mg tramadol about 4 years ago to see if it would help my rls but it did not, and I didnt dare take any more and risk my recovery. Catapress, a blood pressure medication, non-addictive, non-narcotic, which is used to treat opiate addiction does help my rls though. Tonight I came upon this thread because I have a bad cold and my throat is very sore and I have some tramadol here that I give my dog for pain, and I wanted to know if it was safe for recovering opiate addicts to take. I was hoping it was but after reading this thread, I'm staying the hell away from them so thank you everyone for posting.

[all4mygrlz]

I have taken ultram before, I used to get the 200 er tabs. I mainly used it when I ran out of my DOCs to ease the WS's' in the beginning they did help but as my addiction and tolerance grew the tramadol stopped working.

I have a question for those of you that do take it; does it do anything for your pain? if you have little or no tolerance will it give you a buzz? I'm not looking to take or score any, just curious. I have always understood it to be similar to morphine but non narcotic. Are the wd's as bad as coming off opiates? I hope all the best for you folks coming off it

[kajama]

well in my short experience with tramadol, I was addicted to Lortab but then had the opportunity to get some tramadol. I had to take so much of it just for it to work. My doc had given me 200mg so I would take about6-7 at a time just to help with not wanting my Lortab...well i went back to lortab cause the tramadol didn't help much. I think that doctors are promoting it as an attertive to opiods, but they are wrong (like I said in my opion)

[theGolden1]

Gee  . . I wish I knew where to find her. hmmm ... let me think. It was a long time ago.
Thanks for remembering me. Also Prospero ... it's nice to have a place like this to come to. I think maybe I need to gain more understanding of my situation. It's kind of shocking to look around and realize that I am still seeking answers, but not finding them. It dosen't matter how much or how little we take, but how it affects us. I have alot to think about . .  

[Prospero73]

If you've been taking tram for ten years, staying within the prescribed limits, and it works for you, that sounds sort of like a successful usage.  You don't see many of those on here, as this forum is about drug abuse.  I monitor the posts of tramadol, because I've been taking .25 mg/day for arthritis in my right thumb for about 11 months.  It helps, not spectacularly, but so far I've seen no reason to discontinue it, and reading the horror stories about it here and on Emily's journal have been very effective in warning me against increasing the dosage, for whatever reason.

It's astonishing how varied the responses are to this and many other substances.  It makes one think twice about proposals to ban anything, on the grounds that the hazards outweigh the legitimate use.    I could say more on this subject, but will save it for the social forum.