Doctors I need information and your help!

[Loventrustgod91]

Hi i just want to say i did not want to end up this way. I am 20 years old and suffering from Bi polar dissorder.. I have used so many anti depressents and non of them seem to work. I am a very out going female. Im not always mean.That sad part is, is im a mother of 2 young boys.. I became addicted to narcotics:( i been on them for about 6 months and not i am planting my foot down to stop! the reason i became addiceted is because is the only thing that seems to help give me energy,motivation,happiness i feel so good on these pills! and it just sickens me because i hate when it wears off!! when im not on these pills i feel low motivation to clean basically do anything i of course HAVE to take care of my kids but its hard.. i like slug around.. i dont want to get out of bed im angry and no energy..I actually dont eat and take the pills on an empty stomach and enjoy the feeling because if i eat i know i wont get that highest feeling. i obsess about when to take these pills i think about them all the time! its taking over my life! the hard part is i know its hard to get them and i also DO need to take them sometimes for kidney pains but the tramadol doesnt work for me no more.. it went from taking 3 a day to popping 4 at a time once or even twice a day andnow THAT doesnt even work! tomorrow i plan on just not taking them. Im terrified of withdrawl and doctors i would like to know why they put that accetamin or how ever its spelled in narcotics? thats the bad part.. why cant they put that synthetic opium in antidepressents for some patients like me who suffer from mental dissorders? thats the only thing that works!!! whats so bad about opium? they should do something to add it in the antidepressents! i want to know why their not good for you.please answer and i would appriciate it ! thanks! sn. i am also prescribed to xanex 1mg and i do not like them they make me feel tired while these make me feel alive!

[Julia M Aharonov, DO]

You should definitely be talking to your psychiatrist about your medication management.  It is very common for people with bi-polar diagnosis to become addicted.  The only narcotic you mentioned was tramadol that happens to have both opioid and antidepressant qualities.  I wonder if it is those qualities that your brain is craving.  You probably need a class of medications called SSRI that you will need to discus with you doctor.  You will need it to prevent the depression that you will most likely experience coming off of the tramadol.
I would not recommend stopping it cold turkey as the withdrawal from it is essentially the same as the one for the opiates. It usually takes several weeks of the really nasty symptoms followed by several more of just insomnia and general weakness and depression. A physician may be able to prescribe you some Requip for the restless leg syndrome and possibly something like Seroquel low dose for the insomnia. As I mention above, tramadol has an effect on the serotonin receptor in the central nervous system.   That means you may also need an SSRI antidepressant to deal with some depression that may develop as the result of your withdrawal. But it does get better and better every day, so please don’t give up.  I encourage you to look at my blog on detox options for more info on withdrawals by clicking on my name and you may be interested in taking a look at my clinic’s website, www.mdsdrugdetox.com since we often detox patients with Tramadol addictions.
Once you get through the withdrawals, the only thing you should keep in mind is as people start to feel really good after a few months out; they forget how bad the withdrawal really was and think they can start using again.  Just once or twice....  and they get caught up yet again.  Please try to remember how bad it is right now and stay far away from all drugs in the future.  It is just not worth it.
Good luck to you and my best wishes.

[Loventrustgod91]

thanks for your reply back! i appricaite it very much! i am off tramadol and am only tylenol with codein but i only have 30.. i see my physitrist doctor in a few weeks and am going to speak to him about the ssri pill. i need something simular for what i am craving. because the cymbalta doesnt seem to help but i also have alot going on in my enviorment which is making the cymbalta not do its job... thank you very much!