Uh-Oh, I think I'm hooked on my pain mediction. It's not supposed to be addictive. It's called tramadol and

Question

for mild to severe chronic pain. I have been using it as prescribed for a couple of years and just recently started upping my own dose. I'm up to about 700mg/ day and I'm getting scared. I hope that I can ween myself off of it. But then there is the pain....EEK, can anyone relate? I'm beginning to feel panicky!

Answer 1

ok... first lets dispel a few myths here.

to be addicted to something means that you will do ANYTHING to get that substance. When I worked with a pain specialist, we had a patient call the pharmacy posing as the doctor and call in his own prescription for pain medication. Or the person who goes from ER to ER to get morphine. That is an addiction.

Developing a tolerance to pain medications is different. Many people think they have become addicted because after a couple of years to a few years they find they have to increase the dosage of their pain meds to achieve the same pain relief. That does not mean you will not have withdrawals if you stop the medication.

Now having said all of that. Do not panic, this is something that happens to a lot of chronic pain patients. You are not alone. You do need to see your doctor and talk with him or her. The first reason is your medication will run out faster than it is supposed to and many doctors are not happy when patients change their own dosage. Second, is that the medication does have upper limits of dosage per day, if it is not working well any more, you and the doctor may want to discuss changing medications or adding one to help you with your pain. So go to your phone and call your doctor and talk with him.

Answer 2

Tramadol is the least addictive narcotic in the class... it doesn't mean it's NOT addictive, and if you've been taking too much, then you have an issue here...
It also says on the papers you get from the pharmacy that when you stop taking it, that you need to wean off the medication, or you will have a bad reaction (even if you don't take too much or have taken it for a much shorter amount of time).
If you've taken it for several years, you should see a pain specialist, and perhaps talk about alternatives --- not that you can't take a drug, but other things for your pain-- biofeedback, massage, acupuncture, etc.
Sometimes you need to learn to deal with it in other ways or you will just turn into a prescription addict- it's very common.
Hope you do well.
best wishes.

Answer 3

The body will adjust to any type of medication over a period of time. Do not up your dose without talking to your doctor. Tell them that it is not controlling the pain any longer. He may up the dose or change the medication. I had cancer a number of years ago and my doctor changed my pain medication every so often so I wouldn't get addicted to any of it. I was under treatment for 4 years and had 16 surgeries. After it was all said and done I got off of the meds without withdraws.

Answer 4

talk to your doctor. asap