Tramadol for alcohol withdrawal
If you’re struggling with alcohol withdrawal, tramadol may be a helpful medication to ease your symptoms. Tramadol is an opioid pain reliever that can help reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, agitation, and muscle aches. It’s important to talk to your doctor before taking tramadol for alcohol withdrawal, as it can be addictive and there are potential side effects. But if tramadol is used as part of a medically supervised alcohol withdrawal treatment plan, it can be a safe and effective way to help you through the detox process.
The Risk of Tramadol Detox at Home
Tramadol detox is unlikely to put you in danger unless you have an underlying health problem. However, one should not disregard the numerous risks it may have to your mind and body.
Days after you start tramadol detox, your cravings for this drug will become more intense. If you suffer anxiety or depression and you use tramadol to calm yourself, the symptoms will worsen during the process.
Most addicts describe tramadol detox as the worst experience of their lives. Therefore, no one should go through this experience without the help of a physician.
Critically, tramadol detox can make one experience serotonin syndrome as one of its serious consequences. It is important to note that the side effects you experience while using tramadol won’t dissipate immediately when you stop using. Therefore you need to talk to your doctor to be aware of the experience you’ll likely encounter.
For prescription users, tramadol can be addictive. But with tramadol detox, your full recovery is possible.
Expectations During Tramadol Detox
As discussed, tramadol is an opiate that slows down brain activity leading to feelings of loneliness and sluggishness. Quitting the drug will intensify these feelings, especially if you have used it on a long-term basis.
During a tramadol detox, users suffer from serotonin syndrome, which can be deadly because of too much serotonin secreted in the blood. The common symptoms that you will likely experience are confusion, dilated pupils, dizziness, extreme changes in heart rate, and extreme mood changes.
Other symptoms that you may experience during a tramadol detox are headaches, nausea, insomnia, night sweats, intense cravings, and anxiety.
Duration of Tramadol Detox
After your last dose, tramadol stays in the body between three and five days. Long-term users need to wait up to a week for the drug to eliminate in their systems entirely.
Tramadol detox symptoms can get worse from the time you quit tramadol through the first week. This is the starting time you experience the symptoms because this is when tramadol fully leaves the body. After that, the physiological symptoms of withdrawal quickly disappear.
Psychological symptoms, like depression and anxiety, may linger for several weeks after you quit using tramadol. You may also experience cravings after several months.
As you become accustomed to living a tramadol-free life, your cravings disappear, and your feelings and thoughts are getting better. The effort you put into your recovery will reflect on the duration (a month to a year or more) for your cravings to disappear.
Tramadol Detox Treatment
Tramadol detox is not an easy-peasy solution to recovery. You need to keep track of your lifestyle and values to ensure you are doing it right.
Even if there are many inpatient rehab centers in the US that offer detox services, most tramadol detox programs are conducted regularly. This means that you can live your life as you work to normalize yourself.
Outpatient Facility or Inpatient Facility?
Depending on the doctor’s advice or facility you use, you will likely get a combination of medical care, psychological assistance, access to community referrals, and support groups to sobriety.
To give you an idea, outpatient facilities work best for:
- Shorter-term cases of tramadol dependency
- Low health complications
- Take low doses of tramadol
In this type of program, you can still maintain your independence. This is ideal for addicts who are confident in their ability to recover without much help.
However, inpatient facilities are recommended for those who:
- Abused tramadol for more than a year
- Have physical or mental health issues
- Take multiple drugs aside from tramadol
- Use tramadol at high doses