I first became acquainted with this drug after a visit to the doctor complaining of chronic back pain. I know how ridiculously hard it is to get any opiate from American doctors so I expected some naproxen or ibuprofen. He gave me tramadol instead and I thought it was just some generic celebrex. When I learned it was a synthetic opioid I was pretty excited, I should admit I have a bit of an addiction to Vicodin.
I got home and after some research decided on 100mg. The effects took very long to come on, nearly an hour. I would have to describe the most overwhelming feeling of this drug as warm and tingly. Unfortunately I experienced no euphoria as with traditional opioids, however it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, just not a 'high' like I'm used to.
I will say that it lasts a heck of long time, 8-10 hours, and is very great at reducing withdrawal symptoms from opioids like vicodin, etc. That is the only reason I keep it on hand. It's similar to methadone, in that it provides a numbing long lasting opiate feeling that hides the nasty withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, as I found out later, tramadol has some withdrawal syptoms of it's own, but I found them to be much more manageable than the restlessness, anxiety and fatigue from vicodin withdrawal.
