# Xanax and Tramadol = Goodbye Social Anxiety



## DK3 (Sep 21, 2011)

Hi all,

I've not posted to the forum for a while as I've been really busy the last few months and social anxiety hasn't been an issue for me for a while now.

I've discovered a drug combo, Xanax and Tramadol, which although controversial, is working extremely well for me. 

I started taking Tramadol many years ago for a knee injury as a painkiller but realised it has anti-depression and stimulant effects as well as mild opiate effects. It's said to be low risk of tolerance because it's not a true opiate drug, compared to taking Codeine etc. I can confirm this to be true. In the 3-4 years I've been taking Tramadol (often daily for months at a time) I've never felt the need to take more than the 50mg lowest dose. In fact many days I can take less (15-30mg) and it still has a dramatic effect on my depression. I can literally go from having zero energy and being able to hardly move from bed, to being able to exercise, do housework and feeling motivated to get all my work done etc.. 

The only problem with Tramadol is that the simulation effects of it (it acts on noradrenaline) can make social anxiety much worse. Pretty much the same as if you've been drinking loads of caffeine.. The way I deal with this is by taking Xanax with Tramadol. I only take a low dose of Xanax (0.5mg) and this combination works amazingly well. I feel pro-social! I have all the benefits of the Tramadol without the anxiety and feel calm and chatty around people. 

My social anxiety has been so bad before I started this drug combo that I wouldn't have or use a telephone! I was afraid to speak to people on the phone. Now I'm never off the phone! I can make calls and enjoy speaking to people.. I use Skype for voice and video calls too. Obviously this isn't entirely down to the Tramadol and Xanax, but taking those drugs has enabled me to improve my confidence and social skills over the last few months tremendously. I'm even going shopping and buying food in supermarkets, something I would never dream of doing before.. I hadn't used a supermarket for about 7 years! 

I'm not suggesting everyone should take Tramadol and Xanax and fully realise there's a big risk taking these drugs. The risk is of course tolerance, dependence and withdrawal. Re-bound anxiety with Xanax is a particular problem and I'm already beginning to experience early signs of that. It's a problem because of Xanax's fairly short half-life. If I don't take my daily dose, and I have something social coming up, the normal social anxiety I would feel seems even more intensified. When I take the Xanax, I feel fine, it just wipes out any social anxiety completely. I've not needed to increase my Xanax dose despite using almost daily for 6 months or more now. I don't know if that situation will last though. I try to have days when I don't take it (weekends when I'm at home etc) but usually something comes up and I end up taking it.

I realise I can't continue taking these drugs daily forever, but right now it's giving me a very good quality of life and I'm able to do things I couldn't otherwise do. I'm much more happier and more confidence myself and more productive in my professional and academic life. I think I will keep taking them but with the aim of building my confidence while using lower doses and gradually try to come off them over the next 12 months or so. If I can't stop taking them, then I think I'd rather be dependent on these drugs for 10+ years and have a decent quality of life and deal with rehab in my 50's, rather than go back to being socially isolated and depressed.

Well that's my experience and where I'm at now.. I'm 41 next month! Too much of my life has been wasted to social anxiety. 

P.S. I had been prescribed Valium in the past for 3 years for severe social anxiety (when I was unable to leave the house or answer the door even), and although it helped a little, Xanax seems a completely different type of drug, even though both are benzos. Xanax seems to make me relaxed and pro-social, where Valium used to just zonk me out. Strange!


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## Inshallah (May 11, 2011)

Tramadol is a lot better mood-enhancer than the real opiates such as Oxycodon, Morphine, etc. yes.

I never found it to be really pro-anxiety though.

But read my posts in my latest benzo that causes least depression thread if you will.

Reason being: should you add Xanax for the anxiety, you can be certain the mood-elevating effect of the Tramadol is going to be (a lot) less. That is if there is still even any left


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## DK3 (Sep 21, 2011)

Inshallah said:


> Tramadol is a lot better mood-enhancer than the real opiates such as Oxycodon, Morphine, etc. yes.
> 
> I never found it to be really pro-anxiety though.
> 
> ...


You're right, Tramadol is definitely an "upper" drug compared to conventional opiates.. it's very much a stimulant and has very similar effects to SSRI's but more effective I'd say, with no side effects. Even constipation that normally comes with opiate drugs is not present. The only problem for me is it can cause insomnia due to over stimulation. For that I take Etizolam.

Xanax doesn't seem to blunt any of the mood enhancing effects of Tramadol for me, but maybe because I only take a low dose of Xanax. I seem very sensitive to Tramadol too (as I said, even a low sub-50mg dose has a dramatic stimulant effect) so maybe I'm just unique in that respect.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

Isn't it dangerous to mix opioids and benzos?


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## yay (Dec 31, 2012)

swim said:


> Isn't it dangerous to mix opioids and benzos?


Just thought the same thing. :blank


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## ILOVEXANAX (Jan 22, 2013)

so you take xanax to stop the anxiety tramadol gives you?


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## bazinga (Jun 9, 2010)

The reason tramadol is not a scheduled drug is because the liver has to break down the tramadol and the metabolytes are what gets you high/provides relief. That is also why it takes longer for tramadol to kick in compared to most opiates.

Tramadol is pretty much a stripped down analogue of codeine. Tramadol also acts on serotonin so if you find yourself abusing it like I did (I would take up to 18 50mg a day), it has very nasty withdrawals which will throw you into a depression just like cold turkeying an SSRI. The old, oblong-shaped tramadol tabs were really bad about this. IMO it seemed a lot stronger than the tramadol you find now. I can't ever find the old ones anymore.

In low doses it's not so bad, but I don't like the stimulating feeling. In a way it makes it harder for me to concentrate. It doesn't feel as clean as opiates.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

ILOVEXANAX said:


> so you take xanax to stop the anxiety tramadol gives you?


does tramadol cause anxiety?


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## ILOVEXANAX (Jan 22, 2013)

swim said:


> does tramadol cause anxiety?


It causes the OP anxiety


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

swim said:


> Isn't it dangerous to mix opioids and benzos?


If one does so in a wildly reckless manner, then yes. If done reasonably, then no. Warnings to not mix the two stem from the fact that some folks can't define the term "reasonable."

Death by benzos alone simply isn't going to happen. The LD50 on benzos is so sky high that we can't even look to human deaths for data as there simply are none. We must rely on lab rats and then multiple by 150 to figure that's what it would likely take to kill a human who's 150# vs a 1# rat. Data I've seen indicate my pet rats would mostly likely suffer nothing worse than a nap even if they munched on a whole bottle of benzos.

People don't die from benzos. Benzos have only a marginal effect and they are often found in the body of drug ODs -- along with a whole damn pharmacy that typically includes massive amounts of alcohol. So you have a whole collection of CNS depressants working together to produce death in a typical case.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

swim said:


> does tramadol cause anxiety?


I don't believe anxiety is listed as a possible side effect, though apparently it does for the OP.

Years ago I tried tramadol for anxiety & depression as it theoretically could help. My mother has many thousands of extra pills; she's been using it daily for arthritis for the last 13 years.

Despite my best efforts, I never found tramadol to be useful at all. Even as a pain killer I don't think much of it. I tried it at 400mg/day for two months and it was like a sugar pill to me. So I checked if a huge dose all at once would produce any effect -- nope, even 800mg (16 pills) at once produces zero effect in me. Given the risk of seizures -- the factor that limits dosage -- I strongly recommend against trying such a huge dose as I did.


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