Matt: What’s up guys, this is Matt and Greg with project Unbroken. Today, I wanted to go over some of the side effects of methadone and run the list across Greg, see what he experienced, what he didn’t experience, to help give you guys a good idea of what it’s really like to go through that as a maintenance program.
I’m just going to run through this list. I’ll go through them quickly, if anything catches your attention, we’ll go over it after. List starts off, anxiety, nervousness, restlessness, sleep problems, weakness, drowsiness, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite, decreased sex drive, impotence or difficulty having an orgasm. Shallow breathing, hallucinations, confusion, chest pain, dizziness, fainting. Fast or pounding heartbeat, trouble breathing, light headedness or fainting.
Greg: Everything. Light headedness after that list.
Matt: Yeah. Anything come to mind or stand out a little bit as a side effect?
Greg: Well, it said diarrhea, for me it was the exact opposite. It was like totally dry.
Matt: Well, it says diarrhea and constipation, which is like …
Greg: Yeah, opposites, yeah. Definitely constipation, more dry, never diarrhea. That one stuck out, I wondered why they would say diarrhea in my case, at least. Other than that, a little bit of dizziness maybe, I guess I can see when you first start taking it. I don’t remember clearly, but when you first start taking it you’re not used to it, especially if you start on a higher dose, I can see you getting dizzy or nauseous, like that. As far as being on it and being stabilized and being on it for a while, that is really not a problem.
It said like, confusion? That was probably my main thing, confusion. Where I’ve told you before it’s almost like I was a zombie on it. I’m not sure if I realized how much I was like that when I was on it. It’s more like when I got off, I’m like, “Man, like my head is really clearing up.” You know when I got on, I started to eat better, I started to work out. I can’t tell what was from the methadone, I know some of it was definitely from methadone, but I don’t know how deep. Then what was from me just cleaning myself up and eating right and starting to work out.
Matt: Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s something that stood out in my mind a little bit, is what maybe is a side effect from the drug itself methadone and what is a side effect from the lifestyle that maybe a lot of people are living on their own methadone.
Greg: Yeah, because I was also, I think it said, did it say loss of appetite on there?
Matt: Yes.
Greg: I actually ate more. I would eat a lot and I gained a lot of weight. I was 180 pounds, which I’m 5’5″ that’s pretty big. I’m 150 now, so I’m 30 pounds less. For me, I didn’t have loss of appetite. I actually ate more. Sleep problems, I slept great on it. I had sleep problems when I got off it. The major things for me when I was on it, I think everyone’s going to be different. It depends on where you’re coming from, what you’re taking. If you’re used to taking opiates or not or that type of drug.
Me, I was on heroin for 3 years, pills two years before that, so I was pretty used to having that type of stuff in my body. When I first started taking it, maybe it was a little bit, maybe I felt a little high at first. A little dizziness, a little of that type of stuff. As I leveled off, it was more confusion, constipation, laziness. I ate more, and just like that, more lazy lifestyle. I was just lazy.
Matt: When they say weakness, do you think that’s more a feeling of lethargy? Where you wouldn’t really want to work out? Or do you think your strength could be the same?
Greg: I think maybe –
Matt: Or you just wouldn’t want to do that?
Greg: I experienced weakness today, you know what I mean?
Matt: That’s right.
Greg: That can go a lot with your diet or if you worked out really hard and you just didn’t fuel your body right. That’s not … that wasn’t something I noticed. It would be hard to peg that to methadone. Stuff like that.
Matt: Yeah, some of them kind of stand out. A little strange. When you mention that – excuse me. That when you first started methadone, you felt a little bit of a high. That goes away.
Greg: Yeah. Maybe after a few days, even. I’m trying to like, when I was on heroin my biggest thing was, I liked to lay down and feel good. Trying to get that I would go and take my dose and I would try to get – I talk about this in other videos, but I try to get more actually, so I can feel that body high and I would go home and just lay on the couch, and try to have it kick in. I did feel it for like, the first week when I was on it, I got a dose as I went up. Maybe even a few days, I don’t remember barely. It wasn’t long and then it would level off and that went away.
Matt: What about, you know the euphoric, when you’re just starting heroin, you feel really positive, all those good feelings in your head, did you get that at all?
Greg: Again, I think it was maybe the first few days where it’s like a little high, but then you just level off. Where it’s just like, “man …” I was kind of just like, the whole time I was on methadone I was just kind of like, “Meh.”
Matt: Right.
Greg: Just going. That’s the one big downside of methadone for me, was even though I didn’t know at the time, I didn’t know the extent of it, I was just a zombie. I was just going forward without thinking much or just …
Matt: Yeah. It seems like maybe, from what you’re saying, you didn’t really have any ambitions or aspirations while you were on that.
Greg: I noticed a huge difference when I came off. I did start my business back up when I was on methadone. That’s because my child was on the way. You can get that, you can momentum on it still, but when I came off the methadone, it was like … I shot up. My thinking just, it was like…
Matt: Yeah, because I was, we weren’t in touch for a lot of the time that you were on methadone, but you could see a really quick increase in everything as soon as you came off it. We caught back up when you were at the tail end of tapering off of it. As soon as you were off, athletically, everything just started to improve pretty dramatically.
Greg: It’s interesting because I started trying to eat better and working out as I was coming off. It’s like, what was from coming off methadone and what was from the exercise and nutrition. Maybe a little bit of both.
Matt: I’m sure it was a huge help.
Greg: Yeah, it’s … For me, that was at least the biggest side effect I experienced. Negative side effects just laziness, that head confusion where you can’t really think straight, mind fog. The constipation which wasn’t a big deal. Maybe a little bit of sex stuff where you can last a little longer, I don’t know, I don’t really remember. That’s about it. None of those other things really come to mind, unless maybe when I was first starting.
Matt: Yeah. Well, that sounds about right. Thanks for watching guys, hopefully that answered some of your questions as far as side effects with methadone. Again, I’m sure everyone’s going to have a different experience with these drugs and maintenance programs. It might give you a little bit of insight. Sometimes you look at this list of side effects and you’re like, “I don’t want to be dealing with all of that.” In our experience, it’s usually not that way.
Greg: Even I know people who were on methadone it’s the same thing really. Not many of those things apply.
Matt: I think they have to list all those things, just in case.
Greg: Right.
Matt: Again, everyone’s system reacts differently with different chemicals and stuff like that. Hopefully, that gives you a little bit of an idea but thank you for watching. If you guys have any topics that you want to know a little bit more about, hopefully we can offer some of our insight into it. Just leave us a comment, or you can hit us up on the contacts sections at our website ProjectUnbroken.com. We would be happy to give you our input on it.
Thanks again for watching guys, we look forward to talking to you soon. Take care.
Greg: Hit that subscribe button guys, we’ll talk to you all soon.
Matt: See ya.
