Greg: All right, what is going on everyone? It is Matt and Greg here from Project Unbroken. Today, what I’m going to do is I’m going to go over some of the side effects of suboxone. I have a reputable website here. I’m going to read off the side effects that they list and then, Matt, I want you to go over what you can, what side effects you remember having. Then, we can maybe touch on some of these other side effects, why they might happen or whatever. Just from our experience at least.
So, some of the side effects they say suboxone includes would be mouth numbness, mouth redness, mouth pain, headache, dizziness, numbness or tingling, drowsiness, sleep problems, stomach pain, vomiting, constipation, feeling drunk, trouble concentrating, fainting, fast or irregular heartbeat, severe dizziness, mental or mood changes, slow or shallow breathing, drowsiness, or difficulty waking up.
Matt: Just everything?
Greg: Yeah. Everything. You’re going to go through everything when you’re on suboxone.
Matt: You’ll feel like shit.
Greg: What of any of those side effects do you remember having? And, of course, we’re talking about when you’re on it, not when you’re coming off, but when you actually were on it.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. The first couple that you mentioned had something to do with mouth numbness-
Greg: Mouth redness, mouth pain.
Matt: Yeah. So, for those of you that don’t know or haven’t taken suboxone before, you put the pill itself underneath your tongue and let it dissolve. That’s annoying in itself for some reason. You can’t talk.
Greg: Is it chalky?
Matt: It’s chalky, yeah.
Greg: Yeah, I think I remember it’s chalky.
Matt: It kind of breaks apart and I do remember really not liking that. It wasn’t a huge deal. It wasn’t a big problem, but that is what I would imagine they’re talking about there. It can be uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as withdrawing, so, you deal with it. The main ones that come to mind, again, I never really … I don’t think I got any headaches. I’ll say it’s probably kind of hard to differentiate am I withdrawing or is this a symptom of suboxone kicking in. I never really looked at a lot of these symptoms that were mentioned there as if they were coming from suboxone. Maybe they were, I don’t know the difference a lot of times between what I was feeling. I will say that the further I got into my maintenance program with suboxone and heroin was pretty far away, withdrawing for the most part was really far away, I would notice if I ever took little too much, I would feel a little drunk. It wasn’t high, it wasn’t like a good feeling at all, ’cause I would be working. I was doing construction at the time, I’d be like ugh, I would feel dizzy in not a good way. Nothing positive that I would want to have that at all, which was nice in a way, because it kind of kept me from taking more than I was supposed to.
The drunk thing was one part of it. I think that … Did it mention anything about nausea on there?
Greg: It does not … Vomiting, stomach pain.
Matt: I don’t think I ever really physically got sick. I don’t know if it was a symptom of the suboxone making me feel dizzy if I did too much, but I would get this really uncomfortable, almost seasick kind of feeling in my stomach.
Greg: Interesting. So, no like … I think some of the big ones were like … You never noticed any mental/mood changes or anything like that?
Matt: Yeah, I mean you do, but-
Greg: It’s just tied into what’s what? Nothing was like “Oh my god, this is definitely the suboxone”? It’s like nothing really out of the ordinary for that time frame you would say?
Matt: So, I say it’s more a matter of … If I got too far away from taking my suboxone, I don’t know if it’s like you start freaking out a little bit, because it’s like shit, I need this pill. I don’t know if it’s something that I did to myself or again, if it’s the pill. It’s kind of really difficult to differentiate what the trigger was for that. I don’t think the suboxone itself was causing mood swings as much as my dependence on it.
Greg: How about sleep problems? I think that’s a weird one, I think it helped me sleep a little bit. But, it says sleep problems could be a symptom of insomnia. Do you remember having sleep problems or anything?
Matt: No, I didn’t have sleep problems. Again, the sleep problems would be much worse without it. You know what I mean?
Greg: Yeah, that’s true.
Matt: So, none of these things in my mind are any worse than withdrawing.
Greg: I think my guess would be that some of these might be for someone who is like if they’ve been on this medicine for some reason and they never took heroin, you’d probably get really dizzy. You’d probably throw up possibly, you know what I mean? The less experience you have with those types of drugs in your system, the more of these I’m guessing you would experience.
Matt: Absolutely.
Greg: That’s probably why they list them.
Matt: Quick story. When I was doing construction, I had suboxones. A lot of people that I was working with would, addicts in their own respects, and one kid saw me pop one, asked what it was. I told him what it was. He was dealing with a similar issue. He’s like “Can I have a piece of one?” I gave it to him and he was sick as shit.
Greg: Yeah, his body wasn’t used that
Matt: It wasn’t and I mean, he was real sick.
Greg: So, I’m guessing maybe that’s where a lot of these symptoms come from for people like that. Of course, we’re not doctors. We’re not giving advice. We’re just talking about experience, but I think a lot of these come from that. It seems like you didn’t really have any side effects that were very noticeable?
Matt: No, and again, coming from heroin withdraw, none of these side effects would be any worse than withdraw.
Greg: How about constipation, because I remember that being a problem for me all throughout my use?
Matt: Yeah. I think that’s pretty common in opiates. Not that suboxone is an opiate, but it was always an issue.
Greg: I do remember one time we were at work and you, like, this is when we just started trying suboxone, I think you took like an eight and you were like “Dude, I’m kind of messed up” and I was like “I’m not”, and I was kind of jealous. So, I think also maybe some of these come from when you first start taking it. I think once your level, like for a lot of people it should level off, and you shouldn’t have many side effects, I mean from our experience, at least.
Matt: Yeah, I mean, again. I never really experienced a pleasant high from it. Again, going back to that kind of drunk feeling, that was a thing if I ever take maybe more than I probably should have, I would get a little bit of that. But again, anything that was just a deterrent from me taking more than I should.
Greg: Cool. Yeah. So, that’s the side effects Matt mostly experienced with suboxone. You know, again, you can Google the symptoms or just re-watch this video, and you can hear all those symptoms. But, I think a lot of those you’ll experience if you haven’t had these types of drugs in your system or if you just start taking it, you might get more of these symptoms, but with our experience at least, I think it levels off. You won’t really get much of this, the normal person. Of course, we’re not doctors. That’s just experience talking.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely.
Greg: All right, cool.
Matt: Well, thanks for watching, guys. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to go over, leave us a comment or hit us up in the contact section on our website at ProjectUnbroken.com, and we look forward to talking to you soon.
Greg: See you guys.
