What It Is Like To Be "Narcan'd"

Naloxone is a lifesaving drug that reverses opioid overdoses, but it is a miserable experience.

Much has been written over the last decade on Naloxone. Commonly referred to as Narcan, which is the brand name made available to the public, Naloxone is an opioid antagonist approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat opioid overdoses.

When someone is overdosing on an opioid such as heroin or fentanyl, Naloxone can be administered to reverse the effects of it. It is a lifesaving medication that is available to first responders and the general public and has saved countless lives, including my own.

I have had my life saved two different times by Naloxone, and I wanted to explain what it is like to be administered the drug. Part of the backlash associated with Naloxone is that many people ignorantly believe it enables substance users to continue using drugs. “If they know they can just take Narcan every time they overdose, what it is the incentive to stop using?” some say. Others are not inclined to agree that it should be free, as other life saving medications like insulin cost absurd amounts of money.

I believe those opinions are uninformed, or just simply come from a place of intolerance due to a societal norm that still views drug users as weak or morally bankrupt. In 2021, 106,000 people in the United States died from drug overdoses (CDC, 2023). In Michigan alone, that number is over 3000 people (CDC, 2022). Heroin, and more specifically Fentanyl, are wiping out an entire generation of people.

If it wasn’t for Naloxone, I would not be here writing this today. I would be buried in a cemetery somewhere in the Lansing area, a life of potential cut short from poison. I would not be working for Pinnacle Recovery Services, helping other people recover, or a father to my 12-year-old daughter. I would like to think I am a contributing member of society that is doing good with his second chance.

To put it simply, Naloxone is a life saver, but it is a terrible experience. For those people who think Narcan enables addicts to continue using, I argue that any person using opioids would avoid taking it AT ALL COSTS. It is miserable.

The first time I received Narcan was in 2016 or 2017. I overdosed and fell out at my parent’s house after using Heroin on top of the daily dose of Methadone I was taking. After my mom called 911, the first responder was an Ingham County sheriff deputy. He quickly administered Narcan after I stopped breathing. I woke up in the ambulance - on the way to Sparrow Hospital - and what followed was the most painful experience of my life.

Excruciating pain. A discomfort words are not sufficient to describe. In a span of 10 seconds, every single opioid withdrawal symptom hit me all at once. I got ice cold, started shivering, felt like I was getting stabbed repeatedly in the stomach, experienced mental torture, and grew devastatingly restless. After a couple of minutes while still enroute to the hospital, I started banging my head on the nearest surface, which I think was a side compartment in the back of the ambulance. Now, “why would you do that?” you may ask. Because I was literally trying to knock myself out, so I didn’t have to feel the pain anymore. It was unbearable. At that point the paramedics were more than annoyed, and I don’t blame them.

After finally arriving at the hospital, they put me in a secluded room, where I started begging to be given something to ease the pain. The doctor on staff explained to me that there was nothing they could give me that would help because naloxone is a blocker, and until it wore off no medication would penetrate my receptors. It was just a matter of toughing it out, which I believe was roughly 12 hours.

One thing I am unaware of is whether or not there are various severity levels of the withdrawal naloxone produces. I believe since I had been on Methadone for six years that it may have made the experience worse. When someone takes Methadone every day for several years, the drug builds up so deep inside your system that it can take over a month for it to be fully flushed out. So I think my experience might have been worse than what Naloxone would normally do to someone who, for instance, took heroin on and off for a few months.

The point remains, though, that getting “Narcan’d” is the opposite of a good time. It is a lifesaving drug that works and has given countless people a new shot at life. But I promise you: no drug user wants to be administered Narcan. It is not a drug that “enables” addicts to keep using.

Will this short article persuade someone to change their opinion? I doubt it. But I want to do my part to spread a story of change and hope. People recover, people get sober, and some people even become assets to their communities. I have a voice and I am going to use it, because so many have died from this disease who may still be here if someone close to them had Narcan.

-In Michigan, Narcan is available over the counter at participating pharmacies. For more information including where to find Narcan, please visit this page on the state of Michigan’s website

.