Thank you for reading my story.

I have a story to tell myself. I am 29 years old. On February 8th 2012 I was prescribed Ambien by a psychiatrist after several attempts at other sleep aids she prescribed that were no help. I will also add that she knew that I am an addict, not only to alcohol but to any substance. I’m not ashamed to admit I have an addictive personality, and while she should have never prescribed me this medication, I should have known better and researched it myself before I decided to take it. After the following accounts, and research I’ve done since, I would have never agreed to try the drug. Lesson learned, hopefully my story will help someone else. This drug should not be legal or even exist due to its horrible side effects.
I had an exam review at 7:00p.m. on February 8th for an exam that I had to take at 9:10 a.m. on February 9th. The review was over at around 8:15, so I went home and touched up on some things I was cloudy on. About 10:30 I took the ambien and crawled into bed. When I woke up I looked at my phone and it was a few minutes past 7:00a.m. I got out of bed and the first indicator that something was wrong, was that I had a hospital bracelet on my arm. I have no recollection of going to the hospital, or coming home, so this was very confusing as you can imagine. The next strange thing that I found was M&M’s in my bed and on the floor with red stains on my white pillow from the candy coated shell, and a towel balled up in my bathroom floor; this towel is the only thing that triggered a memory. I can vaguely remember a dream that I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but had no bread. So, I put the peanut butter and jelly on a towel and ate it off of the towel. (Strange…I know) I picked up the towel and unraveled it to find…you guessed it…peanut butter and jelly. This was immediately alarming but I took a shower anyway. When I got out of the shower I heard my phone alarm going off that lets me know I have an appointment sometime that day. I went and checked my phone and it was telling me that I had group counseling at 8:30 a.m. The only problem is that I know that group counseling doesn’t start until Friday February 10th. So I checked my phone to see what day it was, and sure enough, it was Friday, February 10th. I get ready and walk out of my room and into the kitchen. On the counter was a collage of strange things. There was a cup full of coco puffs and milk that hadn’t been eaten, a bowl of cheerios with unopened Reese cups on top and no milk, a plate of spaghetti with no sauce and a piece of cheese on top, an empty bottle of Nyquil, a spilled two liter of mountain dew and food all over the floor. I clean up a little and walk out the door, very confused. Anyway, I go to the counseling department and there sitting in the foyer was my friend and now sweet mate, Everett. I expressed my confusion to him about the past day and he began to tell me that I had been to the hospital because our other roommate saw me outside acting very strange and called our resident director. This is all I know from my knowledge and what I can remember or piece together in my head. February 9th is just plain missing.
After I got through the day and went back to my dorm I checked to see how much of the Ambien I had taken. I only remember taking one Ambien at bed time on Wednesday February 8th; however after checking the amount, I had eaten over 10! Thank God I didn’t overdose! I immediately flushed the remaining pills down the toilet and threw the bottle outside in the dumpster. Next, I started inquiring people of what they knew of what happened. All accounts from here on out are second hand due to my complete lack of knowledge or remembrance of any of the following events after taking Ambien for the first time. I talked to our other roommate who told me he saw me outside “playing” in the bushes sometime in the early afternoon, what I was doing I have no idea. He tried to get my attention but I was non responsive. He in turn called the resident director of our dorm (as previously stated). By the time he placed the call he told the RD that he” looked up, and I was gone.” From what my RD has told me, he came outside to look for me and found me a few moments later by the rear entrance of our dorm rubbing the door and mumbling to it. He asked me if I was ok and what was going on and he says that “I just mumbled gibberish.” Upon further questioning at one point he said “my eyes rolled back into my head and I looked like I was about to fall over, but caught myself.” This really “freaked him out” so he called a resident assistant to come outside and watch me while he tried to figure out what to do. They both talked me into sitting down. Then the RD called the resident coordinator to ask her what he should do. The RD told me that he was instructed to call campus safety and the paramedics. While waiting he says that he asked me if I had had anything to drink and I responded “no.” He asked again upon which he says I replied something like “just one or two.” He asked me a third time and I believe he told me that “I just responded with gibberish.” He says that campus safety showed up first and then the paramedics. He says that I willingly got into the ambulance and went to the hospital. While I am in the hospital he tells me that he (the RD) and campus safety searched my room and found nothing. He also tells me that Mellissa the area coordinator came to see me in the hospital. He says that sometime, I think around 11:30 p.m. I was released from the hospital. How I got home is still a mystery and in my opinion why I was released from the hospital is a mystery. Anyway, he came to check on me once I was home and says that I was talking to him just like I would talk to him any other time on any other day. He went back to his apartment and went to sleep. Then he says that the resident assistant on our floor, Brandon, called him around 2:30 a.m. and told him that I had just wondered into his room. When Brandon asked me what I was doing I responded with some weird answer about playing with lasers and that I was on a scavenger hunt. (I have not talked to Brandon so I don’t know exactly what I did or said). Then the RD says that he came back over to make sure I was ok and that I was relatively coherent. This is when I guess I finally actually went to bed and then woke up a few minutes after 7a.m. on Friday, February 10th and thought it was Thursday, February 9th.
I am not only writing these details to hopefully deter anyone from ever allowing themselves to try Ambien for sleep, but as well to a disciplinary committee at the bible college I attend, Lee University. This is not made up, like you could actually fabricate these accounts unless you were Stephen King, but these are the nightmare I awoke to after losing a day due to the Ambien. If I have learned anything from this experience is that no matter how hard of a time you have sleeping, just deal with it. If it isn’t really effecting your normal day of life medication is not worth it. No, I may not sleep very much and then not want to get out of bed after a restless night, but every day is made new and beautiful for each of us that are fortunate to wake up in it. I will rely solely on God’s will and plan for my life, and if that means not sleeping then I will spend it in prayer, just me and the LORD until He feels it’s time for me to go to sleep. If you are a Christian I hope you do the same, if not, maybe it’s time you started thinking about eternity instead of the here and now. For we are made as eternal beings, that’s why we are scared of death. If not then death would have no sting and we would just be existing for no purpose at all. I am very thankful that the ending to my very short experience with Ambien is not as permanent as the previous stories. Worst case scenario, I may be expelled from school, but my aspirations are still very obtainable. I wasn’t hurt, didn’t lose any limbs, obtain a non-curable disease, nor did any of my vital organs fail. Thank you for reading my story.