Comments on: Ambien Tragedy

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:50:33 +0000

I agree with Nick here. Your sister sounds like she had a psychotic episode and is now exhibiting paranoid schizophrenic symptons. These things do not come out of nowhere – this type of mental illness simmers under the surface before it is finally triggered by either drugs or extreme stress.

I know this because the exact same thing happened to my father. He had a psychotic eposide from extreme stress (not Ambien) and literally became a completely different person. Nine years later he has still not recovered.

It is a damn tragedy and the state of mental health services in this country is terrible. I hope that your sister is willing to seek treatment and accept that she is mentally ill, because until she does that she will never be functional.

Don’t blame the Ambien. Although it triggered her psychosis, even if it didn’t, something else probably would have down the line. Such is the nature of mental illness.

By: Ineedhelp

Ineedhelp — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:37:10 +0000

Hmm…I don’t know how much you’re all taking to seriously overdose on this stuff. I took over 30 of these and roughly the same amount of seroquel last night and I feel fine. I only weigh 120 lbs so I didn’t think I’d need ridiculous amounts or I’d throw up. Guess I should have taken them all. Now I’m stuck without enough.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:51:52 +0000

Hello, my name is Nick, im 15 years old and I take ambien every night, and hopfully i can clear up some of your problems. First of all you have to know that ambien is not what most people think of as a ” normal ” sleeping pill. Zolpidem tartrate, the active chemical in ambien is a non-benzodiazephine hypnoyic. This means even though it binds to the GABA receptors, it will provide a different effect than a normal GABA agonist would. Further more i would like to point out that what your sister was perscribed serves as a Mild sedative and sleep regulater. The docors intention was mostly likly going to be used as a described before However i would assume that your sis made the common mistake of using it strictkly for its sedative properties. Most people who seek out sleeping medicines are in search for a magic pill that will knock them out immediatly, when the truth is what the really need to do is take a Small amount of the medicine and get in bed at around the same time every night. With this pattern it can take only a few weeks, maybe a month until they will not need to take it nightly. Your sister probably didnt have a perfect sleep cycles, many teens dont. As for her mental decline i hate to tell you but it wasnt the ambiens fault. Psychiactric dissorders such as you descibed (depresseion, schizophrenia, ocd, bipolar) can not be aquired or “gotten” but rather “chemically induced” or “brought out” espesially if theres a history of that in your family. I realizes that i am only some stupid teenager from online, but if i were you i would look into getting schizo. meds for her. As far as depression; i wouldnt worry unless she becomes suicidal. Depression, while reocurring and chronic, is never perminate and always treatable. Sorry aboutt your sis, email me for questions