Ambien is a horrible drug. I was taking mine often in the day; treating them basically as though they were an anxiolitic drug like Xanax or Valium. Having an extensive history of drug abuse, I thought surely that the blackouts people talked about were just an exaggerated claim. I soon found out otherwise…
A few weeks after I started taking it I woke up disoriented and headed to the fridge the grab some of my favorite Italian bread that my mom had baked and brought over the night before. The bread was not in the fridge. I thought surely my wife and kids could not have eaten 6 loafs of bread. And had they been able to of course they knew it’s my favorite bread in the world lol . She was not home to ask about it at the moment so I headed to work. A “blackout” still never crossed my mind at this point.
The next morning I start whining about all my missing bread, and she’s quick to inform me that we had dinner guests over and that we ate and talked for hours! Of course I freaked out and was worried that I had gotten totally messed up and may have acted rude or offended people with my lack of sobriety, but apparently aside from being a little spacey I had been a gracious host and even cooked and served all the food and drinks. No alcohol or other drugs were involved. This story may not seem all that weird or tragic as some others, but I’m telling you – not being able to remember an entire dinner that I hosted has got to be one of the strangest things I’ve experienced.
Also important to note is that this was 5 days after my refill (10mg), and after I realized what had happened I checked the bottle to find only 9 left! This is a nasty drug, not to be abused! I’m not one to ask someone to ration my medicine like I’m in a nursing home or something, but after this incident I gave the bottle to my wife so that I can ask her to grab me 1/2 to 1 when I actually need it.
