After taking it for four months, almost every night to put me to sleep, I had a friend come over to hang out one night. By then I needed at least 20mg to put me to sleep at night but I kept waking up without feeling very rested. This night, I popped two 10mg pills, thought about taking four more but decided against it then climbed into bed. That was all I remember doing. Next day I wake up in complete confusion. There are cigarettes all over the house, food cooking in the crock pot, and various other things that I thought my friend had done. According to him, I took four more pills right after taking the other two, bringing the complete total to 60mg. A few minutes after that I tried to take the other six pills in my bottle before he stopped me and took the pills as well as the bottle out, hiding them where I wouldn’t find them again. For several hours I was babbling incoherently, stumbling all over myself, and laughing uncontrollably. We played video games for two hours then walked to the gas station and back home which takes another hour in itself. After two more hours, he had passed out on the couch and left me to do what I would do. All of the events after taking the original 20 mg, I had no memory of but am now slowly remembering after being off ambien for a month. Whether it is for tripping or perscribed, be very careful or you might end up blacking out like I did and losing a good chunk of memory over the time you had been taking it.

I use Ambien and had my first truly scary experience 2 nights ago. I completely blacked out so this information is courtesy of my husband. Apparently I took my nightly dose (2 10mg pills) along with my vitamins, nothing out of the ordinary. About 45 minutes after I took the pills I blacked out. My husband and I went to bed to watch tv and I started thinking people were in the room with us. He was messing with me saying our friends were downstairs. We were intimate (which is something I like to do on Ambien), he went down for water and I followed him down the stairs. I made him turn on all the lights to see if there really were people in the house. He tried to take me back upstairs and I was fighting him, not wanting to go upstairs. I am completely naked by the way. I set my sons alarm clock for 11pm, apparently I was crying at one point. He says I had what he called “seizures” all night long. I kept sitting up in bed through the night and he had to push me back down on my pillow. Last night I looked in the medicine cabinet and apparently I had taken more pills after I blacked out.

I know these things aren’t what one would call crazy but I have no memory of anything that happened. The fact that I could carry on conversations, walk around the house, have sex, cry, take more pills etc… with no memory of anything is scary enough for me. I have been on Ambien on and off for several years now and the craziest thing I have done is order stuff off ebay and not remember until it was delivered. What I think happens is you do go to sleep and you are in some sort of dream state. Like your brain is asleep. My husband said I looked like a zombie ( thats awful to think I was walking around my house naked looking like a zombie, I bet that was hot). They tell you to go to bed within 20 minutes of taking the medicine. That is probably why.

All the people on here talking about taking 30 – 45 pills a night is full of shit, you would throw up all night long. I read a blog on WebMD that said Ambien is only supposed to be taken for a week at a time and is not intended for long term use. WTF is wrong with my doctor and all these other nut jobs out there prescribing this to people for years on end!! They should have their licenses revoked. I agree with the statement that its the persons fault, not the drug, when its abused but doctors are handing out prescriptions like its candy.

My doctor has never warned me about possible addiction or any of the side effects of this extremely dangerous “non narcotic” sleep aid.

I have awful insomnia but I think I am done with Ambien. I will find another way to fall asleep.

-Karen

-Dawn

To make a long story short I live alone but was om vacation with my mother this week I got up in my sleep and ate all kinds of things we had in our room and cleaned up and mumbled to myself. My mother heard it all but stayed in her bed wondering what I was doing. The next day it came up somehow and I had a vague dark partial moment of the time but I could NOT believe I did all that…there was evidence though…and I heard that doing things in the night/sleep on Ambien so I stopped taking it. I didn’t like not knowing what I might have done in the past when alone….or what might possibly happen when I am alone in the future

THESE ARE NOT MADE UP STORIES…

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.

-Darrel

-Holly

–Rayne