User Reviews of Ambien » Ambien Safety

My experience with ambien: anxiety & depression

Anonymous Visitor — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:34:08 +0000

First off: if anyone reading this is feeling abnormal anxiety, depression or is having suicidal thoughts while on Ambien, STOP TAKING IT IMMEDIATELY.

You may well be saving your own life.

A little background: I usually do not have problems sleeping. I get insomnia very rarely.

About 4 weeks ago, I was stressing over a very long list of stuff that I needed to get done and couldn’t get to sleep. I stayed awake until 4:30am and finally got to sleep. A couple nights later, the same thing happened. My wife has a prescription for Ambien and I took one of her pills to get to sleep. At first, this seemed like a wonderful drug. I slept 8 solid hours and woke up feeling better than I had in a long time. The problem was that for the rest of the week, I’ve had a very hard time getting to sleep. I went to my doctor after about a week, who ended up prescribing Ambien because I told him that I had taken my wife’s pill and it had worked to get me to sleep. He told me to use it for 3 or so days and stop and try and get to sleep on my own.

Long story short: I ended up not being able to get to sleep without them and after 2 weeks of taking Ambien every night, I started to see a pattern: from mid-afternoon until early evening every day, I would get bad anxiety attacks, followed by some of the worst depression I’ve felt in my life. In addition, I loss all my appetite and started to feel nauseous all the time. I lost 12 1/2 pounds in 2 weeks because of it.

Fortunately, these feelings are NOT normal for me and I recognized that I needed to stop the Ambien before it caused any more problems (I was already starting to feel the beginnings of suicidal thoughts).

I told my doctor what I was feeling and he immediately told me to stop taking the Ambien. It took about 4-5 days for the effects to go away, but I’m no longer anxious or depressed every day and the suicidal thoughts are completely gone. My appetite has returned and I’ve gained back 4 of the pounds I lost. I’m stilling having problems sleeping (going to a sleep study in 2 days), but I refuse to take Ambien ever again.

Does Ambien Work?

Anonymous Visitor — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:54:27 +0000

Alright, guys. Hate to burst bubbles, but I found this strange blog and had to chime in. I’m a 3rd year medical student with a MS in Pharmacology (BS in Neuroscience). Ambien, like any other drug, can be harmful when not used as prescribed. Most physicians prescribe a specific amount based on your therapeutic need, body weight, age, etc. and almost always advise that its use be limited to < 2 weeks. If you use ambien outside of these parameters, you should EXPECT problems. Duh. There is nothing wrong with ambien. It is a safe drug, and is actually a wonderdrug compared to its predecessors…

Ambien doesn’t cause problems

Anonymous Visitor — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:46:49 +0000

Hello, I have been on ambien for 5 yrs, always used the regular dosage and i dont drink. I have had some funny stories to tell, but its always been if i took the pill and did not go right to bed. I have been on and off of it several times and I have never had any withdrawls or side effects. It works for me and it allows me to sleep, something over the counter aides have never been able to offer. It is different for everybody, but for me, it works!

-Brad

Ambien Helps Most People Sleep

Anonymous AmbienOverdose.org Reader — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:24:12 +0000

not to be insensitive, but this sounds like it is fictionalized, and poorly at that. i can understand posting something under the guise of a distraught friend, but then reasonably assume certain things in a realistic scenario; if this woman was so heavily medicated that she could not feel physical sensations (which would require a phenomenally high dose) and so erratic that she could no longer drive, any doctor would immediately change medication or check the patient for any serious reactions to the pills.

this on the whole is a misrepresentation of the issue and the object it is referring to. as an occasional user of Ambien, and having discussed it with a number of medical professionals, I have come to the conclusion that in low doses it helps most people sleep. I personally have never heard anyone having such a strong reaction, and personally find it hard to believe that anyone would find full on nightly hallucinations worth what must have been some truly stellar sleep.

this is odd and amateurish emotional manipulation, and a shoddy example at that

Ambien User with no Side Effects

Anonymous AmbienOverdose.org Reader — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:55:11 +0000

Apparently, I am one of the very few people that do not have any “side effects” from taking Ambien. The first several times I took the 10mg dose, I felt a very great sensation of fatigue, followed by very restful sleep. I had heard stories of tripping on Ambien, and I was intrigued. At first I took 30mg just to be safe, and that night I had very vivid dreams. The entire time I was experimenting with the drug, I was monitored by a family member, and they never reported me even leaving my room. So after several nights of taking higher doses, I decided to drink Vodka and take small, singular doses. Other than the normal feelings attributed to both alcohol and ambien, the two together make a very hypnotic comination and also illicate vivid, almost hallucinagenic dreams, of which I was very fond of the experience. No one in my family ever reported me to do something strange (I experimented during the day so they could sleep at night while I was awake), and they even stated that I was more aware, quick witted, and even in a generally better mood. I did this everyday for 30 days, even going as far as taking 60mg with a liter of vodka on the final day, with little side effects other than nausea and vomiting, which I attributed to acute alcohol intoxication. Of course, I’m not a doctor, and I am a very large fellow (6ft 6, 230 pounds), but it seems to me that those who are tolerant of the drug benifit greatly from it whether recreational or medicinal. *It should also be noted that I have identic memory, and so I would have been capable of remembering something that would not be considered a dream, hallucination, or sleep attributed behavior

Ambien Safety

Anonymous AmbienOverdose.org Reader — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:49:08 +0000

I believe that no one can die from Ambien no matter how many they take. I took 200 10mg ambien and woke up the next morning as if nothing has ever happened.